Ontario
Necessity for Comprehensive Renewal of Compensation System to Provide Justice for Injured Workers
For decades injured workers and workers' organizations have been demanding changes to the workers compensation system in Ontario to meet the needs of injured workers, of the families of workers killed or injured and for measures to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for all workers in Ontario. Injured workers have been leading this fight, building their organizations and laying their claims on society. Since its formation in 1991, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG) has been in the forefront of this fight.
Through its activism, advocacy and research ONIWG has challenged each retrogressive step of successive governments which violate the rights of injured workers and have systematically dismantled the foundation of the workers' compensation system. In 2004 when the consequences of the effects of the changes to the system imposed by the anti-worker Mike Harris Conservative government in 1998 were evident to all, ONIWG released a comprehensive Platform for Change. It lays out the much needed reforms to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), reforms that are crucial to injured workers receiving justice. The Platform for Change as amended by the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers' Support Group in September of 2021 is available here.
The Platform for Change is based on the principles set out by Justice William Meredith in his report to the Ontario legislature in 1913 which laid the foundation for the workers compensation systems in all the provinces, except Quebec.[1] In Quebec the historical precedents on the front of work injuries and death were different with laws dating back to the 1880s to protect, not the workers, but the employers from being sued. In 1909, at the time legislative measures were being debated in Ontario, a bill was passed by the Quebec legislative assembly that recognized a "no fault" responsibility for employers in the cases of death at the work place. It led to the creation of the Commission on Work Injuries in 1928.
In Ontario, legislation based on Meredith's recommendations came into effect in 1914. Essentially the system was to provide full justice to injured workers by establishing a non-partisan organization to administer claims and assessments. Employers funded the system and shared the liability for injured workers. In return, injured workers receive benefits while they recover, and cannot sue their employers. The motto of the early Workers' Compensation Board was "Justice and Humanity: Speedily Rendered."
Over 100 years later, millions of Canadian workers, 1.56 million in Ontario alone, are not even covered by workers' compensation and are left to fend for themselves. Those that are covered do not receive justice and humanity.
Private Members' Bill Proposed Restoration of the Meredith Principles
Injured workers groups, unions and politicians hold press conference on the Meredith Act at Ontario legislature, November 25, 2025.
It is due to years of arduous work done by injured workers led by ONIWG and their supporters in community groups, unions, academics and supportive politicians that Bill 86, An Act to enact the Meredith Act (Fair Compensation for Injured Workers), 2025, and to repeal the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, was tabled in the Ontario legislature.
ONIWG's Platform for Change elaborates what is needed to have a just and humane system that protects and defends all workers. It was used by three NDP Members of the Provincial Parliament – Lise Vaugeois, Wayne Gates and Jamie West – to draft Bill 86 which passed first reading in the provincial legislature on December 8, 2025. The legislation would have replaced the existing Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 with a new "Meredith Act," restoring the original intent and modernizing its provisions. It was defeated in a vote in the legislature on April 15, 62 to 41, with the Conservatives voting against it. The day before the vote, as the bill was being debated in the legislature, the Ford government issued a press release announcing planned changes to the WSIB.
Had Bill 86 passed it would have, among other things, ended "deeming," the practice whereby workers are forced into poverty by having their benefits cut based on potential wages from jobs that they do not have; and granted injured workers the right to choose their own doctor for a second opinion, ending "paper-only" reviews by administrators. These are changes essential for the rights and dignity of injured workers to be respected.
Note
1. Sir William Ralph Meredith, KC (March 31, 1840 – August 21, 1923)
was a Canadian lawyer, politician and judge. He served as leader of the
Ontario Conservatives from 1878 to 1894, Chancellor of the University of
Toronto from 1900 until his death, and Chief Justice of Ontario from
1913
until his death. Through his principles, known as the "Meredith
Principles," he is regarded as the founding father of the Workers'
Compensation System in Ontario, the impact of which was felt throughout
Canada and the United States. For the Wikipedia entry on Meredith, click
here.
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 24 - April 28, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560246.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca