Enforcement data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) continues to show that gross non-compliance remains persistent across Ontario’s trucking sector. For the first two quarters of 2026, 32 companies underwent completed audits by the WSIB, resulting in corrective levies totalling nearly $6 million.
Within this group, the financial penalties highlight a widespread disregard for the workers compensation system and their workers, with one company alone facing corrective levies of nearly $1.5 million.
In total, 13 companies had adjustments around $100,000 or more, with eight of those companies seeing adjustments exceeding $250,000. Likewise, audit results also showed companies with $0.00 adjustment and some who even slightly over paid and received a rebate, highlighting a clear distinction between those who play by the rules and those who don’t.
“The OTA applauds the WSIB for their continued efforts to combat non-compliance in the sector,” said Jonathan Blackham, OTA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs. “However, this latest data also clearly shows that there is far more work to be done, as non-compliance with workers’ compensation laws in Ontario remains at a critical level.”
This type of widespread non-compliance actively damages the WSIB’s funding model — the cost of which is ultimately borne by all businesses in the province. When carriers attempt to gain an unfair advantage by playing outside the rules, they shift the financial burden directly onto compliant companies. What’s worse, these unlawful practices leave the hard-working men and women in these companies completely vulnerable should a workplace injury ever occur.
For years, the WSIB has continued to uncover massive non-compliance in the sector, a reality corroborated by enforcement data which has increasingly been shared between enforcement entities such as Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). While OTA applauds the province for the WSIB’s vital work, the industry also believes sustained enforcement is urgently needed in other areas as well, most notably in improving on-road safety and carrier oversight under the Minister of Transportation (MTO).
“When inspection results show upwards of 60 percent of carriers are cheating on Canada Labour Code compliance, with countless others cheating on WSIB premiums, and even tax compliance, it’s clear that the province needs to end MTO’s ‘Satisfactory-Unaudited’ classification, inspect every carrier in the province, and start holding carriers accountable in real time through 24/7 scale operations on road,” we can no longer allow the default safety grade through the MTO to be an automatic ‘pass’ under the ‘Satisfactory-Unaudited’ category” said Stephen Laskowski, president and CEO of the OTA.
With multi-agency data continuing to point to systemic vulnerabilities across the board, the OTA remains steadfast that modernizing carrier accountability is the only path forward to ensure Ontario’s roads and workplaces are genuinely safe.