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The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is cutting hundreds of jobs across the province.
Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU), which represents WSIB workers, said it was given the details on Wednesday. In a release it said the following positions would be cut in northern Ontario.
- Thunder Bay 55.
- Sault Ste Marie 20.
- Sudbury 136.
- North Bay 15.
- Timmins 12.
More than 300 jobs will also be cut among centres in Guelph, Kingston, St. Catherines, Waterloo and Windsor.
“We are already under-resourced as it is. We have severe workload problems and it will hurt injured workers in Ontario, the same injured workers that the government says they’re here to protect,” said Harry Goslin, president of the OCEU.
Goslin said the WSIB will continue to staff in-person return-to-work services with new employers in northern Ontario, but that all other jobs including nurses and payment representatives “would end up moving to southern Ontario.”
“As a person who lives in a northern community myself, I know what it’s like to live in these communities, and I know what it’s like to try to access health care in these communities. And the distance that people need to travel to get the care that they need or the training that they need,” he said.
“The services are just not the same as the services in southern Ontario. And you need people that live in those communities who really can relate and understand the challenges that are unique to the northern communities.”
In a reply to a CBC News inquiry, the WSIB stated that the agency “has made the difficult decision to consolidate claim and account management functions, and as a result, there will be some roles that relocate and adjustments to local staffing needs.”
The WSIB acknowledged that this announcement is “difficult” for staff and their families. The agency said impacted employees will have access to resume writing help, job seeking services, and continued benefits including mental health support.
The agency would not comment on the specific job loss figures shared by the OCEU.
“I think it really shows a lack of concern for the workers here in the north,” said Steve Mantis, treasurer of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group, and the chair of the research action committee with the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups.
In its statement to CBC News, the WSIB wrote, “[h]ow people access our services has not changed and we continue to help with recovery and return to work and local health care supports.”
The agency also noted that it has not “had storefront offices across Ontario since the pandemic hit in 2020 with support being delivered online, by telephone, and through expanded in-person local health care access with new partnerships.”
But Mantis said it’s not clear to him how much support will still be available in person, and that it could be challenging if workers have to deal with WSIB staff who aren’t familiar with the specific jobs or region in northern Ontario.
It’s crazy, like, you know, if your intention is to help the people in the north, then you will have a staff in the north to do that.– Steve Mantis, treasurer of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group, and the chair of the research action committee with the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups.
Sudbury MPP Jamie West echoed that same concern. He questioned how the WSIB could replace that knowledge by moving positions elsewhere in the province.
“You’re going to take somebody with years and years of experience, you’re going to lay them off, you’re going to hire someone brand new and expect them to have the same competency and skill as the northern Ontario workers [who have] been doing this for perhaps decades?” West said.
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas said she is also concerned about what the closures could mean for francophone workers.
“Right now francophone injured workers are able to deal with francophone workers at WSIB office in Sudbury,” Gélinas said. “Once everything moves to Toronto, what’s the chance that there will be good French-language services?”