Originally, workers’ compensation was designed to make up for the loss of income, including retirement pension income, when a worker becomes permanently disabled because of their work; but this has not been the case for years. In 1998, the Mike Harris government cut WSIB retirement contributions from 10% to 5% and reduced the loss-of-income amount from 90% to 85%. The result? Poverty when an injured worker reaches retirement age.

In today’s world, many people choose or are forced to work well past the age of 65, but the WSIB ceases compensation at age 65 regardless of circumstances. This is age discrimination.

Then, there is the lump sum payment at age 65 that skews an injured worker’s income for a year, raises their taxes and makes them ineligible to apply for other supports. Legislating poverty for injured workers while giving away $1.5 billion of so-called surplus to employers is unconscionable.

If this government is truly working for workers, they will bring the WSIB back to its original purpose: compensation for as long as the disability lasts; security of benefits and retirement income; and no cost to the public. This is necessary, it’s possible and it must be done.

This petition is entitled “Fix WSIB Now...;

“Whereas the purpose of workers’ compensation is to provide income replacement and other benefits to workers or their survivors when workplace accidents and occupational diseases harm or kill workers; and

“Whereas section 43(4) of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, operates to deny benefits to permanently injured workers, even when they do not actually have any new jobs and income; and

“Whereas this statutory provision has caused unjust and irrational financial loss, hardship and ruin to persons suffering from permanent disabilities;

“Therefore we, the undersigned residents of Ontario, call upon the Legislature of Ontario to support injured workers by adopting Bill 57, Respecting Injured Workers Act (Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment), 2022, introduced December 7, 2022, by Wayne Gates, NDP (MPP—Niagara Falls).”

I’d like to thank the citizens of Thunder Bay for supporting this petition. I fully support it and will give it to Saniyah to take to the table.

A year ago, the Minister of Labour promised to raise WSIB income replacement rates to 90% of pre-injury wages. This increase has not taken place. Then, the WSIB cut the cost-of-living allowance for injured workers by a further 2%. While cutting benefits and creating new red tape for injured workers to wade through, the government then took $1.2 billion out of the fund and gave it back to their corporate buddies. Now, they’ve commissioned a report to say that the time to appeal WSIB decisions should be cut to one month.

An injury at work has thrown your life completely upside down, and now the government is telling you that if you want the compensation to which you’re entitled and which your family needs, you’re going to have a month to appeal a bad WSIB decision.

The Ontario NDP believes that no worker should ever be unjustly denied access to WSIB. Does the minister share that commitment, or will he be cutting the time to appeal WSIB claims?

Ontario’s tribunal system is broken. There are huge delays. It’s difficult to navigate, and it’s hard to find legal assistance. And yet, when workers make it through the system, a lot of them are finding justice. Claims that have previously been denied are being approved on appeal, and it’s completely life-changing. Well, it seems that the government wants to take even that hope away from people by cutting the time for appeals. Workers deserve justice. It’s the right thing to do. But when WSIB is not there for workers, guess who pays? The public.

Will the minister do the right thing and commit not to cut the appeal time for WSIB claims?

This Friday is the Day of Mourning for workers who have lost their lives through workplace accidents and workplace exposure to deadly chemicals. Unfortunately, this government, by distorting the function of the WSIB, has shown that it is not there for workers: claim suppression, refusing doctors’ assessments, bribery to deny that accidents have taken place, illegal cuts to the cost-of-living allowance, cutting support payments on the basis of fictitious jobs, and the return of billions of dollars to business that should have been available to support the far too many workers forced to live on ODSP because WSIB has denied their claims.

Recently, this government failed to reduce allowable levels of diesel exposure to what scientists have long recommended. Parents beware: Young people are vulnerable to permanent brain damage due to currently allowed rates of diesel exposure, and once harmed, they will have to fight tooth and nail for compensation. It doesn’t have to be this way.

This Friday, attend a Day of Mourning ceremony in your community, pay tribute to those who have died because of their jobs, and demand that the Ford government put the health and well-being of workers first. Nothing less is acceptable.

Many workers who experience permanent injuries while on the job are forced into poverty and homelessness because the WSIB has a routine policy of turning down claims, forcing injured workers to launch appeals that take years to resolve. Instead of workers getting the financial support they need and are entitled to, they wind up trying to survive on ODSP. That’s off-loading the financial responsibility of employers onto the public—a free ride for employers and a lose-lose situation for workers and the public.

Yesterday, the Minister of Economic Development bragged about cutting employers’ WSIB premiums by 30%—and then, later that year, at the same time as injured workers are being forced onto ODSP, he gave $1.2 billion back to employers.

This year, injured workers were betrayed yet again when their cost-of-living allowance was set a full 2% lower than stipulated in law and in WSIB policy. While this government thinks nothing of showering businesses with money intended to support injured workers, they are happy to rip off workers by deliberately shortchanging them on their cost-of-living increase. This is disgraceful and cruel.

Your treatment of people with disabilities is unacceptable.