OTA letter-writing campaign protests WSIB rate hike

TORONTO (Dec. 16, 2002) — The Ontario Trucking Association hopes a letter-writing campaign will prompt the province to stave off an increase in premiums trucking companies will pay for workers compensation insurance next year.

The campaign is a response to a Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board decision to set the general trucking rates for 2003 at $5.94 for every $100 of insurable earnings, an increase of 5.9 per cent.

The OTA warned that a similar rate hike may be planned for 2004.

The association said an increase is unjustifiable considering that loss-time claims for the trucking sector are decreasing. It wants the provincial government to compel the Board to look for ways to look for other alternatives to rate increases, including slashing its own administrative costs — the highest per-claim cost of all the provinces, the OTA said.

“To help us in our efforts to have this rate hike withdrawn, we are asking all members of the trucking industry to write to their MPP asking them to tell the Minister to reverse this bad decision,” the association said in its newsletter to members last week. The Minister of Labour is Brad Clark.

The OTA has prepared a draft letter to MPPs on the issue. Contact 416/249-7401 for more information.