Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know this was an important issue in the last session. There was concern out there that perhaps the WCB was not moving in a timely manner to deal with appeals. The original appeal chairperson was Mr. Bourque who resigned, I believe, in February 1994. We have a new appeals chairman, Mr. McNenly, who is a Giant employee and former union employee.

The backlog of appeals at the time was somewhere in the region of 44 or maybe 60 cases. I don't have an up-to-date figure as of today, but it is my understanding that the majority of those cases have been dealt with and the appeals tribunal is moving forward in an orderly, and much more timely manner, to deal with this very important appeal process. Thank you.