The Ontario government has appointed special advisers, Linda Regner Dykeman and Sean Speer to conduct a review of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).
Dykeman has more than 25 years of commercial insurance experience and is currently Head of MidCorp Canada, a division of Allianz. Speer is a senior fellow in Public Policy at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
“Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the WSIB will provide workers and their families with peace of mind, knowing if they are injured on the job or have a work-related illness, they will receive the benefits and services they are entitled to,” said Laurie Scott, Minister of Labour in the press release.
“Reviewing and improving the WSIB is one of the ways our government is ensuring that Ontario can continue to attract investment and create good jobs,” Scott added.
Late last year, the Minister of Finance’s Fall Economic Statement 2018 noted the government’s intent to review the WSIB.
Specifically, the operational review will focus on:
- Financial Oversight: sustainability of the WSIB insurance fund and controls over it
- Administration: effectiveness of the current WSIB governance and executive management structure
- Efficiency: the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of operations, including comparisons to competing jurisdictions and private sector insurers
The provincial government launched the review on May 23 and will be accepting public comment until July 26.
Any kind of review with WSIB must include far greater accountibility for WSIB. When one goes through the WSIB legislation, it is filled with examples of zero accountibility for WSIB. When a person has numerous issues with a private insurance company, they can pursue legal action against that insurance company if need be. This is prohibited with WSIB.
There are countless examples of people being financially ruined for life because of WSIB. There’s also the countless examples of where injured workers were flat out denied the treatments that they needed in order to recover from their injury/illness.
WSIB appeals often drag out for years and years. The Office of the Worker Advisor (who represents non union injured workers) has 16 offices accross Ontario and they have a waitlist of 2 years before being asigned an advisor.
The worse case I ever came across with regards to WSIB was where a department store manager was shot and beaten on the job during a robbery. His WSIB battles had dragged out to over 16 years. That’s flat out criminal!!
The widespread of abuses from WSIB towards injured workers is a growing epidemic. In fact, I would argue that WSIB needs to be completely done away with and replaced as was other government entities of widespread abuse towards Canadians throughout history.