Glen Abernethy

I accept the argument or the evidence or the information provided. I mean, it’s easy to correlate that. What was there will likely be there, but now in the new…(inaudible)… But I still worry that there may be an increased demand as more people realize that it’s a territorial process instead of a Supreme Court process.

I guess my caution to the department is even though I do fully support the arguments behind doing this increase, I do fully support this increase and I fully support this bill coming forward, I do caution the department that it may result in an increase in workload and I hope the...

In determining the amount and deciding to bring this bill forward, was there any assessment done as to the amount of reduced cases being brought to the Supreme Court, but in correlation, the increase in the work demand or workload on the Territorial Court as a result of these changes?

We were going through...

---Interjection

Once again, thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m happy to hear that we’re working in that direction.

The other part of that question was more focused on promotion. Earlier in the Minister’s responses to my colleague Mr. Bromley, he indicated that 43 percent of all of our claims are a result of falls, overexertion, climbing, and twisting. Mr. Speaker, all of these are completely avoidable. All of these, through proper training, education, and proper quality assurance and health and wellness training for our staff, every one of these can be avoided. If they’re avoided, we don’t have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Human Resources and are in follow up on some questions my colleague Mr. Bromley was asking earlier.

Mr. Speaker, I’m having some difficulty reconciling the responses I heard with what I see in the response in the way of what we’ve paid in penalties. Mr. Speaker, in 2008, the first year of the Safe Advantage program, the GNWT paid $387,000 in claims. In 2008-2009 it was $440,000 in claims and we had a penalty of $11,000. In 2009-10 we paid $429,000 in claims but we didn’t have a penalty. This year, or rather 2010-11...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the statement made by my colleague Mr. Bromley.

I was disappointed last week when Mr. Bromley shared the GNWT results of the Safe Advantage program with me. For the 2010-2011 year, the GNWT received a penalty of $243,583.37. I understand that this is the largest penalty issued by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission during the 2010-2011 fiscal year. In fact, it may be the largest penalty issued in the life of the Safe Advantage program.

According to the Safe Advantage program guidelines that I found on the WSCC website, prevention...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this is an important piece of legislation. I’m glad to see it finally coming through. I thank the Minister and the department for doing the work to bring it forward, including the research that was identified and quoted from by my colleague Mr. Bromley. Every one of us I think has seen or almost been involved in an incident resulting from somebody who is driving while distracted. The incidents that I’ve witnessed have almost always been when somebody’s texting, which is a significant distraction, in my mind, and/or dialling a phone. I’ve seen a number of them a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like the Minister and I are on the same page. We ultimately want to avoid having any of these incidents occur, and when they do unfortunately occur, we want to be able to help the people transition back into the workforce as quickly as possible.

In developing this plan, and I’m very, very pleased that this plan has been developed and that it will be introduced hopefully soon so that others can see it. I think in order to be effective and develop it appropriately, we need to have a sense within the Government of the Northwest Territories of where the majority of...

I’d like to thank the Minister for that. That certainly provides some clarity. I wasn’t sure, or I didn’t understand that it was the compensation that we’re paying instead of the rehabilitation that might be driving up these costs. I’m hoping the Minister can provide some assurances that we are changing our direction on how we’re going to be dealing with these and we’re going to focus more on promotion, or, sorry, prevention and rehabilitation rather than compensation. It seems to me that we really want to get our employees back to work, or better yet, we would like our employees not to go off...

All the Members in this House have talked about using public money wisely. Having to pay these fines is not wise use of money.

Workplace incidents are completely avoidable. As leaders we must promote behavioural changes within the GNWT that will increase workplace safety and incident prevention, and work with our injured staff to encourage early and safe return to work.

Let’s stop paying these unnecessary and avoidable fines and let’s use our money to provide quality services and programs for our residents, programs that help our residents, Mr. Speaker. Thank you so much.