Report reviews WSIB financial situation
The Arthurs Report, a funding review of Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), contains a series of recommendations designed to put Ontario's workplace safety and insurance system on solid financial footing, said Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey.
"I'd like to thank professor Harry Arthurs for his hard work and thoughtful advice as delivered in the Funding Review of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario,” said Jeffrey. “I'd also like to thank the members of his advisory committee — Maureen Farrow, Buzz Hargrove, John O'Grady, and John Tory — as well as the workers, employers and other interested stakeholders who contributed to the review.”
A financially stable workplace safety and insurance system is vital to the economic and social health of the province, said Jeffrey.
“We know that funding must rest on sound principles and be carefully administered if it's to be seen as fair and balanced to employers,” she said. “At the same time, a viable no-fault workplace safety and insurance system in Ontario must also provide injured workers with fair compensation and support in recovering and returning to work.”
The government will establish a new regulation under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, to require the WSIB's insurance fund to reach sufficiency of 60 per cent funding in 2017, 80 per cent funding in 2022 and 100 per cent funding by 2027. There will be an increase benefits to injured workers on partial disability by 0.5 per cent in 2013 and another 0.5 per cent in 2014, said Jeffrey.
“We believe these actions will result in financial stability for the WSIB's insurance fund and as well help address the needs of injured workers through benefit indexation increases,” said Jeffrey.
