Bloated, bureaucratic, broke—all words that are used to describe Ontario’s workers’ compensation board (WSIB). A number of voices are calling for a private insurance option for employers who are rightly concerned about ever rising premiums and the growing unfunded liability of WSIB. They feel the system is broken and that competition is the only solution.

I agree that WSIB is bureaucratic and in desperate need of reform. One only has to be involved in worker appeals and the unending delays to see that.

But is private insurance the answer? Here are five reasons why private insurance is not the way to go.

What do Canada, the US, and many European countries have in common? Debt, and lots of it.

It’s no secret that governments around the world have been overspending for years, but especially so since the economic crash of 2008. Many are now asking public sector workers to share in the pain of digging out from under huge debt loads by accepting wage freezes.

The Ontario government has asked the public sector to accept a two-year wage freeze, but application of this freeze has been haphazard at best. Some public sector workers have continued to receive pay increases while others have not. And those on the have-not list are some of the lowest-paid workers.

Public sector workers are not the cause of deficit spending. Their only crime is that they have continued to do their jobs—educating our children, taking care of our elderly, and picking up our garbage.