Workers’ advocates charge that hundreds of injured workers have, like Harris, been denied benefits for pre-existing medical conditions since 2010, when the former Dalton McGuinty government appointed David Marshall as WSIB president.
They blame Marshall’s marching orders “to reduce and ultimately retire” the board’s $12 billion unfunded liability, the difference between current funding levels and long-term payouts to injured workers. They say this financial imperative is behind a proposed new WSIB policy on pre-existing conditions that would “fundamentally change” the system and throw thousands of injured workers into poverty.