On May 28, 2025, the Ontario government introduced the Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025 (Bill 30), which proposes amendments to a number of employment-related statutes including the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (the WSIA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (the OHSA).
If passed, Bill 30 would make several changes to the WSIA which would impact employers in Ontario, the most significant of which involve administrative penalties and the creation of new offences. Of particular note, Bill 30 proposes:
- Prohibitions against employers against making false or misleading statements to the WSIB in connection with a person’s claim for benefits;
- Making it a criminal offence to fail to pay premiums as required under section 88 of the WSIA, and
- Establishing a list of mandatory aggravating factors to be considered/applied against employer defendants.
In addition to the above, the Bill also proposes implementing administrative penalties for failing to comply with the requirement for keeping accurate wage records (or producing those records on request), as well as increasing the maximum fines against parties with multiple convictions of the same offence in the same legal proceeding to $750,000 per conviction.
Similarly, the proposed changes to the OHSA would expand the use of administrative penalties to enforce the OHSA by granting inspectors the authority to impose administrative penalties (penalty amounts to be determined at a later date). Proposals were also made for implementing a system for the enforcement of unpaid penalties (to be treated as Crown debts) and for the review of penalties rendered.
Positively, the Bill also has proposed a reimbursement program for employers who are required to purchase defibrillators, and would allow for accredited health and safety management systems to be treated as equivalents for regulatory purposes.
While Bill 30 is still in the early stages of working through the Ontario legislature, the potential implications for employers with regards to workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety compliance are significant, especially financially with the proposed implementation of several new administrative penalty options for certain types of behavioural violations of both the WSIA and the OHSA.
