Definitions
1. (1) In this Act, “accident” includes, (a) a wilful and intentional act, not being the act of the worker, (b) a chance event occasioned by a physical or natural cause, and (c) disablement arising out of and in the course of employment; (“accident”) “accident fund” means the fund continued by this Act for the payment of benefits under Schedule 1, the costs and expenses of the administration of this Act, and such other costs and expenses as are directed by or under this or any other Act to be paid out of the accident fund, including all expenses arising out of the establishment, maintenance and operation of mine rescue stations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act; (“caisse des accidents”) “Appeals Tribunal” means the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal; (“Tribunal d’appel”) “average earnings” means the average earnings of a worker determined by the Board under section 40; (“gains moyens”) “Board” means the Workers’ Compensation Board; (“Commission”) “construction” includes reconstruction, repair, alteration and demolition; (“construction”) “contributions for employment benefits”, in relation to a worker, means amounts paid in whole or in part by an employer on behalf of the worker or the worker’s spouse or dependants for health care, life insurance and pension benefits; (“cotisations pour les avantages rattachés à l’emploi”) “dependants” means such of the members of the family of a worker as were wholly or partly dependent upon the worker’s earnings at the time of his or her death or who but for the incapacity due to the accident would have been so dependent; (“personnes à charge”) “disability”, in relation to an injured worker, means the loss of earning capacity of the worker that results from an injury; (“invalidité”) “earnings” and “wages” include any remuneration capable of being estimated in terms of money but does not include contributions made under section 7 for employment benefits; (“gains”, “salaire”) “employer” includes every person having in the person’s service under a contract of hiring or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or implied, any person engaged in any work in or about an industry and includes, (a) the Crown in right of Ontario and any permanent board or commission appointed by the Crown in right of Ontario, (b) a trustee, receiver, liquidator, executor or administrator who carries on an industry, (c) a person who authorizes or permits a learner to be in or about an industry for the purpose mentioned in the definition of “learner”; (“employeur”) “employment” includes employment in an industry or any part, branch or department of an industry; (“emploi”) “impairment”, in relation to an injured worker, means any physical or functional abnormality or loss including disfigurement which results from an injury and any psychological damage arising from the abnormality or loss; (“déficience”) “independent operator” means a person who carries on an industry set out in Schedule 1 and who does not employ any workers for that purpose; (“exploitant indépendant”) “industry” includes an establishment, undertaking, trade, business or service and, where domestics are employed, includes a household; (“industrie”) “invalid” means physically or mentally incapable of earning; (“invalide”) “learner” means a person who, although not under a contract of service or apprenticeship, becomes subject to the hazards of an industry within the scope of Part I for the purpose of undergoing training or probationary work specified or stipulated by the employer as a preliminary to employment; (“stagiaire”) “manufacturing” includes making, preparing, altering, repairing, ornamenting, printing, finishing, packing, packaging, inspecting, testing, assembling the parts of and adapting for use or sale any article or commodity or raw material; (“fabrication”) “medical referee” means a medical referee appointed by the Board; (“médecin expert”) “member of the family” means a spouse, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, stepson, stepdaughter, brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister, and includes a person who stood in the role of parent to the worker or to whom the worker stood in the role of parent, whether related to the worker by consanguinity or not so related; (“membre de la famille”) “member of a municipal volunteer fire brigade” means a person whose membership has been approved either by the chief of the fire department of a corporation, commission or board mentioned in subsection (3) or by a duly authorized official thereof; (“membre d’un corps municipal de pompiers auxiliaires”) “occupational disease” includes, (a) a disease resulting from exposure to a substance relating to a particular process, a trade or occupation in an industry, (b) a disease peculiar to or characteristic of a particular industrial process, trade or occupation, (c) a medical condition that in the opinion of the Board requires a worker to be removed either temporarily or permanently from exposure to a substance because the condition may be a precursor to an occupational disease, or (d) any of the diseases mentioned in Schedule 3 or 4; (“maladie professionnelle”) “outworker” means a person to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished, repaired or adapted for sale in the person’s own home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the articles or materials; (“travailleur indépendant”) “permanent impairment”, in relation to an injured worker, means impairment that continues to exist after maximum medical rehabilitation of the worker has been achieved; (“déficience permanente”) “regulations” means the regulations made under this Act; (“règlements”) “silicosis” means a fibrotic condition of the lungs sufficient to produce a lessened capacity for work, caused by the inhalation of silica dust; (“silicose”) “spouse” means either of a man and woman who, at the time of death of the one who was the worker, were cohabiting and, (a) were married to each other, or (b) were not married to each other and, (i) had cohabited for at least one year, (ii) were together the parents of a child, or (iii) had together entered into a cohabitation agreement under section 53 of the Family Law Act; (“conjoint”) “student” means a person who is pursuing formal education as a full-time or part-time student and is employed by an employer for the purposes of the employer’s industry, although not as a learner or an apprentice; (“étudiant”) “superannuation fund” means The Workers’ Compensation Board Superannuation Fund; (“caisse de retraite”) “worker” includes a person who has entered into or is employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship, written or oral, express or implied, whether by way of manual labour or otherwise, and includes, (a) a learner or student, (b) a member of a municipal volunteer fire brigade or a municipal volunteer ambulance brigade, (c) a person deemed to be a worker of an employer by a direction or order of the Board, (d) a person summoned to assist in controlling or extinguishing a fire by an authority empowered to do so, (e) a person who assists in any search and rescue operation at the request of and under the direction of a member of the Ontario Provincial Police Force, (f) a person who assists in connection with an emergency that has been declared to exist by the head of council of a municipality or the Premier of Ontario, (g) an auxiliary member of a police force, but does not include an outworker, an executive officer of a corporation, or a person whose employment is of a casual nature and who is employed otherwise than for the purposes of the employer’s industry. (“travailleur”) R.S.O. 1990, c. W.11, s. 1 (1); 1994, c. 24, s. 2. Deemed employer (2) For the purpose of this Act, (a) an authority who summons a person to assist in controlling or extinguishing a fire as mentioned in clause (d) of the definition of “worker”, shall be deemed to be the employer of the person; (b) the Crown in right of Ontario shall be deemed to be the employer of a person who assists in any search and rescue operation as mentioned in clause (e) of the definition of “worker”; and (c) where the head of council of a municipality or the Premier of Ontario declares an emergency to exist as mentioned in clause (f) of the definition of “worker”, the municipality or the Crown in right of Ontario, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be the employer of the person, and the earnings of the person shall be the earnings in the person’s regular employment calculated in accordance with this Act or, if the person has no earnings, the earnings shall be fixed by the Board. Municipal corporations, etc., and school boards (3) The exercise and performance of the powers and duties of, (a) a municipal corporation; (b) a public utilities commission or any other commission or any board having the management and conduct of any work or service owned by or operated for a municipal corporation except a hospital board; (c) a public library board; (d) the board of trustees of a police village; and (e) a school board, shall for the purposes of Part I be deemed the trade or business of the corporation, commission, board, board of trustees or school board. Volunteer fire or ambulance brigade (4) For the purposes of this Act, a municipal corporation, commission or board mentioned in subsection (3) shall be deemed to be the employer of a member of a municipal volunteer fire brigade or a municipal volunteer ambulance brigade and such employment shall be deemed to be included in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of the corporation, commission or board and it shall yearly, on or before such date as the Board may prescribe or at such other times as the Board may prescribe, notify the Board, specifying the number of volunteers engaged and shall select such amount of coverage for such volunteers, which in no case shall be less than a rate which will provide the minimum amount of compensation determined by the Board or more than the maximum rate of annual earnings established by section 38. R.S.O. 1990, c. W.11, s. 1 (2-4).