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WCB’S 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) Reports 2011 Results
WCB remains fully-funded; benefits liabilities drops for first time
Ninth consecutive drop in Time Loss injury rate
Signals that progress on other injury metrics could be stalled
While a new financial reporting system shows a modest $7 million operating loss last year, overall 2011 results were positive, Chairperson David Eberle told the WCB’s 18
th Annual General Meeting this morning.
“The most constructive outcome is that our 2011 results are meaningful for the working men and women of our province, and for the business owners who employ them,” Eberle stressed. “These are results that tackle workplace injuries, maintain prudent financial management, and fulfill our promise of guaranteed benefits and fiscal stability.”
The WCB’s operating loss is the result of accounting for
unrealized market gains and losses through investment income in its Statement of Operations. This is a requirementof the International Financial Reporting Standard that the WCB adopted last year. CEO Peter Federko said, “Weak investment markets produced negative unrealized losses as at December 31 and that accounts for the $7 million operating loss. We didn’t experience the loss, but 2011 is a good example of how our financial statements will reflect market swings.”
Eberle and Federko went on to point out that the WCB remains fully funded, and that
unrealized market gains through the first part of 2012 have all but recovered the unrealized 2011 loss. “If we closed our books at the end of March 2012 instead of December 2011,” Eberle said, “we likely would have reported an operating surplus. This volatility is an aspect of our new reporting standard that we’ll all have to learn and adjust to over time.”
For perhaps the first time in its history, the WCB’s benefits liabilities dropped from 2010 to 2011. The benefits liabilities reflect the value of assets that WCB must have available to meet its financial obligations to all of the injury claims in the compensation system. “Each year, external actuaries review our claims history and tell us what the value of this liability should be, and each year we should expect it to increase somewhat,” Federko explained. “In 2011, the value went down by just over $7.2 million. This is a rare event, and one that we believe recognizes the drop in injury claims in recent years, as well as stable claim durations.”
For Chairperson Eberle, the ninth consecutive drop in the Time Loss injury rate was another reason for stakeholders to be pleased with 2011 results. “This injury metric has dropped 38 per cent since 2002. That’s a significant accomplishment. But after several years of meeting or beating the targets we set, last year we missed our target. And two other metrics actually increased. We accepted more claims than in 2010, and the Total injury rate grew from 8.70 in 2010 to 8.73 per cent last year.”
For Eberle, that means everyone in the workplace must redouble their efforts to eliminate injury and illness. “Everyone deserves to go home safe and whole at the end of the workday. There are things each of us can and should be doing each day to make certain that happens. Safety matters. It is something we can all live with.”
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