Minister AWOL on WSIB affair

" Labour Minister Brad Duguid has gone missing in action since the Sun revealed Workplace Safety and Insurance Board president Jill Hutcheon was paid by both the board and the labour ministry for years, Progressive Conservative MPPs said yesterday. . . 'the McGuinty government has apparently spent more time trying to obscure the salary of the WSIB president than trying to assist injured workers' . . . the WSIB was able to disclose Hutcheon's salary under the province's Sunshine Laws as being much less. Between Hutcheon joining the board and her retirement from the public service in 2006, she was paid $844,000 by the board and $746,000 from Labour. The arrangement "appears to be an attempt to obscure her total compensation," the MPPs wrote."

Labour Minister Brad Duguid has gone missing in action since the Sun revealed Workplace Safety and Insurance Board president Jill Hutcheon was paid by both the board and the labour ministry for years, Progressive Conservative MPPs said yesterday.

"Your total absence from public comment as the minister responsible for both the WSIB and ministry of labour calls into question your commitment to holding both entities accountable to the general public," MPPs Tim Hudak and Bob Bailey wrote in a letter to Duguid.

"As minister of labour in charge of this agency, you have an obligation to clear the air. To date, you have remained silent on the issue. We regret that the McGuinty government has apparently spent more time trying to obscure the salary of the WSIB president than trying to assist injured workers."

The two -- finance and labour critics respectively -- said they had "great concern" after reading in the Sun that Hutcheon's salary was split after she joined the WSIB on secondment from her position as deputy minister of labour in 2003.

For the next four years, Labour continued to pay her as a deputy while the board paid her an additional amount -- later reimbursing the ministry for its share.

The result was that the WSIB was able to disclose Hutcheon's salary under the province's Sunshine Laws as being much less. Between Hutcheon joining the board and her retirement from the public service in 2006, she was paid $844,000 by the board and $746,000 from Labour. The arrangement "appears to be an attempt to obscure her total compensation," the MPPs wrote.