WCB 2007 Annual Report Shows Focus on Injury Prevention, Solid Financial Performance

(WINNIPEG) The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) released its 2007 Annual Report today, showing positive financial results and a focus on injury prevention. The WCB also released its 2008-2012 Five Year Plan which describes the WCB’s goals for the future, the strategies the organization will use to achieve these goals and how progress will be measured.

The increased focus of the WCB and the Workplace Safety and Health Division on injury prevention has yielded positive results. The preliminary 2007 time loss injury rate is 4.2 time loss injuries per 100 workers. Prevention initiatives, such as campaigns targeting youth and the construction sector, along with concerted efforts by workers and employers, have helped to decrease Manitoba’s time loss injury rate by 25 per cent since 2000. To see a further decrease in the injury rate, the WCB, along with its partners, will continue supporting employers and workers in their injury prevention efforts and working to change the belief that workplace injuries are inevitable.

“Our ultimate goal is to see no worker injured while on the job,” says WCB Chairperson Tom Farrell. “Until we live in a world where no worker is injured and no workplace is unsafe, we will continue to focus on developing an aggressive injury prevention strategy with our partners.”

2007 saw a solid performance from the organization not only operationally, but financially. Driven primarily by investment income, the WCB saw an operating surplus of $50 million which increased the total reserves to $258 million. The WCB’s investment portfolio gross rate of return was 6.5 per cent for the year.

“2007 marked 90 years of the WCB providing Manitoba’s injured workers with the benefits they deserve while ensuring employers receive the cost-effective services they need,” says WCB President and CEO Doug Sexsmith. “In 2007, for instance, coverage was extended to more workers and employers and the WCB announced a 4.8 per cent assessment rate reduction taking effect in 2008 for employers.”

The Manitoba WCB is a mutual injury and disability insurance agency governed by a Board of Directors representative of employers, workers and the public interest and funded by employer premiums. The WCB insures approximately 70 per cent of the workers in Manitoba, employed by over 26,000 registered employers.

For more information contact:

Warren Preece

Director of Communications

Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba

(204)-954-4113

1-800-362-3340

Email: wcb@wcb.mb.ca