News & Events

WSIB Pricing Fairness Report Proposes a New Approach to Allocating Costs

February 11, 2014

The WSIB needs your money and the mechanism for allocating costs and your bill may be completely reinvented over the next few years. Doug Stanley has issued his report and it recommends that WSIB scrap virtually all of its revenue programs and implement a new system of rate setting, experience rating and employer classification. Stanley proposes that the WSIB needs a new set of tools to assure financial growth to achieve full funding which has been mandated by law. The differences are dramatic. The current employer classification scheme is composed of 156 rate groups. Under the proposal, they will be reduced to 20 to 25.  The CAD-7 Experience Rating System will be replaced by risk bands inside the rate. Employers in riskier operations will pay more, others will pay less. It appears that performance is no longer a factor in experience rating - a stunning and controversial proposal. The Report includes a very general proposal to distribute the responsibility for the unfunded liability at an undetermined allocation to the general schedule 1, at the sector level and the rate group level. The decision on how they will be weighted will be a significant factor in determining future assessment rates. A redesign of this magnitude makes it inevitable that there will be huge swings in assessment rates as a result. The Ontario General Contractors Association will be very active with the Construction Employers Council (many of which are members of CDAO) in addressing these proposals.

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