Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Ivan Valic is a 51-year-old man. His life has been shattered by a 19-year-long odyssey involving claims for chronic pain for the Workers’ Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Mr. Valic was a robust young construction worker in 1987 when he suffered the first of four work-related injuries over a 10-year period. Now, Mr. Speaker, he lives a solitary life in a basement apartment of Calgary. He has lost everything. He is an angry and frustrated man who has endured almost two decades of systemic manipulation, perpetual bureaucratic process and clear discrimination of Charter rights.

Mr. Speaker, a handful of powerful painkillers he eats every day at his own expense. It is the only way to keep at bay the debilitating pain in his back. Mr. Valic is an exception to the normal fate of injured workers rejected by our WCB. Over the years, he is persistent in pressing his case before the WCB board and its endless cycle of governance councils, appeals tribunals and review committees. He has persisted to the very top of the system, the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories and here he may finally be getting some justice.

In an exhaustive 21-page ruling by the Honourable Justice Virginia Schuler rendered on December 14th of last year, Mr. Valic, represented by Yellowknife lawyer Jim Posynick, was indeed found to have been discriminated against under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is because the board’s policy regarding chronic pain syndrome fails to treat those injured workers on an equal standing with other injured workers, Mr. Speaker.

Justice Schuler also found that in the board’s decisions and the tribunal’s decisions, Mr. Valic was denied natural justice. She found that the board’s behind the scenes procedures violated Mr. Valic’s right to a fair hearing. As a result of this reasoning, Justice Schuler quashed their rulings. She also ordered that a new appeals tribunal be re-established to hear Mr. Valic’s case, and the matter shall be given timely attention.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Braden is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Braden, you can conclude your statement.

Bill Braden

Great Slave

Thank you, colleagues, Mr. Speaker. To the matter of the board’s failed policy on chronic pain, Justice Schuler has left this to be resolved by either the board or by a legislative action of this Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, this decision is a significant indictment of the failure of our WCB to manage in a fair and compassionate way, let alone a legal and proper way, the very reason it exists. I will conclude my statement with one more reflection on Mr. Valic’s situation. The sad part of this story is, as of today, Mr. Speaker, that he is really no further ahead today in his life than when he was injured 19 years ago. He is still an angry and frustrated man seeking justice, fairness, dignity and comfort. Is this too much to ask? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause