Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I was asking questions for the Minister responsible for WSCC, and I would like to follow up on some questions with him here today. Can the Minister responsible for WSCC explain why occupational health and safety is under the board's responsibility and not another department? What is the rationale for this alignment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister responsible for Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All of our departments, as a government, as I mentioned in my response to the Member's questions yesterday, we do have a focus on promoting health and safety as well as providing care and treatment for anybody who is injured that we do work for. We also have a governance council that is made up of members from both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
I just want to inform the Member of a little bit of history. Back in 1993, the safety unit was transferred from GNWT to the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. They have been doing some great work. The staff has been working very well with our counterparts in Nunavut to make sure, as I mentioned, our mandate is to promote health and safety and provide the care and treatment for our employees and the people that we do work with. I think the rationale is that we are sticking with our mandate. All departments do have that best interest of the employee in mind, and we will continue to have WSCC and the governance council work in this area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I agree, and I think that the government does a great job with the occupational health and safety, and so does WSCC. Can the Minister explain if this is the common practice, to have the occupational health and safety division located within this type of organization in other jurisdictions?
I want to thank the Member for his comments and comments towards the government and WSCC and the work and services that they do provide. In reality, Mr. Speaker, there is a mixture right across Canada. Some governments, departments, agencies, some of them are stand-alone with funding through their workers' compensation boards, and then there are some that are similar to structures as we provide here in the Northwest Territories. There is a mixture right across Canada, and I believe what we are doing here in the Northwest Territories, working with Nunavut, is a good model.
Yesterday, I talked about the rates and that that the organizations and the companies have to pay and the government does. Can the Minister advise: are these rates to help pay for occupational health training courses, or is it just to deal with the administration of injured workers?
Currently, WSCC is funded through payroll assessments and investment revenues. Program development, codes of practice, educational resources, and tools are funded from the fund. The only two things that are fully funded from WSCC are first aid and WHMIS I don't want to speak on behalf of all employees, but I think, as an employer, we do provide the adequate care, treatment, services, and programs for all our employees and partners that we work with.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I'd like to thank the Minister for his answers for the first few questions. My last question: can the Minister advise us, have they done an evaluation of WSCC recently, or when is the last time it has been done?
In terms of evaluation, I'm not sure where the Member is specifically wanting to ask about what type of evaluations that we have done. In terms of the Auditor General of Canada, the last time that they did audit the WSCC was back in 2006 at the request of our Legislature, the NWT Legislative Assembly. However it was with the concurrence of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly. That was back in 2006. I can let the Member know that, since then, we have been going through annual audits. This is something that we need to be on top of and evaluate and make sure that the program services and the dollars that we are spending and the dollars and the revenue that we are getting is actually going to the appropriate care and treatment of GNWT employees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
