April 10th, 2025, Letter to the Editor
By Steve Mantis

Re: $2 Billion taken from workers with a disability and given to Ontario businesses.

In a recent announcement from Premier Doug Ford, the WSIB will return $2Billion to businesses in Ontario. This is in addition to the $2 billion announced just before the provincial election.

Premier Ford said “ (these) measures will help give workers and businesses the support they need in the face of growing economic uncertainty,”

I wonder how taking $2,000,000,000 collected for injured and ill workers and giving it to business will protect workers.

Let’s look at how workers with a disability are treated by the WSIB.

• 92% of all claims for a mental health disability are denied.
• 45% of workers with a severe, life long disability end up either under or just above the poverty line.
• In 2022, Ontario had 264 work-related fatalities, with 90 being traumatic and 174 being occupational disease-related. However, estimates suggest the true toll of work-related deaths is significantly higher, with some studies indicating that over 2,000 Ontarians died in 2022 from traumatic incidents and hazardous exposures, and between 600 and 5,000 from work-related cancer.

Let’s stop the spin and protect those works and their families. Treating workers with a work acquired disability as expendable and a liability which needs to be minimized is clearly not giving them the support they need Premier Ford.

Time to step up to the plate and actually support workers rather than just talking about it.

Steve Mantis, Kaministiquia