Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, to the ruling delivered on December 14th last year by Justice Schuler of the NWT Supreme Court, there were two significant areas here in which the WCB were found at fault. One related to the denial of natural justice to this injured worker and the other to a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These are significant pieces of law and policy and administration. Significant, Mr. Speaker. I would like to know what steps are being taken by the WCB to hold to account those officers who allowed these positions to be taken and persisted in endorsing them and actually...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Dent, the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Compensation Board of the NWT and Nunavut, and it relates to the efforts by an injured worker to have his appeal heard before a freshly constituted board. Mr. Speaker, it’s rare that an injured worker’s appeal makes its way all the way to the Supreme Court. The onus is almost always on the worker to shoulder the expense, and the time, and the burden, and the energy that’s required to get it this way, and I think it’s to Mr. Valic’s credit that he has persisted over the years to...

Mr. Speaker, to the ruling delivered on December 14th last year by Justice Schuler of the NWT Supreme Court, there were two significant areas here in which the WCB were found at fault. One related to the denial of natural justice to this injured worker and the other to a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These are significant pieces of law and policy and administration. Significant, Mr. Speaker. I would like to know what steps are being taken by the WCB to hold to account those officers who allowed these positions to be taken and persisted in endorsing them and actually...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Dent, the Minister responsible for the Workers’ Compensation Board of the NWT and Nunavut, and it relates to the efforts by an injured worker to have his appeal heard before a freshly constituted board. Mr. Speaker, it’s rare that an injured worker’s appeal makes its way all the way to the Supreme Court. The onus is almost always on the worker to shoulder the expense, and the time, and the burden, and the energy that’s required to get it this way, and I think it’s to Mr. Valic’s credit that he has persisted over the years to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not a lawyer and I’m not going to attempt to turn the Chamber into a courtroom, but the point was the decisions and the policy and the practice undertaken by the WCB as it relates to Mr. Valic were a violation of the Charter. It found that the way in which it treated Mr. Valic and others who have come forward with chronic pain syndrome was different than the way they were treated from workers with other conventional kinds of injuries, if you will, Mr. Speaker. So that is the point where the WCB was found at fault. That was the point that the officers and the...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer, but it is quite consistent with the kind of responses we’ve had from the WCB on such a range of issues. There is never any issue of whether or not there may be some fault or some lack of consideration or process at the WCB. The ability of the WCB to put a fresh panel forward is really what’s at question here. So we’re now coming up to six months, Mr. Speaker, for this process to grind its way along. Now I’m hopeful that qualified tribunal members will come forward from this latest process, but I anticipate that there’s going to be training and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not a lawyer and I’m not going to attempt to turn the Chamber into a courtroom, but the point was the decisions and the policy and the practice undertaken by the WCB as it relates to Mr. Valic were a violation of the Charter. It found that the way in which it treated Mr. Valic and others who have come forward with chronic pain syndrome was different than the way they were treated from workers with other conventional kinds of injuries, if you will, Mr. Speaker. So that is the point where the WCB was found at fault. That was the point that the officers and the...

You know, Mr. Speaker, I and I think at least some of my colleagues here would be ready to work with the Minister to establish a transition here that where a service can be established in another community I certainly don’t want to stand in the way of it, but I would return to that essential duty that we have to supply a badly needed service as close as possible to the people who need it. That is why these 700 people asked for this service to stay in Yellowknife. Can the Minister find a way to help us achieve this, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for Mr. Miltenberger, the Minister for Health and Social Services, concerning the continuing saga of the potential, alleged kind of relocation of the TTC. Mr. Speaker, over the past number of years the GNWT has had a dismal record of residential programs for those suffering from addictions and mental disorders. In part this is because we have not been establishing the services where they are most needed, let alone, Mr. Speaker, because so many of them have failed to keep their doors open. The Minister himself has said in this Assembly...

You know, Mr. Speaker, I and I think at least some of my colleagues here would be ready to work with the Minister to establish a transition here that where a service can be established in another community I certainly don’t want to stand in the way of it, but I would return to that essential duty that we have to supply a badly needed service as close as possible to the people who need it. That is why these 700 people asked for this service to stay in Yellowknife. Can the Minister find a way to help us achieve this, Mr. Speaker?