Funds include a $2 billion surplus rebate from the WSIB and a reduction in the board’s premiums to reportedly historic lows
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Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday that the provincial government would be giving back $2.5 billion aimed at easing the burdens of doing business in Ontario.
The four major components of the initiative include the distribution of a $2-billion surplus rebate from the Workers Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) back to eligible businesses, a reduction in the board’s premiums to reportedly historic lows, a $400-million investment in worker health, and the removal of certification exam fees for skilled workers.
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“Today I am thrilled to announce that our government is giving back to workers and businesses another $2.5 billion — that’s billion with a ‘B’ — through fee reductions and WSIB rebates,” the premier said during a speech before the province’s chamber of commerce on Thursday morning.
The news was hailed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB), which thanked Ford and Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development David Piccini “for listening and acting on our recommendations to deliver another Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) surplus rebate to Ontario’s small business owners and reduce the average premium rate.”
“The announced WSIB measures won’t cost taxpayers a nickel, or jeopardize the board’s strong financial health. They will allow Ontario’s small business owners to invest in their employees, their operations, and stronger and safer workplaces,” the association’s director of provincial affairs, Julie Kwiecinksi, said in a public statement. “The Ontario government is doing the right thing, putting more surplus funds back in the hands of businesses where they belong.”
WSIB chair Jeffrey Lang — himself, a former WSIB customer when he was an executive overseeing a manufacturing company several years ago — spoke of the personal benefits such disbursements entail. “I know what it was like to do business with us (WSIB) and today is a different day. That $2 billion, for my business — which was roughly 50 employees — we’d get like fifty or sixty thousand dollars back. That’s a lot of money for a small business. That would allow me to either hire people or invest in better health and safety, better technology.”
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The board has moved from strength to strength, Lang said, and the recent announcement by Ford is further proof of that. “It’s really the new WSIB, which is our approach to running it more like a business, where our primary service is making sure we can take care of working Ontarians if they become ill or injured, or worse, a fatality. We’re just doing a much better job of that and, as a result, our costs are coming down,” Lang told the National Post.
The Ford government pursued a similar course of action in April 2022 when it disbursed over $1 billion to Schedule 1 businesses, essentially workplaces that have not been convicted of violating either the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act or an Occupational Health and Safety Act.
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Ontario’s official opposition, the New Democratic Party, said the reimbursement may help employers, but it does nothing for injured employees.
“Since 2019 this government has gifted billions in WSIB premiums back to employers, and you know what didn’t change? The misery of tens of thousands of injured workers in this province. They were still left in poverty,” Lise Vaugeois, the party’s official opposition critic for WSIB and injured workers, told the Post in a written statement.
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“This is pre-election gift giving to employers no matter their safety records. It is a kick in the teeth to injured workers. Instead of restoring decades of cuts to injured workers, the conservatives are handing 2.5 Billion dollars to some of the very employers who have left workers injured, ill, and poor.”
Vaugeois said that instead of pursuing the Ford plan, the NDP vision would focus on “restoring benefits to injured workers; end the practice of deeming (pretending an injured worker has a job that they cannot get and cutting their benefits) and overhauling the adjudication process.”
Piccini said the initiative is rooted in “a very simple belief: money is best spent in the pockets of everyday Ontarians.”
“One of the reasons we don’t have the labour workforce we need is because the previous Liberal Government created a complex web that included punishing costs on the trades,” the Peterborough-based Conservative MPP said in a written statement. “Today’s savings for businesses and workers combined with our historic investments in workers’ occupational and mental health are making Ontario the most competitive climate for both workers andemployers to succeed. We’ve done it all without raising a single tax — and we never will.”
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