Bill 210 2011

An Act to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 to protect benefits for spouses of deceased, retired workers

Note: This Act amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.  For the legislative history of the Act, see the Table of Consolidated Public Statutes – Detailed Legislative History at www.e-Laws.gov.on.ca.

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:

   1.  Subsection 48 (3) of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 is amended by adding "Subject to subsection (3.1)," before "If the deceased worker's net average earnings are less than $15,312.51" in the portion after clause (b).

   2.  Section 48 of the Act is amended by adding the following subsection:

Periodic payment to spouse, retired workers

   (3.1)  If a deceased worker was diagnosed with an occupational disease after he or she retired, the deceased worker's net average earnings shall, for the purposes of subsection (3), be deemed to be the amount that the deceased worker was earning at the time of his or her last exposure to the biological, chemical or physical agent that caused the occupational disease.

Commencement

   3.  This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Short title

   4.  The short title of this Act is the Workers' Death Benefits Protection Act, 2011.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Bill amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 to provide that if a deceased worker was diagnosed with an occupational disease after he or she retired, the deceased worker's net average earnings shall, for the purposes of calculating periodic payments to the deceased worker's spouse, be deemed to be the amount that the deceased worker was earning at the time of his or her last exposure to the biological, chemical or physical agent that caused the occupational disease.