(Queen’s Park) – Randy Hillier (Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington) introduced a bill today to reform the WSIB, bringing competition and choice into the workplace safety market.
“The WSIB is broken, I think we can all see that,” said Hillier. “This bill is the first step in fixing our workplace insurance system in this province.”
The bill would allow any private insurer to provide workplace insurance, so long as its plan met or exceeded the coverage offered by WSIB.
“I see no reason why private insurance cannot be provided when such a system works in so many other industries,” stated Hillier. “This is the first step in fixing a very sick bureaucracy.”
The WSIB has an unfunded liability of approximately $12 billion. It has also come under fire recently for lavish spending among its executives and managers. Complaints are common in industries which fall under WSIB’s mandatory coverage.
“If we’re going to make employers pay for workplace safety insurance, and protect their workers, the WSIB needs to be able to cover all expenses. Their unfunded liability proves that they’ve failed in this task, and their mismanagement shows us why,” said Hillier. “The government has failed to take action, but I’ve put a real solution on the table.”
Randy Hillier, MPP Lanark Frontenac Lennox, is a co-founder of the Lanark Landowners Association, which was brought to life to address government imposition on the rights of private property owners, and to address the regressive regulatory impositions that government was bringing down upon farmers and business owners in rural Ontario.
In 2006, Randy resigned as President of the OLA in order to run as a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives. Randy was elected in the 2007 provincial election.
Randy a long-time resident of Lanark County, an electrician by trade and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), continues to co-publish and edit rural Ontario’s successful magazine “The Landowner.”
