Brendan Bell

Thank you. It is difficult to address this question concisely. It probably does require some background. In order to determine what various industries or subclasses will pay, the WCB analyzes the claims experience for those industries. I think there are 29 subclasses or industries. Now, some of these industries have very few employees. So if there happen to be claims in one year it can quite drastically skew the claims experience for that subclass or industry and if we go with the philosophy that each industry should pay its own way, this can be very difficult for an industry with fewer...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of factors at play here and I think the Members may be aware of a number of them. I have been receiving a number of queries on the 2004 assessment rates in my office, so what I have done is sent a letter to all Members of the Assembly to try to give them some background and some explanation as to why rates are increasing. For 2004, the rates are based on actual 2002 claims experience for that year and the average assessment rate will be $2.39 per $100 of assessable payroll. The board, though, will continue to subsidize by 20 percent those rates....

Thank you. As the Member has indicated, cost will be a factor. I think we’ll need to strike a balance. Obviously if we’re going to make any substantial change, it may cost money initially. I believe it will cost money initially, but this has to be about improving program and service delivery. I think this government has always said that one of our priorities is the protection of the environment, the protection of our wildlife. I think what may inevitably happen is that as a government we’ve been so focused on economic development, the need to train people, the need to make sure that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Workplace safety is obviously paramount and the WCB makes many efforts to ensure that safety training is offered and provided and carried out where employers are concerned, and that we do our utmost to conduct safety inspections at worksites. I think the most important thing here to remember is that we need to keep the incidents of workplace injuries to an absolute minimum, and the WCB is striving to do that. I think it is also important to keep in mind that I would acknowledge that this is a competitive advantage. At one point, I believe we had the lowest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is a very good question and one that I will undertake to get some more detail on. I do believe that the incidence of claims has been higher in the Northwest Territories, but I will confirm that and get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. As the Member indicates, there are a number of stakeholders and many people who will be concerned and will want to know what we’re proposing to do, not the least of which are employees of this government who may be affected. We will certainly keep all of these stakeholders and all of these folks in the loop, but as preliminary at this point we’ve simply asked, I’ve asked the department to go back and have a look at a number of these considerations and discuss a range of options so that we can sit down with the Members of this House, all 19 Members. At that point, after getting some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to assure the Member that no decisions have been made at this point. We’re simply reviewing options internally. I’ve asked the department to have a look at a number of options and come back and discuss them with me on a continuum to help us more effectively deliver services and programs which would isolate both the environmental and wildlife aspects of the department from economic development.

The Member knows that there are many things that are driving this discussion, not the least of which is the immense development going on in the Northwest Territories at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be sure, it is the board's process, we're not adverse to public involvement. In fact, I think we'd be happy to see as much involvement as is possible. I think the kinds of information the citizens need to and should be able to see will be made available at the public meeting. At least that is my hope through the public process in that regard, but I will find out the scope of the public meetings to happen at the end of April. I just now learned that they have been scheduled for April 28th and 29th. I will find out what kind of process will be undertaken at that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I should say that there are ongoing meetings. The working group continues to review the abandonment and restoration plan that was submitted by Miramar Con Mine, submitted on the basis of their existing federal water licence. We are a part of that working group. I think we have two seats at the table. There are folks from our environmental protection service at the table. They're looking at the obvious things that you'd suspect, they're looking at the demolition of service structure, historic tailings, contaminated soils, site monitoring, water...

Thank you. We may like to think that it’s only relevant to Yellowknife, but I know this is an issue in Hay River, as well. It’s something that’s been raised with the department. We have to come up with a solution that works across the territory. We don’t want to see people drive by the park and look at vacancies and be told that they can’t camp. We’ve got to be reasonable. There has to be some way to accommodate tourists and locals in the same regulation. I’m prepared to come up with a regulation that will work.

If the committee is not interested in that discussion, we can do this internally...