Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. I want to mention a couple of things to set the background here.
Our Occupational Health and Safety Regulations are over 22 years old and some four years ago, in September of 2010, the WSCC Safety Advisory Committee started to do revisions on these very outdated Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. These regulations govern workers everywhere in the NWT, and after a lot of work, an initial draft was completed and distributed for consultation and there was a huge outcry across the territory, particularly industry and especially the construction industry. So they had further consultations. They did, I think, two or three more drafts and then the Safety Advisory Committee determined that the regulations were complete and they were sent to the Minister for approval. That was in January of 2012, literally years ago.
My first question to the Minister: What is the reason that we are still using 22-year-old regulations when we’ve had a new set of regulations ready for almost three years? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister responsible, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Member is correct about the Safety Advisory Committee did some work in this area and it is almost 22 years that we haven’t made any changes. There have been several attempts to update this particular act, the regulations, but they were unsuccessful over the past nine years.
What’s happening now is that recommendations came forward and there should be more engagement, consultation with the general public, the industries and various organizations representative of industries, businesses, governments and unions. So that did occur and now the recommendations are within my office as well.
We just want to make sure that we cover all areas and listen to various parties. There have been pros and cons of these particular regulations. It’s part of a large document, quite a bit of change that is coming, so we just want to make sure that we cover all grounds. We’d like to sign off during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. He said that there were some attempts that were unsuccessful, but there was a very successful attempt and the Minister received the results of that successful attempt in January of 2012.
Last year, on February 26th, in 2013, in answer to my questions in the House, the Minister advised me that the report was about to be reviewed by the WSCC Board of Governors, and that then the Minister and the Minister responsible for WSCC in Nunavut were going to look at the report, and there would then be some decision, from what I gathered.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what were the results of those meetings held almost two years ago. Thank you.
As I stated, with a large file such as this, we’re getting a lot of feedback from various parties and we’re followed up with those concerns or issues brought to our attention. There are some general ideas of where we should be focusing on.
All the great work that the Safety Advisory Committee recommended to my office, we are building on that, and again, we want to deliver that during the life of this Assembly, send out the final agreement and start implementing it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there was huge consultation done prior to 2012 when the Safety Advisory Committee had their draft out, their re-draft and their third re-draft. So I really don’t understand what the Minister expects to learn by consulting again.
Since January 2012 to now, October 2014, there’s been ample time to do the consultation that he’s referencing. There’s been ample time to talk to the people in the industry and to get their concerns and hear them and deal with them.
So I’d like to know from the Minister, what is he expecting to learn by now doing further consultation? Thank you.
We have done our consultation or engagement part of the process. We’re following through with what’s been brought to our attention, whether it be a recommendation from various organizations. Not everybody is in agreement or there are pros and cons of particular regulations coming forward, so we want to make sure that it is the right product. It’s a large document for the whole Northwest Territories and along with Nunavut; we still have to work with Nunavut on this particular piece of work. But then again, it will be delivered during the life of this Assembly and I’m willing to sign off before this term ends. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. I know it’s a large document; I’ve looked at it. I would like to know from the Minister, if he’s talking about consultation and he’s talking about making sure that everybody likes the document – there was huge debate the first time this came out – so who is the Minister going to be consulting with? Thank you.
The recommendation is with me, as the Minister responsible, and there have been various discussions that took place for over a year, since 2011 until today, even the latest there has been some correspondence that came to my attention that I need to follow up. There are some legality and network issues that we need to deal with.
Again, it is a large file, so we want to have the best product for the whole Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Again, I have to emphasize that during the life of this Assembly, we will be delivering and signing off this document. Mahsi.
Thank you Mr. Lafferty. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
