Board Funding Review (2010 - 2012)
In September 2010, the WSIB announced a funding review chaired by Professor Harry Arthurs to consider the Board's financial future. Find details about the review, the consultation process, public meetings schedule and documents on the website wsib.fundingreview.ca - including "Funding Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance System: A Green Paper for public discussion" [pdf].
Although the Chair will not deliver his final report and recommendations until January 2012, some changes affecting workers' compensation finance have already been made through amendments to the Act passed in Bill 135.
Having your say
New! response deadline extended - send your written comments to Professor Arthurs by Aug. 31.
You may want to respond to what employer groups and the Board have said (click here to see their presentations. Send any further comments by emailing them to submissions@wsibfundingreview.ca or mail to WSIB Funding Review, Suite 2201, 200 Front Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 3J1.
In-person public hearings were held in: Toronto - April 5th, 6th, 7th, 26th, 27th, 28th, May 3rd; Hamilton - April 18th; London - April 21st; Sudbury - April 12th; Thunder Bay - April 13th; Windsor - April 20th
Thanks to all those across the province who spoke in these hearings - the injured worker community and ONIWG can be proud! Check out the media coverage (videos) of injured workers speaking in Thunder Bay and Windsor. In Toronto also, Professor Arthurs heard from many individuals as well as those representing injured worker groups - thirty spoke, and three could not make it but wrote letters.
What stories he heard! He heard from injured workers who have been further injured by their employers and the WCB/WSIB. He heard that it is injured workers who have an unfunded liability, called poverty. He heard that some employers abuse and harass workers to get rebates. He heard that the Funding Review is about people, not about mathematical formulas. He heard that we want "universal coverage to be covered" in the review and he promised to comment on this issue even if not within his mandate. He heard from the daughter of an injured worker, who had already lost a father, that she was now worried about losing her mother (an injured worker under stress). He heard so much that cannot be summarized here...
Why it matters for injured workers and the public to get involved
Do you remember the letter you received in January that says you will only get 0.5% for cost of living adjustments this year? The cost of living is one issue that the review wants to hear your views on.
The funding review will affect our workers' compensation system and benefits for a long time. It will look at whether benefits should be adjusted to keep up with the cost of living. The partial adjustments since indexation was cut in 1995 means injured workers now receive 20% less than they received in 1995.
Did your employer give you a hassle or oppose your claim? If so, this may related to the "incentives" employers get to reduce injured workers' claims costs. Employers' incentives are another issue they want to hear about.
The WSIB spends over $500 million a year to run the complicated process of setting employers rates for 150 different rate groups and industries and then adjusting them for injuries through incentives that encourage employers to hide injuries and push injured workers back to work too soon. Why not charge employers a simple flat rate like we do for health tax, CPP and EI and use that money to help injured workers?
Is your compensation enough for you to have a decent life? This is important for the funding review to know about, since the system was set up to help injured workers and should be funded for this reason.
The funding review will consider whether the present system is fine or needs a change.
Responses from the injured worker & labour community
See also Media coverage and Funding Review website for links to all posted submissions as received
Presentations from injured workers and their advocates to the public hearings (April - May, 2011) and followup submissions:
- ONIWG Preliminary [pdf] ; Supplementary [pdf] (Aug. 31) ; ONIWG/OFL additional submission on indexation of benefits [pdf] (Nov. 18) ¦ Bright Lights' [pdf] (accompanied by
the many, many letters that have been sent over the years on these issues) ¦ Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers' Support Group [pdf]
¦ Women of Inspiration's followup to submission (June 13) [pdf]
» Injured workers: Italia Altobelli [pdf] ¦ Concetta Branca [pdf] ¦ Greg Brown [pdf] ¦ Rose Courtney [pdf] ¦ Robin Faye [pdf] ¦ Eugene LeFrançois [pdf] ¦ Antonio Mauro [pdf] ¦ Emma Osso [pdf] ¦ Dimitrios Petropoulos [pdf] ¦ Fatemeh Pour-Jamshidi-Jerandeh [pdf] ¦ Shufan Ren [pdf] ¦ Myra Strzalka [pdf] ¦ Jules Tupker [pdf] ¦ Ippokratis Velgakis [pdf] - IAVGO Community Legal Clinic [pdf] ; 2nd supplementary submission [pdf] (Nov. 18) ¦ IWC Community Legal Clinic [pdf] ; Followup submissions (June 15)[pdf] & (Aug 31) [pdf] ; (Nov. 18) [pdf] ¦ Toronto Workers' Health and Safety Legal Clinic [pdf] ¦ Experience Rating Working Group [pdf] ¦ Hamilton Community Legal Clinic [pdf] ¦ Ontario Legal Clinics Workers' Compensation Network [pdf]
- OCEU/CUPE Ontario [pdf] ¦ CAW Locals 707 & 112 [pdf]
- Robert Storey, researcher (Meredith principles) [pdf]
- Kate Lushington, Injured Worker Speaker School coordinator [pdf]
- Bonita Heath, researcher (disability and poverty) [presentation slides - ppt]
Other responses about the review and the process:
- "Justice - speedily and humanely rendered" (IWHP bulletin no. 11, June 2011)
- CUPE Ontario media advisory " Fair treatment for all Ontario's injured workers" (with links to backgrounder Apr. 4-5, 2011
- Thunder Bay & District letter to the editor (The Chronicle-Journal, Feb. 8, 2011) [pdf] [html]
- Bright Lights Injured Workers Group letter to David Marshall, WCB/WSIB President, Nov. 26, 2010 [pdf]
- Workers' compensation platforms - a letter from Michael S. Green to the political leaders requesting that they offer clear choices on the key issues of funding and benefit levels [pdf]
- ONIWG recommendations on the Funding Review mandate and process - letter to the Minister of Labour, Oct. 19, 2010 [pdf]
- Women of Inspiration express concerns about the Funding Review in a letter to the WCB/WSIB President, Oct. 15, 2010 [pdf]
- Bright Lights Injured Workers Group letter to Premier McGuinty on the Funding Review, Oct. 14, 2010 [pdf].
Cover letters to the WCB/WSIB [pdf] and Minister of Labour [pdf]
Response from WCB/WSIB President (Oct. 27, 2010) [pdf] - ONIWG media release: "New WSIB funding review - are Ontario's injured workers on the chopping block again?" Oct. 4, 2010 [Text]