ICI construction’s safety performance is being rewarded. At the League of Champions webinar last week, Minister Monte McNaughton announced the approval of a reclassification of the WSIB G1 rate for next year, meaning lower premiums for ICI employers. This positive step forward is a result of three-year trending statistics showing that the ICI sector workers are safer than their low-rise residential counterparts. The OGCA has also been lobbying for the change since the new classifications, lumping ICI and residential construction together, were first proposed as part of rate framework reform four years ago.
WSIB rules permit a change in classification if one segment can show divergent long-term cost differential compared with others in the class over three years. WSIB data showed that rate group 764, the homebuilders' group in the former system, had a 1.80 percent lost-time injury (LTI) rating in 2018, up from 1.73 in 2012. The ICI sector, until 2020 in rate group 723, had a 0.69 percent LTI rating in 2018, down 34 percent from 2012.
When asked about the rate framework by the Daily Commercial News, Minister McNaughton said that "the best policies are set when government, employers and labour all work together." He also explained that "the WSIB approved a resolution to divide the building construction subclass into two subclasses. Essentially stakeholders in the ICI requested this, and it makes sense because the two classes are large enough to support themselves."
Currently, the OGCA cannot quantify how much members would save starting in 2021 as the WSIB began a multiyear transition to a new rate framework system starting in 2020. The OGCA does not expect a massive change in what the rates are in 2021, but the savings will become more noticeable over time.
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