Debates of March 10, 2005 (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re expecting the new sports council to have all the fiscal responsibilities by April 2006.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I previously spoke about the concerns for the health of my constituents and the adverse effects that dust in our communities has on the elders and other people. Can the Minister of MACA confirm that the chipsealing program in the Sahtu will continue and that it’s on track and on time? I’m concerned, Mr. Speaker, because I heard that MACA may discontinue this program after they have chipsealed Fort Good Hope. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Return To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe our chipseal program is on schedule and on time and we have no intention to, at this point, discontinue the program. It’s a real need in all our small communities and some of our larger ones, also. But at this point, while we’re doing the chipseal and following our schedules, we are also looking at alternative methods to deal with some of the dust problems. The chipseal program, although it serves its purpose, it’s only geared towards chipsealing one stretch of road in a community which usually is the main street. We still have the dust problems in other areas of the community. So we, as a department, have hired a consultant. We are looking at what are the options out there in terms of controlling the dust. We’re expecting a report and we’d like to see if there are ways that we can do this more cost-effectively. If we can do that, then we will start looking at ways we can do more streets and more roads and then we’d consider moving away from the program. At this point we’re not entertaining that unless something better comes along. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m concerned that the roads in my communities are not chipsealed soon. I have a schedule here in front of me. The roadbeds may become damaged. Traffic and trucks are increasing in the small communities and the roads are taking more punishment than they’re built for. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs if it doesn’t make more sense to chipseal now or use that alternative solution on our roads than to avoid more expensive repairs later on in the year. Can the Minister of MACA please tell me if the department has considered this option? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what alternative option he’s looking at. That is why we’ve hired a consultant to look at what is out there in terms of dust control. We know there’s calcium, but some communities are quite concerned about how harmful it would be to the environment. There are other things such as what we’re using on some of our airports. It’s called EK-35. We’ve used it as dust suppressant on our airports. Most of the communities are quite happy with it. However, it’s quite costly and we’re not sure how corrosive it is, so we would need somebody to do an analysis of it and get back to us and also look at other options that we may have not seen or thought of at this point. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with this study. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Supplementary To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of MACA to tell me whether or not any of the new money like the municipal rural infrastructure fund or the gas tax money from the federal government can be used to speed up the process by which communities in the Sahtu are getting their roads chipsealed. Or if this money cannot be used directly for chipsealing, maybe it will free up some other money that can be used to advance the chipsealing schedule for the Sahtu. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Mr. Speaker, the monies that come for some of the programs that are being unveiled by the federal government, such as the MRIF and the gas tax, come with certain conditions and criteria. Although we’re quite familiar and quite certain with what the conditions and criteria the MRIF money will be tied to, the gas tax is not something we have an agreement on and we have only started negotiations last week. We can safely say that some of the money can be spent in the area of roads and bridges, however, most of the dollars will be earmarked towards sustainable infrastructure. I don’t have a definition of what that could mean and could include at this point.

It’s difficult to answer the questions regarding whether this can be spent on chipseal. My guess would be that it couldn’t be, but it probably could help us in stabilizing the base of the road or providing some of the upkeep and doing some of the drainage work that is needed. That has yet to be determined. We should have some answers, as I indicated to some of the other Members, by the end of March or early April. We should also have our study in place that gives us some options of how we can deal with dust in the communities. We have done a number of roads in communities and in some cases it really has not made a whole lot of difference when we pave one street and all the other streets are still not being treated with any type of dust suppressant. I should point out to the Member though, in our community government funding we do provide some monies to the communities to put calcium or some type of dust control on the roads. That money is already there. The chipsealing program is over and above that and it was planned to be a top-up and most communities are now looking at it as the only method of doing some dust control. That shouldn’t be the case. There are still dollars in their funding to buy their own calcium or do their own dust control treatment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for oral questions has expired; however, I’ll allow the Member his final short supplementary.

Supplementary To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the winter road does come into the community of Tulita and I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation if he’s considering paving the ice winter road. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Further Return To Question 593-15(3): Chipseal Program In The Sahtu Region

Mr. Speaker, the Member would have to demonstrate to me that it’s something that would be sustainable. So I would have to see those types of studies first.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a petition from the community of Deninu Kue with respect to the operation of the health services in Deninu Kue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled The Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 7-15(3), Report on the Review of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Annual Report, 2002-2003. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As required by section 32.1(2) of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document entitled List of Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1st, 2004, to February 8th, 2005.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund 2003-2004 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, March 14, 2005, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that the following appointments be rescinded:

Mr. Robert Hawkins, Member for Yellowknife Centre, to the Standing Committee on Social Programs;

Mr. Robert Villeneuve, Member for Tu Nedhe, to the Board of Management as an alternate; and,

Mr. Norman Yakeleya, Member for Sahtu, to the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development as an alternate.

And further that the following appointments be affected:

Mr. Robert Hawkins, Member for Yellowknife Centre, to the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development;

Mr. Robert McLeod, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight, to the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and to the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development as an alternate; and,

Mr. Norman Yakeleya, Member for Sahtu to the Board of Management as an alternate.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time today I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today and to waive Rule 58 to allow this motion to proceed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, March 14, 2005, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for North Slave, that the Premier immediately communicate to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development the GNWT's and this Legislative Assembly’s objection to the appointment of a non-resident of the NWT, who is not nominated by the board members, as a chair of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will seek unanimous consent to deal with this motion today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the Ministers responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut appointed a Workers' Compensation Board Legislative Review Panel in 2001 to consult with stakeholders and make recommendations to the Ministers for changes to the acts;

AND WHEREAS the panel, upon completion of its work, prepared a report in December 2001 entitled "Act Now" which expressed concern that the workers' compensation system has become adversarial and recommended, based on input from both workers and employers, that an independent review of WCB operations be conducted immediately;

AND WHEREAS no independent public operational review has been undertaken or initiated regarding the board nor has the Minister, in responding to questions posed in the Legislative Assembly, indicated any intentions of undertaking such a review;

AND WHEREAS trends in statistics indicate an increasing number of rejected claims by the WCB;

AND WHEREAS elected Members of this and prior assemblies have been made aware of serious concerns regarding the workers' compensation system of the board, including:

excessive delays, some of which have exceed 10 years, in the review and resolution of claims by injured workers;

the makeup, procedures, expertise and performance of the board's Appeals Tribunal;

Appeals Tribunal decisions that are not quickly and efficiently implemented;

the perceived corporate culture of denial of claims and protection of the workers' compensation claims fund at the expense of injured workers;

the absence of financial and operational accountability of the workers' compensation organization both to the Legislative Assembly and the public-at-large; and,

the degree to which appropriate human and operational resources are dedicated to the workers' compensation mandate of the NWT Workers' Compensation Board.

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that the Legislative Assembly request that the Auditor General of Canada undertake a comprehensive performance audit of the workers' compensation function of the Northwest Territories/Nunavut Workers' Compensation Board and report thereon to the Legislative Assembly;

AND FURTHER that the performance audit examine the organization, training and orientation of personnel, practices, attitudes, philosophy, internal performance measures, procedures and resources association with administering claims made by injured workers to ascertain whether these confirm with, and claims are managed in accordance with, the spirit and intent of the act;

AND FURTHERMORE that the audit examine the adequacy and appropriateness of the board's corporate governance model and accountability relationship to the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Legislative Assembly;

AND FURTHERMORE that the Auditor General examine such additional factors as she, in her opinion, feels are relevant;

AND FURTHERMORE that all employees, officials, board and tribunal members actively cooperative with the Auditor General in providing all appropriate documents, records, papers and information;

AND FURTHERMORE that the Auditor General is requested to complete this special performance audit as soon as practicable and provide a report to the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The initiative that I have proposed, and my colleague from Nunakput is seconding, is not a small or a lightly undertaken initiative. The function of the WCB is one that is essential to the success and the stability of our workers and our workforce in virtually every endeavour here in the NWT, in our communities, in our governments, in our small businesses and big businesses too. Mr. Speaker, over my time here as a Member of this Legislative Assembly, I have had frequent traffic with a number of workers who have come to me with what really is a common story of in some cases denial, in some cases interference, in some cases of avoidance of their situation when it comes to managing our obligation and our promise to them through the WCB and promises made by employers to handle their case in a compassionate and a fair way.

Mr. Speaker, a very common assumption that comes up through these situations and the correspondence that I’ve seen over the last five years through Ministers’ offices from the WCB is that when difficult cases come along or those that may have aspects of interpretation or implementation that aren’t quite cut and dried or aren’t all that straightforward, that there’s been a very marked and demonstrated tendency, I believe, for the people in positions of authority and responsibility that if there’s going to be an error, it’s made in favour of the Workers’ Compensation Board and especially of the fund.

Mr. Speaker, it is I think one of the great agreements of our modern world, our modern workforce, that the idea of a no-fault insurance process was created called the Workers’ Compensation Board here. There are many like it, certainly all over North America. But for it to have the confidence of both the employers, who are major stakeholders, and, of course, employees, it has to be implemented. It has to be seen to be working with a mandate and indeed this is expressed over and over and over again, Mr. Speaker, where there’s benefit of the doubt it goes to the worker. In my experience, our WCB does not give this benefit of doubt.

In asking the Auditor General to come into this and make this enquiry on our behalf, I recognize that the Auditor General does perform a regular auditing function for all of our government departments and our Crown agencies, but there is something that we cannot rely on, Mr. Speaker, on a regular basis. That is a performance review of just are they doing what they are expected to do in the spirit and the intent by which the legislation was created. This is such an investigation.

I’m very, very pleased with the support that I’ve gotten from my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, in bringing this forward. I’m looking forward to a very clear report from the WCB that will help us to set a new course, perhaps in legislation or in regulation, on how we can better manage situations on behalf of injured workers. I know from talking to the people, Mr. Speaker, the damage that it does not only to their lives; their working careers sometimes are ended very badly and eroded because of an injury. The impact that this has on the families of these injured workers, Mr. Speaker, as they strive to try to get some degree of stability or normalcy back into their lives after a serious injury. The events they find themselves in of never ending loops, Mr. Speaker, of appeals, of having to explain their situations to different case workers. A lot of these systemic kinds of things, Mr. Speaker, that I know we can do a better job of and that is why I’m very pleased to be presenting this motion and looking forward to its acceptance and the report of the Auditor General in due course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to say that I’m going to support the motion that’s before us today. I appreciate the work that the Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden, has put into this piece of work. It’s a huge undertaking that this motion sets in motion. I know Mr. Braden has been a Member of this Legislative Assembly for quite a bit longer than I have and he’s had an opportunity to work with injured workers more than I have; but in my year-and-a-bit that I have been a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I have dealt with a couple of constituents that were injured workers. It’s not a normal practice when you are dealing with an injured worker. A normal constituent comes in and you can talk to one of the Cabinet Ministers and try to identify areas where you might be able to actually lend them a hand or help them along their path. With WCB claimants it’s almost impossible as a Regular Member to help these individuals out. I know on the two occasions that I’ve had to try, you make some phone calls, you talk to the worker’s advisor and that’s about it. The Minister doesn’t want to talk to you and nobody really wants to talk to you. Somewhere the injured worker is still left to suffer along and try to find a resolution to the difficulties that they are encountering.

One of the other things I wanted to mention is that as a former business owner, employers are always concerned about the cost of doing business, especially here in the Northwest Territories where everything else is very expensive. In some cases, I think employers have been hit with substantial increases to their rates over the past two or three years specifically. In some cases, probably 50 or 60 percent increases and for smaller businesses, Mr. Speaker, that causes them, obviously, some pain. This is going to certainly be felt by the Workers’ Compensation Board. It’s a big undertaking to have the Auditor General come in, but I look at it as being a healthy exercise. Maybe we can learn from it. I see it being a positive exercise, Mr. Speaker, and I’m glad that Mr. Braden has put the work into this and I’m happy to support that today. I think it is a worthwhile exercise and I’d hate to think that there are injured workers out there that we’re not helping and we have to do what we can to help them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am also happy to be supporting this motion and to have the opportunity to discuss this very important area today. Mr. Speaker, I’d also like to thank the Member for Great Slave who has worked very hard, and the staff who have helped him put this together. I have had many occasions to speak to him about our mutual concerns about some of the WCB files, as we would like to call them, that we have been working on for many, many years.

Mr. Speaker, I support this motion, knowing that this is a motion that is very comprehensive. It is giving a very wide responsibility and power to the Auditor General’s office. We are asking her office to do quite a thorough review about various aspects of the operations of the WCB and, as Mr. Braden stated, this was a part of the work that was planned to be done during the last Assembly that we did not pursue that there. This is an opportunity for us to revisit that.

The reason why I support this is because I do respect the fact that the Workers’ Compensation Board is an independent body, but it is a public body and all public bodies that use public money and where the body asks the public such as the employers to pay assessments and make decisions about how that money is spent, I believe that body has to be accountable to somebody. I respect that if the elected leaders are not the ones that can do it in a direct way, if we cannot ask the board directly about the decisions that they are making, I think that a body like the federal Auditor General’s office should be the one that should be able to ask the questions that people want to know. I think this is an opportunity for that to happen.

I’ll be very interested in seeing what the results might be. I’m hoping that the results of this review will teach us and guide us as to where we go from here. Certainly, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that in the last Assembly I had many WCB files and at the beginning I was an enthusiastic champion for all those people that look to the MLAs to help them. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, I’ve had grown men cry in my office about what they are going through and I’ve had grown women, women of ages twice as old as me, telling me about what they are going through. I’m old enough to know and I know enough to know that I’ve listened to these cases very carefully, I make judgments on that and I have fought for many of them. I have convened a meeting of the injured worker, the family, the doctors, the nurses, the WCB doctors, WCB president, and I would have a case meeting on that and I feel that this is great, I’m making something happen, we get an agreement and benefits get reinstated, and a month later it’s gone. The poor worker has to go through the whole process all over again.

Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to do this, but we can’t be doing this full time for all of the injured workers that cannot speak for themselves. I think that if an assessment is done, we should have an understanding and a reasonable expectation that the benefits they are receiving will last more than the time it takes for you to turn around. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that most cases that go to WCB get approved. Almost 90 percent of the cases get approved. It is about 10 percent of cases that do not get approved that seem to have to go through a chronic situation where no one else can help, and I’m telling you I’m not an expert, but these are very, very compelling cases.

Let me tell you about some of the cases we are talking about. I can tell you there are three men on my street, on one street of my riding, the first case is a man who is about 39 years old. He has worked all his adult working life in a mine. He is younger than me; I know him and I went to school with him. He has worked all his working life in a mine. He cannot work anymore. His knees don’t work anymore and a lot of it has to do with that heavy duty work that he did, and his employer covered for these benefits and he paid into the funds. After years of going through WCB, he has told me that he can only be covered for one percent of his disabilities. He is 39 years old and he is not asking to be compensated or get a paycheque from WCB for the rest of his life. He is only asking to be retrained, so that he can get into a new line of work where he is not hindered by his disability, so he can provide for his family. He has lost his case and he has to hire a lawyer to go through the appeal.

Let me tell you about another guy who lives just 15 houses down the road. This guy is about 35 years old and this guy has worked all his working life too and has injured his back and cannot work anymore. He is asking for retraining, but because of his condition…You are okay if you break an arm or leg or something is very obvious, but if it is a chronic pain situation, you are not going to be compensated. This guy, at 35, is not asking for compensation for the rest of his life, he is just asking to be retrained.

I have another guy who lives on the other side of the street; same thing. He has been an electrician all his life; he has all sorts of injuries. He has lost his cases, he also has to retain a lawyer to do this.

Mr. Speaker, all these people feel that WCB is just not there for them. They might win some cases, they appeal them, they win some for a little bit and then they are put right back into the list of having to explain their situations all over again. They feel that eventually they are just to wear out of this process and many of them move down south because they cannot afford to live here if they cannot make a living.

I tell you that there are many people and many injured workers who have chosen to move because, for some reason lately, somebody got the understanding that we are going to be dealing with this motion. I have been getting calls from south of 60. I got a call from somebody in Manitoba who said I hear you are doing this motion and let me tell you my story. This guy is exactly the same case. He is 43 years old and injured and can’t get training, Mr. Speaker.

I can tell you that Chronic Pain Syndrome, chronic pain cases, are a big problem. In spite of the fact that the Supreme Court just ruled that chronic pain should be covered and I believe that WCB has made some adjustments, but still are not willing to go all the way. I think that they should be, to equalize their treatment.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to speak to the other side of this issue, which has to do with the employer’s aspect. When I was fighting for employees, I was always made to understand that WCB had a boss, well they had the board to listen to, but their client that they had to answer to were the employers who paid the assessment rates. I can tell you, yesterday I got calls from at least four or five ratepayers of WCB who just got hit with another 26 percent increase in their assessment, and that is on top of another 20 something percent increase last year. In over two years their assessment rate has gone up 54 percent.

I was always told by previous WCB administration, but look, we have to manage our money well, we have to answer to the assessors and we have to answer to them about how we do our job. Well, talking to these people who are paying the assessment, they are telling that they have no say really on how all this is being done. Last year they appealed the assessment; nothing changed. They were hoping that everything would at least stay the same and not go up; this year they are hit with another 27 percent.

We allow WCB to be a monopoly. There is no other WCB you can go to if your service is not good. That is why this has to regulated. This is why we, as a public body, have to make sure that there is some accountability there. The employees are asking what are we doing with our money. Who is causing all these increases? How can we have a say on how this money is spent?

I can tell you that a preliminary study that I have done at my office shows that overall, at least between 1994 and 2002, the number of claims have gone down, the number of rejected claims have gone up a little and their investments in some parts were not doing that well, but we don’t know what happened because nobody really gets to see that, their administration has gone up all along.

These are the questions that I cannot ask. We have tried -- and Mr. Braden will be the first one to agree with me -- in the last Assembly we have had WCB people come up and answer questions, but I am convinced that having seen what I have, that this will be a fruitful and productive exercise for us to ask the Auditor General’s office to look at how we are managing our WCB operations.

For all I know, everything might be fine; that’s great, but maybe we could get some guidance and directions as to how they are doing and what we can do better as legislators and what we can do better to meet the needs of workers who are feeling left behind, and also address the employers who are wondering where their assessments are going and how and what determines what their rights are.

Mr. Speaker, I have been able to lay out some of the concerns that I have seen over the years and for all the reasons that I have stated. Hence, I will be supporting this motion and I would like to again thank the Member of Great Slave for doing this and I would urge the rest of the House to support this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise briefly to speak on this motion and I would like to thank the Member for raising this issue and commend his diligence on initiating a review of the WCB department and management regime.

Mr. Speaker, I am supportive of this motion due to the fact that I have received numerous enquiries and concerns about the WCB over the past year just with respect to the unfair treatment of some of the WCB clients and the total lack of proper accountability and mechanisms in the department.

I could mention many cases and circumstances that people are dealing with, as my friend from Range Lake has mentioned, but I think that we all get the picture of where she is coming from and what other Members that support the motion are alluding to.

I just want to talk about the attitude of the management regime of the WCB. To me it seems to be one of apathy and disregard for accountability and transparency. These values, Mr. Speaker, are what this government has entrenched in its vision of a shared responsibility and I think that should be carried right across the board in every government department, arm's length departments and everybody else.

I look forward to a comprehensive review of the WCB's activities, just to ensure that our northern workers can expect and will expect to receive fair and respectful treatment that they so duly deserve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. To the motion. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise, too, in support of this motion. Just a few thoughts with respect to WCB claimants in my riding where there are lots of small communities, Mr. Speaker, and in fact I have six. The inquiries that I did get are that in our smaller communities like Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake, there is a quiet acquiescence to when they are dealing with WCB.

They are sitting in their small communities and getting notices in the mail that they are cut off and they can’t really do too much. I pride some of the examples that my colleagues have brought out. In the larger centres they are able to go see their MLAs, go see doctors for second opinions, have meetings, but in the smaller communities they just cannot do that, Mr. Speaker.

I, too, believe that WCB should benefit all, despite our locations. That is something that really has to be looked at and here is an opportunity to do that. That is why I am for this motion. Just looking at some of the documentation that is already before me, we have the total number of claims climbing over the past three or four years, but the total of accepted claims remains the same. It almost seems that there is a hidden policy to keep the amount of claims the same every year, no matter what happens to the workers. There are fathers and mothers and children that come from our injured workers. We have an unwritten contract to take of care them through the WCB.

Just looking at their revenue statements, I have noticed, as well, the rates for the small businesses and businesses are increasing. If you look at the revenue statements, you have investment revenue taking a sharp decline because they have poor managers for their investment monies, they have to take it off the backs of the businesses as well. What is really going on here?

Shame! Shame!

I am really happy that we can have a really good look at this and have the Auditor General have a really good look at how we are running our Workers’ Compensation Board, Mr. Speaker.

Above all, this just goes back to that one person; in this case a person from Trout Lake. He cannot earn income and he is cut off and yet, despite his pleas, he has to somehow make income and he has nowhere to turn and he can’t make any income, Mr. Speaker.

I am very supportive of this motion and I would like to see a total in-depth review and that is what this motion calls for, and I am very much in support it. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t really have a lot to say because all of my colleagues have said quite a bit already. Keeping that in mind, I have not had a lot of personal calls from injured workers. I wish to assure everyone that my phone is on the hook.

I will emphasize, Mr. Speaker, I have had phone calls from the employer’s side. The employer’s side is they are very concerned with the way the rates are and how they keep climbing up. One year it is 26 percent, the next year it’s even more, and who knows where it is going to be the next year.

Mr. Speaker, I am in support of this and I will say that, being in significant favour of an audit. I believe the process is what it is and give it a chance and WCB should not be afraid of an audit and I think no department should be afraid of an audit and we should go forward and allow this motion to proceed to do a healthy check. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be in support of this motion. I did experience calls from my constituents pertaining to WCB. It is very difficult, Mr. Speaker, just to try to get information, especially for MLAs to try to get information on a specific client. I had an opportunity -- I even tried to go through the Minister’s office, Mr. Speaker -- to try to get details as to where this client was or how he was being treated.

I just needed general information. I listen to both sides, this is the WCB’s rationale and the client and what he has to say, and then I determine how I should deal with this as an issue. I even had to get written permission from the client just to get information, documents from WCB, and it took ages. Little things like that shouldn’t be happening.

I am glad the Member for Great Slave has put this motion forward, so that the Auditor General, through an operational audit, can come up with recommendations on how to streamline all these little things that clients are encountering. Again, also with employers; they are paying enormous rates, as the Member for Range Lake has indicated. I am looking forward to the Auditor General’s report on this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also will be supporting this motion and think that, Mr. Speaker, this is very healthy for this government to re-evaluate the WCB in terms of the issues that the Auditor General may find, especially for the small communities that are primarily Slavey speaking -- the aboriginal language is the first language in terms of them getting some services -- and see what they can do in terms of strengthening the governance of WCB or the way it manages claims and how it is perceived in the public.

WCB doesn’t have to be seen as a place to fear, but somewhere that they will take care of you. That is what we are here for in this government.