Bill 99, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, was introduced by the Progressive Conservative’s Minister of Labour Elizabeth Witmer in Nov. 1996. Passed into law Oct. 1997, the Bill reshaped Ontario’s workers’ compensation, moving the system from one based on Meredith’s underlying philosophy to one that, through further amendments and policies, increasingly adopted a private insurance model. In doing so, it distorted the balance carefully established to be to the benefit of employer, worker and the public purse.
Major changes under the bill
- Not only are “workers” and “compensation” removed from the name of the Board and legislation, in the purpose clause of the Act “compensation of injured workers” drops from first priority to last. The Act wording now requires only “compensation”, no longer “fair compensation”
- Most past, present, and future pensions and Future Economic Loss (FEL) Awards are reduced by cuts in cost-of-living, with $9.3 billion to be cut over the following 17 years
- Future Economic Loss (FEL) awards become less secure because they will be reviewed at least every year for 6 years or more often
- The right to appeal a decision is severely limited. The Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT), renamed Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, is no longer independent (to be bound by WCB policy, not by the Act) and appeal rights are cut off by new time limits
- Removes entitlement for chronic stress, and restricts compensation for permanent chronic pain disabilities based on a “predicted healing time”
- The WCB’s duty to provide vocational rehabilitation services is gone; these will be outsourced/privatized
- Benefits for future injuries are based on 85% of net wages instead of 90%
- Injured workers are forced to give up privacy of some medical records (compromising patient-doctor confidentiality)
- The WCB gains the power to cut all benefits if an injured worker does not follow its plan for medical treatment (overriding recommendations of the worker’s family physician)
- As of January 1, 1997 employers save 5% on their premiums, roughly $100 million every year (similar reductions in following years will contribute in large measure to the unfunded liability and charges of a financial crisis)
- Provides a new legal basis for employers’ financial incentive experience rating without truly addressing workplace safety
- Eliminates Occupational Disease Panel and creates new barriers to the recognition of occupational diseases