Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to board accountability, the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions was very interested from the outset of its review in examining questions examining the accountability framework for the Workers' Compensation Board. Clearly, any government-created agency must exist within a system which allows evaluation of whether it is meeting its goals and fulfilling its mandate. The Workers' Compensation Board is certainly responsible for ensuring that internal procedures used for handling funds and making payments are monitored and evaluated. However, the assessment of whether the board is accomplishing the functions established under legislation and developing in directions best suited to meet the needs of the people of the NWT, cannot be solely the responsibility of the board.

Where should accountability lie for the board? The standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions takes the position that it lies with the Legislative Assembly. The direct responsibility for ensuring that the board is accountable in the larger sense, lies with the Members of the Executive Council, who is appointed as Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board.

The standing committee on ABCs recognizes that considerable confusion exists with respect to the relationship between the Minister and the board and to the role which the Minister should play in ensuring that the board is held accountable for its decisions. Within this confusion there has been seen to be a sense of powerlessness and uncertainty on the part of all players with respect to how far a Minister can go in directing the activities or development of the board and what vehicles exist for ensuring board accountability.

This may be compounded by the manner in which the existing Workers' Compensation Act frames the board's statutory authority for jurisdiction. Subsection 7.(1) of the act states that the board has the exclusive jurisdiction to examine, inquire into, hear and determine all matters and questions arising under this act.

Subsection 7.(2), without restricting the generality of provisions dealing with the board's exclusive jurisdiction, provides an illustrative listing of matters that the board has authority to examine, inquire into, hear and determine. These include such things as determining whether an accident is an accident within the meaning of this act, whether earning capacity has been impaired by reason of an accident, and the degree in which it has been impaired and so on.

The standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions agreed that there is no question that control of the claims process and decision-making must remain with the Workers' Compensation Board. There is little benefit for the Legislative Assembly, its committees or cabinet in risking the perception of political patronage in decisions surrounding the size, nature or processing of the compensation payments. More importantly, there is no benefit to the workers' compensation system or to the people of the NWT that it has been developed to serve.

There are however, a range of other questions arising under the act which relate to whether the board is fulfilling its general mandate. It is legitimate, for instance, for the Minister to be directly involved in strategic planning for the delivery of services and any decisions to develop programs and services in areas for which other government agencies or departments are mandated. Standards for the conduct of ministerially appointed directors and officials cannot be assumed to be developed by the board in the absence of bias. To some degree, actions to ensure that interpretation of the Workers' Compensation Act are consistent with the understanding of the Legislature when the act was enacted, can be seen to fall within the jurisdiction of the Minister and Legislative Assembly.

Motion To Accept Recommendation 8, Carried

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions recommends that the Minister review the definition of "exclusive jurisdiction" in subsections 7.(1) and 7.(2) of the existing Workers' Compensation Act; and further, the committee moves that a new formulation for board authority be included for discussion in the legislative action paper.