Toronto, February 16, 2022 – We thank the Ontario government for acting on CFIB’s long-standing request to return Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) overpaid premiums to employers. Today’s announcement that the WSIB will give back $1.5B in surplus premiums to the safe employers who paid them is great news for Ontario’s small businesses as they navigate their path to recovery.
The WSIB is funded entirely by employers, so it makes perfect sense – now that the Board is in a solid financial position – to return the extra money to employers as soon as possible.
It’s a win-win for both employers and employees: Safe employers that overpaid the WSIB based on projections of future claims will get a rebate, while employee claims payouts will not be affected.
In CFIB’s January 2022 survey, over 75 per cent of Ontario’s small businesses said the WSIB should be required to return any excess funds to the employers who paid them in any year the Board reaches the minimum required surplus level, which is 115 per cent under Bill 27 passed late last year. Only 2.6 per cent of the survey respondents disagreed.
We encourage the government and the WSIB to continue to return premium overpayments to the employers who paid them in any year the minimum required surplus is realized. Ideally, surpluses should be returned annually in full to affected businesses by direct payments, rather than by WSIB account credits.
-Dan Kelly, President, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB)
-Julie Kwiecinski, Director of Provincial Affairs, Ontario
For media inquiries or interviews, please contact:
Milena Stanoeva, CFIB
647-464-2814
public.affairs@cfib.ca
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small- and medium-sized businesses with 95,000 members across every industry and region, including 38,000 in Ontario. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.
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