The report sets out several legal, operational and policy recommendations that we believe are consistent with the review’s terms of reference and will help the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board manage its series of transitions, protect and maintain its financial sustainability, and ultimately better serve workers and businesses in Ontario.

Detailed analysis of these recommendations — including their underlying rationale and implementation considerations — are reflected throughout the report. But here is a full summary of the legal, operational, and policy recommendations from the review.

  1. The government should adopt a regulation that prescribes a sufficiency ratio corridor of 115% and 125% for the WSIB for the five-year period between 2020 and 2025.
  2. The regulation should also establish the parameters for surplus distribution including prescribing the WSIB to consider surplus distribution when the insurance fund exceeds 115% and require it distributes surpluses if the sufficiency ratio hits or exceeds 125%.
  3. The government should amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act to clarify that any legal or policy changes that impose costs on the WSIB should come into effect in the year in which the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board can account for these costs in its rate-setting process.
  4. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should develop a predictive modelling capacity within the organization as part of its effort to improve its pricing and rate-setting processes.
  5. As part of the transition to a new rate framework, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should establish the position of Industry Class Manager with whom employers, industry associations and unions can engage about their issues and circumstances related to specific industry classes.
  6. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should move to an exclusionary model for coverage on a go-forward basis for new employers and industries. This would not affect currently non-mandatory covered industries, but it would apply to any new firms or industries operating in the province.
  7. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the government should extend mandatory coverage to developmental support workers and those working in residential care facilities.
  8. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the government should consider consolidating all Schedule 2 employers in the collective liability framework. Moving in this direction would require a transition plan for industry classes, premium rates and Schedule 2 employers who may have ongoing claims. It would also involve consultations on the necessary legislative and regulatory changes as well as the appropriate timeframe for implementation.
  9. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should modernize the claims process by expanding digital submission of documents and enabling individuals to register online in order to monitor the status of their files through a secure personal portal as soon as possible.
  10. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should move to a self-service model for no-lost-time claims in particular and simple claims in general using a system of online claims and fast-tracked adjudication.
  11. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should set separate targets for processing timelines for no-lost-time claims and lost-time claims.
  12. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should continue to adjust and refine its process for claims adjudication to ensure that claims are being managed by the right people at the right time.
  13. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the government should consider consolidating the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's multiple layers of appeal into a single appeals function within the WSIB before appeals move to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT). Moving in this direction would require consideration of the format and design of the new appeals function within the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, timelines for appeals decisions, human resource issues and possible incremental resources to the WSIAT to address any resulting increases in its appeals caseload.
  14. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal should establish a new Quality Table to identify and anticipate trends through data analytics and actual case outputs in order to better inform adjudication guidelines and decision-making.
  15. The Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development should work with the Attorney General to ensure that legal representatives (including paralegals) participating in the occupational health and safety system are meeting a high ethical standard and properly serving their clients.
  16. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board should maintain a statistically relevant number of audits related to claim suppression through the implementation of the new Rate Framework.
  17. The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development should increase budget funding for the Office of the Worker Adviser and the Office of the Employer Adviser to better serve workers and employers.
  18. The government should amend the Labour Relations Act to clarify that labour unions must provide representation on behalf of their members in the occupational health and safety system including the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
  19. The Office of the Chief Prevention Officer should work with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development to coordinate better data collection and analysis — including developing a set of future-oriented indicators to better anticipate workplace trends.
  20. The government should change its funding model for prevention-related programming by providing dedicated funding to the health and safety associations for specialized training and services and launching a competitive funding pool for more general health and safety services and training.
  21. The government should enter into three to five-year transfer agreements with the Health and Safety Associations.
  22. If the government changes the funding model for prevention-related programming, it should consider increasing the overall funding available for these activities.
  23. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board board of directors should regularly prepare and provide a list of required board competencies to the minister to help inform appointment decisions.
  24. Appointments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's board of directors should have staggered expiration dates to ensure that several directors’ terms do not expire at the same time.
  25. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the government should work with an independent adviser (such as Infrastructure Ontario) to conduct a review of the organization’s real property portfolio, including how the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board manages it, in order to identify possible efficiencies.