Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I will speak to this committee report on the appointment of members to the Workers' Compensation Board. The committee's review of this issue arose as a direct result of Ministers' Statement 24-12(2). In that statement the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board announced appointments to fill two vacancies that presently exist on the Workers' Compensation Board. Mr. Chairman, statements and questions raised by the ordinary Members following the Minister's statement highlighted the fact that inadequate consultation had taken place prior to the announcement. More seriously, in making these appointments the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board chose to overlook the fact that this House in its first session passed a motion recommending that no board appointments should be made until March 31, 1992. Mr. Chairman, the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions brought this motion to the House in the first committee report tabled in the 12th Legislative Assembly. We considered this to be a significant motion, one which is necessary to provide the time for the government and standing committee to take stock of the way boards and agencies operate in the Northwest Territories. It is especially vital in the case of the Workers' Compensation Board, which already had been targeted by the standing committee for a comprehensive review.

When we met this morning, the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions was very concerned about the way this Minister disregarded these considerations and without adequate consultation with other honourable Members of this Assembly, proceeded to appoint these two new members to the Workers' Compensation Board. We considered it an outrage to view the Minister's actions in this regard. The standing committee considered these actions undermined the committee process, and indeed can be regarded as threatening the very spirit of our consensus system of government.

Motion To Express Displeasure With Timing Of Minister's Appointments To Workers' Compensation Board

Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that this Legislative Assembly express its extreme displeasure with the actions of the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board in making appointments to the membership of the Workers' Compensation Board, in direct contradiction to the position this House adopted on December 12, 1991, which recommended that the filling of board vacancies be postponed until after March 31, 1992.