Ontario has appointed I. David Marshall of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) as an advisor to finance minister Charles Sousa for the dual task of reducing auto insurance costs and shaping the controversial Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).

According to a government release, "Marshall will apply the expertise he developed at WSIB in active claims management practices to identify additional opportunities for auto insurance reform. The goal of these reforms is to lead to better health outcomes, lower costs and more affordable insurance premiums."

Marshall has been president and CEO of the WSIB for six years. His term there was due to expire in January, 2017. Marshall will start in the new advisory role Feb. 1, 2016.

The second part of his assignment will be to "bring his expertise in administering the federal government's employee pension plan," the release stated, as Ontario embarks on retirement pension reform.

The plan has been a friction point between the Wynne provincial government and Ottawa since it was announced in the spring of 2015.

The ORPP was scheduled to be implemented in 2017 but parts of it have been pushed to 2019.