Injured workers in Ontario are preparing to fight hard against Bill 105 when the provincial legislature reconvenes in the fall. A leader of the injured workers movement said this fight is especially important after Ontario decided to cut 466 jobs at the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) starting with jobs in Northern Ontario. 

Injured workers are organizing for a change to Bill 105 which proposes amendments to injured workers’ insurance and compensation. The bill includes an increase to the compensation injured workers receive and an expansion of benefits coverage to include workers in residential care facilities operated by private employers and group homes. 

While workers are regarding this positively, concerns are also being raised about the end of the “lock-in” policy which locks a worker’s compensation at a certain rate after six years. Additionally, the increase of a worker’s compensation rate from 85 per cent to 90 per cent of pre-injury earnings will not be retroactive. The 85 per cent compensation rate was set amid a financial crisis the WSIB faced in 1998. 

Now, the WSIB’s most recent report shows they were operating at a sufficiency ratio of 117.1 per cent. The board’s sufficiency ratio calculates whether it has enough money to cover its expenses in a given year. 

Despite the WSIB”s financial position, it announced it will be cutting 466 jobs. The Ontario Compensation Employees Union leader Harry Goslin has told the media that the cuts will hurt the workers who are losing jobs and the injured workers that rely on their services. 

Steve Mantis, chair of the research action group within the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG), said the combination of WSIB cuts and Bill 105 amount to an abandonment of injured workers’ rights in Ontario. 

“It’s really distressing to see this with one little piece of our social safety net,” Mantis said in an interview with rabble. “That’s where we’re headed with this, income inequality, the wealth gap and a negative impact in terms of our health and well being.” 

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Bill 105 was first introduced in April and has since passed second reading. At a planning meeting, ONWIG participants said that the summer break provides an opportunity for injured workers to raise awareness about their concerns before the bill goes to third reading. 

Mantis said people should be making connections within their community and pushing their MPPs to take a stand against the bill as written. He noted that raising awareness on this particular issue will also show the government that Ontarians care about injured workers more broadly. 

“We [injured workers] are almost invisible. There’s very little kind of coverage in the media or discussion in the public realm around these issues,” he said. “People just kind of go on with their lives without kind of recognizing how much at risk they can be when they just go to work every day, trying to make a living for their families.” 

Mantis emphasized that wins for injured workers are wins for everybody. When a worker gets injured and the social safety net meant to catch them has eroded, the community is the one who must find a way to protect the worker’s health. 

“You’re only a second away from a workplace injury or illness that can have a really significant impact, not only on the worker but on their family as well,” he said. “The more we’re able to build links with like-minded organizations that are facing these challenges, we will have a greater impact in terms of pushing back.”

Gabriela Calugay-Casuga

Gabriela “Gabby” Calugay-Casuga (she/they) is a writer and activist based in so-called “Ottawa.” They began writing for Migrante Ottawa’s radio show, Talakayang Bayan, in 2017. Since then, she...