Brendan Bell

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. 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. First I would say that I'm interested myself in more detail as to what the public meetings will comprise at the end of April, and I'll get that information and commit to provide that to all Members. I think it's important that we understand exactly what the process is. The Member is certainly aware that there was an application made by the city for an environmental assessment. It was made to the Impact Review Board, not the Water Board. That decision just came down in January from the Impact Review Board, and they indicated there was no mechanism for a full...

Thank you. Clearly, my intentions wouldn’t be honourable if I was going to sit here and tell you that the shoulder season was mid-winter, but that’s not what I’m going to do. I’m going to go back to the department, ask them to develop some regulations that would incorporate the shoulder season in the spring and fall when people are still camping at the park. But we’ve got to recognize that in the middle of summer, until we have the capacity to handle all the RV traffic that we see locally, there’s going to have to be some compromise. I think the constituents that I spoke to in the last...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I was doing pretty good by committing to come back to committee. I thought that in itself would reassure the Member, especially after the nice things she said about me in her Member’s statement today.

---Laughter

However, I can see that’s not going to get it done. We will have that discussion, I hope. I hope committee is prepared to sit down and come up with something that does make sense. I think the problem really is that during the week there are all kinds of vacancies at Fred Henne, typically. By the weekend it’s very full. It’s over full. The problem is...