What is the impact of the "historic trade-off" emphasized by defendants’ counsel?

I do not think I need to enter into an extensive discussion of the “historic trade-off” emphasized by defendants’ counsel. That trade-off, whereby workers lost their cause of action against their employers but gained compensation that depends neither on the fault of the employer nor its ability to pay, was extensively reviewed in Pasiechnyk v. Saskatchewan (Workers’ Compensation Board), 1997 CanLII 316 (SCC), [1997] 2 S.C.R. 890. Nothing I would say on the topic would add to the review conducted in that case.