Ontario Increasing Services to Workers and Small Businesses

Ontario is providing more than $600,000 to the Office of the Worker Adviser (OWA) and Office of the Employer Adviser (OEA) to help make it easier for workers and small businesses to navigate the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB) compensation system. Through these two adviser offices non-unionized workers and small businesses will be able to access advice, education, and representation at the WSIB and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT). These services are offered at no cost.

“Our government is committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the WSIB, which is vital to protecting Ontario workers,” said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development. “Improving the WSIB system is one of the ways our government is making it easier for people to receive the benefits they deserve and ensuring workers and employers can find the information and representation they need when they need it.”

Strengthening the adviser offices is a recommendation made in an operational review https://www.ontario.ca/document/workplace-safety-and-insurance-board-operational-review-report of Ontario’s WSIB commissioned by the government to help ensure the WSIB’s long-term sustainability and effectiveness.

Ontario is also consulting on the implementation of a key recommendation to distribute the          board’s financial surpluses above a certain level to employers. This would demonstrate fairness  to employers and put more money back into the economy. The proposal would have no impact on the benefits workers receive or the WSIB’s ability to pay those benefits.

Quick Facts

• Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board covers over five million people in more than 300,000 workplaces across Ontario.
• The WSIB eliminated its under liability charge in January 2020, leading to a $607 million reduction in cost to business
• The WSIB Operational Review was conducted by Linda Regner Dykeman and Sean Speer, who were appointed based on their respective areas of expertise in insurance and public policy.

Additional Resources

• The WSIB Operational Review
• The Workplace Safety and Insurance Act

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