Saskatchewan’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) is proposing an average premium rate drop of 7.5 per cent for 2017.
The average rate would drop from $1.34 to $1.24 per hundred dollars of payroll.
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If approved, it would mark the tenth straight year of lowered rates and make it the lowest rate in over 30 years.
It would also be the third lowest average premium rate in Canada.
“The safety performance improvements seen in 43 of 50 industry rate codes have resulted in the proposed 2017 premium rates for 45,778 of Saskatchewan’s 48,357 employers,” said WCB chairperson Gordon Dobrowolsky.
Decreases will range from 1.8 per cent to 18.6 per cent in the 43 industry rate codes.
“We can draw a straight line from improvements in injury rates to lower premium rates,” said WCB CEO Peter Federko.
“This downward trend needs to continue. It’s only together that we will reach Mission: Zero.”
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However, 212 employers in three industry rate codes will have an average increase in premiums of 1.5 per cent.
WCB officials said this is due to worsening safety performance records and higher claim costs.
There will be no rate change for 2,367 employers in four industry categories.