EDITORIAL PAGE — This site condemned

Ontario’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) is in the midst of erecting a $178-million Taj Mahal in downtown Toronto. At first blush, this might seem a bit odd. For it was the WCB that, only a few months ago, was said to be virtually bankrupt, staggering under “unfunded liabilities” of $11 billion.

However, the WCB, we are told, desperately requires a single building to house its bureaucracy and cater to its clients. Since many of them are disabled, this new building will be barrier-free. No quarrel there, although retrofitting the WCB’s old spaces might have been cheaper.

But we do have a problem swallowing the following strained justification for the new WCB structure: that it will save taxpayers $6 million because, in a new structure, staff would waste less time waiting for elevators. In better economic times, that explanation might have served as a touch of light comedy on a hot summer day — just another example of a government agency feathering its nest. But the WCB represents a heavy and rising cost to the mining industry.

Take one example which recently appeared within these pages: At Royal Oak’s Pamour operation, the WCB premiums amounted to $4,750 per employee in 1988. In 1991, when lost-time (accident) frequency fell to two, the premium per worker had risen to $5,450. Last year, it rose another $300 per employee and the lost-time frequency had dropped to 0.28.

One could reasonably expect that as lost-time frequencies dropped, so would premiums. Not in the case of the WCB, apparently.

That’s because mining companies — and every other company in Ontario — must shoulder the WCB’s hulking $11 billion in unfunded liability. (Unfunded liabilities include future compensation for victims of industry-induced sickness and industrial accidents.) WCB money comes from a payroll tax charged against companies operating in Ontario.

Fortunately, the WCB is under review by a government-appointed panel of senior business and union leaders. Information about its new building became public when the provincial auditor issued a report critical of the WCB’s decision to erect its own headquarters. The auditor criticized both the creaky rationalizations for the decision and the financing arrangement — a 20-year mortgage at 10.25%.

Clearly, the WCB is out of control. We can only hope the government review develops solutions to its financial mess. The new headquarters, alas, is a done deal.