Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister, will the Premier, will the council, get legal on chronic pain policy, change the policy to meet with the Valic decision? They cannot be illegal any longer, and I apply that to the Minister of Justice, too.

Short supplementary, Mr. Speaker. Could I ask the Minister as to whether there's an opening for this review of policy to apply to all the outstanding files that deal with chronic pain? That whatever the corporation comes up with that it would apply to all the outstanding files dealing with chronic pain? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to tell you, this is really, really good news. I'm really glad to hear the Minister say this. I am very hopeful with the Minister's suggestion that the WCB actually is willing to look at chronic condition as not just a compensable injury, but the whole issue has been about the fact that workers with chronic pain cannot get the permanent disability pension and the Minister is now just suggesting that that is a possibility. So I'd like to ask the Minister for some deadline and what exactly is this process, what is the role that the Members here have? Can we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome everyone in the gallery, but if I may make special mention of Mr. Sam Gargan. I used to work in research when he was a Member and I worked for him when he was Speaker. I remember he used to call me at every telephone stop with a project. I don’t know if any other Members do that, but I would just like to welcome Mr. Gargan to the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

I think I will go with that. I will keep communicating with the Minister to follow that up. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could have the indulgence of the House, I'd like to just raise a point that I'd like the Minister to speak on, because I’m not sure exactly if we have a clause that this specifically applies to and I don't want to end up at the end of the bill and find out that I did not deal with the issue. Maybe the Minister and his advisors could tell me exactly what clause I should bring this out to if it should not be in the general comments. The only issue I have is the fact that while this legislation improves the debt collection process in that right now garnishees have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to provide committee's comments on the bill. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 12, Garnishment Remedies Statutes Amendment Act, on September 5th, 2006, and October 16th, 2006. During the public hearing, the Minister confirmed that the amendment will result in fewer fees as garnishment orders will have effect for up to one year and it will no longer be necessary to obtain an order very two weeks as is currently required in many cases. While a garnishment order might apply to several paycheques, the fee would only...

Billions…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a written question to the Premier.

Please provide a government analysis of the study entitled The Mackenzie Gas Project - A Financial and Economic Assessment, prepared for Alternatives North by Pacific Analytics Inc., dated September 26th, including its implication on the government’s negotiation with the federal government on resource revenue sharing and devolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be cautious in my support of the Minister, because I happen to think that the corporation really doesn't need that much more consultation and dithering on this issue, I'm going to tell you. But I have to tell you that I've had such little good news out of this that I'm prepared to hang onto anything, and what I'm hearing today is that the corporation is willing to look at chronic condition as something that would be eligible for permanent disability. Now, that's an opening that I'm willing to go with. But I'd like to ask the Minister and the corporation...