‘This change benefits everyone’
Employer registration with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) will now be much quicker.
Ontario employers can now register with the WSIB in under 10 minutes, down from eight to 10 business days, the board said, easing onboarding pressure on HR teams.
About 90% of employers now register in one online session, according to the WSIB.
What changed for Ontario employers
Most Ontario employers must notify the WSIB within 10 days of hiring their first worker, according to an April 2026 update from Toronto law firm Blaney McMurtry LLP. Under the old system, that deadline could pass before processing finished.
The WSIB said it signs up roughly 30,000 new employers a year and has cut registration time by at least 75%.
Jeff Lang, president and CEO of the WSIB in Toronto, flagged the plan in October 2025. “Cutting the time it takes to register a new business from 10 days to 10 minutes shows just how serious we are about making it surprisingly simple to work with us,” Lang told Canadian Occupational Safety (COS).
Why faster WSIB registration matters to HR leaders
For HR leaders at start-ups and expanding employers, coverage, payroll set-up and premium reporting all depend on an active WSIB account.
“Most employers now register in a single sitting and get an answer immediately,” said Darshi Gurusinghe, chief customer experience officer at the WSIB. “This change benefits everyone.”
Greg Morreale, the WSIB’s vice-president of enterprise technology solutions, said the system prepares the board for artificial intelligence (AI). “We wanted the employer registration process to be simple and intuitive while freeing our teams to focus on the complex cases that require human judgment,” he said.
What it means for workers
The WSIB covers more than five million people in over 300,000 workplaces. It provides wage-loss benefits and return-to-work support.
Faster registration means fewer workers start jobs while their employer’s account is in limbo.
In August 2026, the board confirmed it was cutting hundreds of jobs and closing offices across Ontario, drawing union criticism, according to The Canadian Press (CP).
Costs continue to trend down
Lower costs matter to small employers, which spent 735 hours on regulatory compliance in 2024, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The 2026 average premium of $1.23 per $100 of insurable payroll is the lowest in over 50 years, as HRD Canada reported when the WSIB cut 2026 premium rates for Ontario businesses. Ontario says it will fall to $1.18 for most businesses in 2027, as reported when the WSIB cut its average premium rate for 2027.
“Our members welcomed the Ontario government’s recent announcement about lowering the WSIB’s average premium rate for 2027,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s Ontario director of provincial affairs, in an Oct. 27, 2026 statement.
How WSIB registration numbers have shifted
The WSIB covered 324,591 Schedule 1 employers in 2020, according to its By the Numbers report. Its 2024 annual report put the figure at approximately 330,000 businesses, and its provincial statistics showed about 318,000 as of July 31, 2026.
The 2020 count covers Schedule 1 only, while the 2026 number is a partial year that includes Schedule 2 employers.
The shift away from paper started earlier. Paper output in employer services fell 85% in 2023 from 2022, according to the WSIB’s 2023 annual report.
