Two Sudbury-area MPPs are calling on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to reverse its decision to close offices in northern Ontario. Sudbury MPP Jamie West and Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas held a news conference on Thursday, along with Jessica Montgomery, president of the Sudbury & District Labour Council. The WSIB has announced it will close 10 offices across the province, including in Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, North Bay and Timmins. More than 700 jobs will be lost, including 281 in northern Ontario. Montgomery has spent her career helping injured workers navigate Ontario’s compensation system. She said closing WSIB offices will create barriers for workers in need of assistance. Humans behind every WSIB claim “Behind every WSIB claim file is a human being,” Montgomery said. “Once that office is gone, the consequences aren’t measured in square footage. They’re measured by workers who give up, who don’t appeal, who miss time limits … workers simply stop asking for help because the system has become too difficult to navigate.” Gelinas and West read letters sent by two local workers who have been laid off but were unable to get time off to attend the news conference. “I have worked hard for this career and spent years building toward a future that I believed was secure. I never imagined that keeping my career could someday mean uprooting my children and leaving our home,” said Sheri Cash, a customer service representative in her letter. “We care about the people we serve. We care about our communities and many of us want nothing more than to continue doing the jobs we have dedicated years of our lives to doing.” “WSIB employees are deeply committed to the work they do,” said the letter from Neil Stephen, a bilingual nurse consultant. “They take pride in helping injured workers, but they also face overwhelming workloads and impossible expectations …We are not simply losing positions. We are losing French-language capacity, Indigenous knowledge, regional expertise and an understanding of the unique realities faced by people living in the north.” People deserve better People in northern Ontario deserve better than “to be sacrificed in a decision that appears designed to fill empty office space hundreds of kilometres away in the south,” Stephen added. Gelinas said after the cuts, Francophones trying to file a claim will have their medical charts translated by AI and “we already know that does not work and it will lead to a lot of issues.” West called on Premier Doug Ford to protect WSIB workers in northern Ontario. “Every time the Minister of Labour poses for a photo with mine workers and trades workers -- you cannot pretend to stand with workers, especially in those fields -- I was a trades worker, I was a mine worker,” he said. “If you don’t care about injured workers in the trades, injured workers in mines, then you don’t care about those workers at all.” In an email to CTV News, the WSIB said local services will continue in Sudbury. “Including in-person return to work services provided by WSIB team members, and access to our expanded network of local health care partners – now with 91 physical and mental health care providers in Sudbury,” the email said. Difficult ‘business decision’ “Other roles where work is done over the phone or online are being relocated as we have made the difficult business decision to consolidate some claim and account management functions.” “We recognize this is difficult news for affected team members and their families,” the statement added. “We will treat everyone fairly and with respect in recognition of the valuable role they have played on our team, including opportunities to relocate, access to resume writing, job-seeking services and a continuation of benefits including unlimited mental health support during this transition.” “We continue to invest in the community of Sudbury, including $125 million for the brand-new Ontario Mine Rescue Training Academy that is going to improve health and safety across the north and attract people from around the world to learn from our mining safety leaders,” the statement added. West and Gelinas will be hosting a Community Consultation about the WSIB office closure at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 in the USW Hall in Sudbury.
