Province announces WSIB headquarters will move from Toronto’s Front Street to London, Ont.

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This article was published 26/04/2022 (1618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Ontario government is moving the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board headquarters from the heart of downtown Toronto to London, Ont.

Plans for the move were announced in a news release Tuesday morning, and are part of the government’s new Community Jobs Initiative, which aims to spread provincial agencies throughout the province.

In an email to agency employees obtained by the Star, WSIB CEO Jeffery Lang — who is from London — said no employees would be forced to move as a result of the shift.

“I have not mandated anyone to move, and I don’t intend to. Some of our roles may be location specific, but our pandemic experience has proven that most of our work can be done well from many of our locations in the province,” Lang said in the email.

Lang said the agency is also undertaking a long-term real estate and facilities strategy.

“Our real estate and facilities strategy will also recognize that we no longer need most functions to be centralized in one location. This means a future ‘head office’ may look significantly different than how our Simcoe Place office is currently structured,” Lang wrote.

In an emailed statement, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said the move will save money, and spread jobs out.

“This is … part of our plan to bring opportunity to every corner of our province and ensure provincial agencies are spread out in communities across Ontario. It will move the WSIB off one of the most expensive real estate blocks in the country and allow the agency to leverage the success of its existing regional office, lower rental costs, and London’s historic position as a hub for insurance, legal and financial services,” McNaughton said.

The announcement comes just two days ahead of a provincial budget and less than a week before the official kickoff of the provincial election campaign. Currently, London’s three ridings are held by the NDP. A fourth riding, Elgin-London-Middlesex, which straddles London and some surrounding communities including St. Thomas and Aylmer, was held by the PC’s Jeff Yurek, who announced in January he wouldn’t be running again.

According to government sources, the WSIB owns 75 per cent of the building that currently houses its headquarters at 200 Front St. W., at Front and Simcoe streets. In his email, Lang said the agency also has three years remaining on a lease in the building.

The exact timing of the move isn’t clear, as the WSIB Act currently requires the agency’s headquarters to be in Toronto.

Kate Graham, the London North Centre Liberal candidate in the June 2 election, expressed skepticism about the Tories’ campaign-style announcement.

“I fully understand why lots of organizations are choosing London — but this sounds like smoke and mirrors to me,” said Graham.

“Jeff Lang, WSIB CEO, has already publicly stated that he is not mandating that anyone move to London and does not intend to do so — so what exactly does this mean for London?“ she said.

“Once again, the Doug Ford Conservatives are making promises to London that just won’t come true. It’s all talk, and London deserves action.”

In January, McNaughton told the Star that he wanted the agency to trim some of its real estate holdings.

“We know that there are huge opportunities to finding efficiencies when it comes to the real estate. I mean, we have a call centre on the most expensive real estate in the country,” said McNaughton, referring to the WSIB’s current headquarters.

Real estate sources say the tower at Front and Simcoe streets could be sold for as much as $600 million if it hits the market.

The building includes 758,000 square feet of office space in a prime downtown location. Roughly 600,000 square feet of that is occupied by WSIB.

A government source said the new WSIB headquarters is expected to be in downtown London.

Moving the headquarters is just the latest significant makeover of the WSIB undertaken by McNaughton and Premier Doug Ford.

In January, the government replaced longtime chair and ex-Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer with former Canada Lands chair Grant Walsh. Lang, who had been a WSIB director, replaced interim CEO Tom Bell.

In late October, the government introduced legislation allowing the WSIB to return part of a $6.1-billion surplus to employers with clean accident records.

The move to give roughly half the surplus back to employers was applauded by business lobby groups, but slammed by workers’ rights advocates and unions.

With files from Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Robert Benzie

Josh Rubin is a Toronto-based business reporter. Follow him on Twitter: @starbeer