Please promote and participate in this year’s Injured Workers’ Day events.  May 29 in Thunder Bay and June 1 in Hamilton and Toronto (see attached).

This year is particularly important.  After years of campaigning, we’ve made some progress on loss of earnings benefits after age 65 (although more needs to be done) and won an increase in income replacement rate from 85% of net to 90% (again, more needs to be done, including retroactivity).  But at the same time there are threats to the lock-in of LOE benefits and around various types of clawbacks.

So we’ve learned that our efforts can have a real positive impact, but that we need to continue and increase the pressure.

We need your help.

Ontario’s Bill 105 would remove a key protection for injured workers and replace it with endless reviews and claw backs of benefits.  

This bill will make it hard for all permanently injured workers to keep their benefits. And it could make it nearly impossible for those already marginalized, like injured migrant workers, to keep theirs.

All injured workers need to be treated with dignity and fairness. Tell MPPs that they must not put injured workers on perpetual probation!

You can take action in under 2 minutes:

Email:

Step 1: Find your MPP

Use this tool: Legislative Assembly of Ontario and put in your postal code

https://www.ola.org/en/members/current

Step 2: Copy your MPP’s email address

Step 3: Use a pre-written email:

Subject: Bill 105 – Protect injured workers

premier@ontario.ca, david.piccini@pc.ola.org, andrea.khanjin@pc.ola.org

Dear Premier Ford, Minister Piccini, Minister Khanjin, and [YOUR MINISTER],

My name is [YOUR NAME], and I live in [YOUR RIDING]. I am writing to you about Bill 105, Schedule 9, and the proposed changes to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) benefits.

I believe in a system that is fair and focused on helping people recover and get back to work where possible. But the removal of the 72-month “lock-in” and the shift to ongoing reviews goes too far. Injured workers should not be put on permanent probation.

The current system already asks a lot. For up to six years, workers go through treatment, return-to-work requirements, retraining, and constant oversight. Their medical information is scrutinized. Their efforts are second-guessed. Many feel pressured to return to work before they are ready. People already find dealing with WSIB stressful, intrusive, and, at times, demeaning.

That is the reality today.

The reason the 72-month lock-in exists is because, after years of this process, there needs to be an endpoint. A point where people can finally have some stability and certainty in their lives.

Bill 105 removes that endpoint.

Instead, it creates a system of indefinite reviews—where benefits can be revisited, reduced, or cut at any time, even many years later. That means ongoing surveillance, ongoing scrutiny, and no real sense of finality.

Living for years under constant review is already difficult. Extending that uncertainty indefinitely will make it worse. It keeps people in a permanent state of stress—never knowing if their income will suddenly change, never feeling secure enough to plan their lives. That kind of instability takes a serious toll on mental health.

We should not be designing a system that keeps people in a prolonged state of anxiety.

It also does not make sense from a system perspective. Endless reviews mean more bureaucracy, more administrative costs, and more appeals. That is not efficient government. It is red tape that diverts resources away from helping people recover.

The proposed 100% cap raises additional concerns. While it may sound reasonable at first glance, it effectively locks workers into their past earnings. Pre-injury wages are frozen in time and do not reflect what someone could have earned through minimum wage increases, raises or better opportunities. Clawing back new income or benefits ensures people fall further behind over time.

Taken together, these changes move the system in the wrong direction—more intrusive, more bureaucratic, and more harmful to the people it is supposed to support.

This is a significant change and it deserves proper scrutiny.

I urge you to send this portion of the bill to committee for full review. At minimum, the 72-month lock-in must be preserved.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Step 4: Add your MPP’s name, your name and riding, then hit send

Call Em! Call in details attached

Why this matters:

Right now, after 72 months, WSIB benefits are “locked in”

Bill 105 would remove that protection

Workers could face reviews forever

Benefits could be cut at any time, even years later

Workers may need to prove they’re entitled to benefits over and over again – with no resolution

Any other income or government support a worker gets can be clawed back leaving people perpetually poorer

Even a short email makes a difference. Please take a moment to send yours today.

Thank you for your support,

IAVGO Community Legal Clinic