Funding Review Chair Appointed to Advise on Long-Term Financial Stability of WSIB

Ontario has approved a request from the Board of Directors of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to appoint respected academic and labour expert Harry Arthurs to Chair the WSIB's Funding Review.

As Chair, Arthurs will consult workers, labour groups and employers to inform the WSIB on a strategy to eliminate the unfunded liability by setting and achieving targets and timelines for full funding. This will create a stable and sustainable system of compensation for injured workers in Ontario.

In support of this objective Ontario also intends to introduce legislation that would require the WSIB to be fully funded as well as clarify and strengthen the independence of the WSIB as an arms length agency.

If passed, the legislation would require the long-term elimination of the WSIB's unfunded liability to ensure fair benefits for workers and the eventual reduction of employer insurance premiums.

A fully funded model, and how that is defined, would be required on a date set in regulation and would be informed by the results of the WSIB consultation. Six of Canada's provinces now have fully funded models of compensation, with five of them required by legislation to be fully funded.

The legislation would, if passed, address issues raised in the 2009 Annual Report of the Auditor General of Ontario

While the WSIB's consultations are ongoing, the government has approved inflation adjustments of 0.5 percent in 2011 and again in 2012 for more than 150,000 partially-disabled workers.