Long-term disability costs in Sudbury increase by 188% since 2019, audit shows

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Tom Davies Square is seen in this file photo. An audit of attendance in departments across Greater Sudbury shows that the cost of long-term disability claims have spiked by 188 per cent since 2019, while the cost of short-term disability is up by 69 per cent in the same period.
An audit of attendance in departments across Greater Sudbury shows that the cost of long-term disability claims spiked by 188 per cent since 2019, while the cost of short-term disability is up by 69 per cent in the same period.
The city's audit committee asked for the review in December 2023 to give city councillors a better idea of the state of absenteeism. The audit looked at 31 departments at the city with 1,756 employees.
'From 2019 to 2024, STD claim volumes increased by 34 per cent and their duration also increased marginally,' Auditor General Ron Foster wrote in his report.
Pioneer Manor Wings
Greater Sudbury owns and operates a long-term care home, and LTC homes tend to have higher absentee rates.
'Since 2019, the volume of LTD claims increased by 28 per cent.'
Long-term disability claim costs have risen from $3.2 million in 2019 to $9.2 million in 2024. Of those claims, 45 to 60 per cent each year were related to mental health disorders.
Disability claims are paid for by Canada Life Insurance, the audit said.
Foster's audit, which is headed to the audit committee June 17, focused on departments with the highest average absentee rates.
Sudbury paramedics
Unlike many single-tier municipalities, Sudbury offers paramedic services that are often the responsibility of regional governments.
That included long-term care and transit services, fire and paramedic services, environmental and linear services, asset and fleet, and security and bylaw services.
The highest rate was in the community development department, which includes long-term care and transit staff among its 639 employees. The absence rate between 2019 and 2023 was 10.1 per cent, averaging 22 days per employee.
Second was the community safety department (including paramedics and firefighters), where the 295 workers had an average absentee rate of 6.9 per cent, or 16 days per worker.
One of the issues, the audit said, is that the city doesn't have a corporate-wide policy to manage absenteeism. As a result, different departments manage the problem in different ways, with mixed results.
'This audit recommends developing and implementing an integrated attendance management program to manage attendance across the city,' Foster wrote.
GOVA transit
GOVA transit is changing its scheduling policies to address high overtime and absentee rates.
'It also recommends a number of revisions to improve the effectiveness of the city's disability management program.'
Provides more services than most
While absentee rates are generally higher than other cities in Canada, as a single-tier municipality, Greater Sudbury offers services others don't, such as long-term care and paramedicine.
Those services tend to have higher absenteeism, somewhat skewing the overall results.
Foster said his audit found a connection between high overtime rates and high absenteeism rates, which suggests staffing levels and scheduling policies could be a factor.
Another factor was that, unlike other municipalities, Sudbury offered staff six extra paid sick days in 2022 and an extra three in 2023 'to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees,' the report said.
Progress has already been made in some areas, Foster said. For example, he said Pioneer Manor now has a dedicated staffer who monitors attendance and has developed new procedures to manage absenteeism.
Environmental services changed its staffing model and 'has addressed overtime effectively.'
Foster recommends studying how cities with lower rates approach the issue and adopting best practices.
Read the full report here.