Bill Braden

Thank you, Madam Chair. Of course, I too will be voting in favour of this amendment. Madam Chair, I will not repeat my comments earlier, but to reiterate what I believe was a good recommendation made to this Assembly by the boundaries commission. It reflects that there are changes going on within our society and our communities and our demographics, and that it is incumbent on us to recognize those and strive to do the best we can to ensure that the idea of proportional representation is done to the best of our ability with the obvious considerations that we have, which we already gave to...

Mr. Speaker, is the WCB afraid that if something goes sideways for them again in this Appeals Tribunal that it’s going to cost them a lot of money? Is that what they’re doing, Mr. Speaker? Are they trying to protect the fund instead of doing what is right for injured workers?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister yesterday advised that in relation to Mr. Valic’s long and valiant struggle to get to the court-ordered appeal, newly constituted Appeal Tribunal, that "the WCB has not applied to take an adversarial point of view at all in the Appeals Tribunal hearing." I’m quoting from unedited Hansard of yesterday. Mr. Speaker, I understand that the board has indeed applied for standing at Mr. Valic’s tribunal. I wanted to ask the Minister, if indeed he said yesterday that the WCB has not applied to take an adversarial point of view, why has it applied for standing in Mr. Valic’s...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to welcome and reflect on the presence of so many people of the Armed Forces of various countries in the world who are touring the North on an extended training mission. Mr. Speaker, the military has had a long and very valued tradition of involvement and contribution and participation in this community, not only for the duty they have in Canada’s Arctic protecting the nation but with the very life and fabric of Yellowknife. I remember the establishment of what some might fondly recall as the “Yellow Submarine;" the first base here for the...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. That's fine. That's what I was hoping the answer would be. That's all.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee would like to consider Bill 12, Garnishment Remedies Statutes Amendment Act, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today. Thank you.

So, Mr. Speaker, do I have this right then? Is the WCB continuing to interfere in Mr. Valic's due process before the Appeal Tribunal? So, Mr. Speaker, while we have a new chronic pain policy based on 2004 going forward hopefully, we're still arguing on an old chronic pain policy that has been rejected and is common knowledge that it goes against best practice and what other WCBs are doing? Mr. Speaker, are we still continuing to subject this worker to old, outdated, outmoded and, obviously, an unconstitutional process, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to see if I get this straight now. So the WCB has decided not to take the direct step of going to court and checking its work out, it's instead going to go to stakeholders and add yet more months, perhaps even longer, to getting a policy that is constitutionally correct, Mr. Speaker?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Last Friday the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board tabled in this Assembly a glossy version of the various activities of the WCB in the last year. The Minister related to us the cover story of this magazine which featured an inspirational story of a man who entered into Canada from Czechoslovakia who, after a serious work-related injury persevered and, through determination, returned to work.

Mr. Speaker, I'd remind the Minister that there is, in too many cases, a very unglossy version of affairs to do with the cases of some injured workers in our WCB...