Owners of small businesses are more than likely a little irked as Minister of Labour Peter Fonseca recently introduced WSIB mandatory coverage legislation.
It was pushed in the Ontario legislature recently into second reading.
Canadian Federation of Independent Business Ontario vice-president Judith Andrew called that legislation seriously misguided.
“This will not accomplish anything that the minister suggests. It will not level the playing field. This legislation will not make one iota of difference on health and safety,” Andrew said. “Worse, it will penalize the good guys, the above ground operators, who will be called upon to further subsidize the cheats by, on average, $11,000 per year.”
Under the current system, employers pay a set amount of workman’s compensation insurance according to set categories. The higher the risk in the job, the higher the premium, which is based on payroll, to a maximum amount.
The provincial government proposal would force everyone, including business owners, partners, and officers to be included in that insurance.
Andrew said that for a small construction company, that could mean an extra $11,000 per year for the owner.
“We can’t think of any good reason to do this,” she said.
Andrew accused the minister of succumbing to political opportunism in lieu of discharging his responsibilities for good public policy. Andrew added that is “a shame for Ontario and shame on him.”
She said the government is claiming that this is a way to catch cheaters who abuse the system, but she said the mem-bers currently paying the premiums are already watching for that. “We don’t see the links” between catching cheaters and the proposed legislation.
She added that the government has also stated the proposal will improve health and safety in the workplace.
“How so?” she asked, adding that, for example, small construction companies are al-ready receiving safety advice from their own safety association, and adding extra expenses to small companies is not going to help them one bit.
Besides, she said, most business owners and operators are already insured 24 hours a day, seven days a week as it is, and that includes such things as long term illness, something not covered by the compensation board.
“It’s a grab – a tax grab. It’s particularly punitive on small business owners,” she said.
She said larger companies will not feel the effects of the premium like smaller companies will, and noted that might be one reason for the new levy proposal.
“Maybe bigger companies wouldn’t be too sad to see their smaller competition wiped off the map,” she said.
Andrew added that the way the current system is set up, nobody knows the names of insured employees, something she said she would like to see changed to help eliminate cheaters. As well, she noted, the proposal would take until 2012 to be implemented, and she wondered why, in a $3-billion a year business, such a plan would take so long .
Andrew added the effect is it will not start until after the next provincial election.
