REGINA — Following a 30-day public consultation, the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) has approved the 2026 average employer premium rate of $1.22 per hundred dollars of assessable payroll, a six-cent decrease from the 2025 rate of $1.28.
“As a board, our responsibility is to balance affordability for employers with the long-term sustainability of the compensation system,” said the WCB’s chair Gord Dobrowolsky. “We use our rate model as our primary tool each year to determine the following year’s rates. When we consider our strong performance in a number of areas including investments, we are able to approve a six-cent decrease in the average premium rate for 2026.”
The WCB has a legislative obligation to be fully funded to cover the costs of current and future claims. Under the WCB’s sufficiency policy, the WCB targets a funded range of between 100 and 140 per cent, and the injury fund remains within this range. The WCB works to uphold a balance between stable rates that ensure fairness, transparency, collective liability, predictability and a fully funded compensation system, according to a WBC press release,
For 2026, 96 per cent of employers will see a decrease or no change to their industry premium rate. Four per cent of Saskatchewan’s employers will experience an increase to their industry premium rate.
Workers’ compensation is a no-fault insurance system based on collective liability, where all employers share responsibility for workplace injury insurance. Employers are grouped together to form an industry group. Premium rates are set for each industry group based on the collective claims experience of employers within each industry group. All employers within an industry group start with the same industry premium rate. The experience rating program allows employers to influence their premium rates either up or down depending on their injury claims performance.
In 2024, for the fifth year in a row, 90 per cent of employers in the province achieved zero injuries and zero fatalities in their workplaces. However, that same year, there were 27 workplace fatalities and as of Aug. 31, 2025, there were 2,587 serious injuries in 2024. These fatalities and serious injuries continue to have a profound impact on spouses, children, families, co-workers and communities, says the WCB Each year, serious injuries account for approximately 11 to 15 per cent of total claims and more than 80 per cent of claim costs in the system.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan, the partnership between the WCB and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, developed a strategy to support employers with the aim of reducing serious injuries and eliminate fatalities in workplaces across the province. The 2023-28 Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy is enhancing efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities through new regulatory, enforcement, prevention and learning initiatives. It is largely focused on the three priority industries with the highest injury rates, which are health care, transportation and construction.
“The strategy is an integral role in helping the WCB work with employers, workers and safety associations to prevent fatalities and serious injuries in workplaces across the province,” said Germain.
“By continuing these collaborative efforts, together we can help reduce the fatalities and serious injuries that deeply affect individuals, families and communities.”
