I believe that with the appointment of Mr. Bourque as chairperson, it was realized at that time that the appeal process was taking an inordinate amount of time to deal with. That's all I can say. The process didn't allow for the timely decision-making of the appeals tribunal. Since that time, it is my understanding that a significant amount of progress has been made on the appeals.

I understand that to date, in 1994, 19 appeals have been filed and it is anticipated that the appeals tribunal will be able to hear four cases a month, which gives, hopefully, a completion date of January 31, 1995 to clean up the appeals that currently stand. There will be future appeals, but certainly it's an area that the Workers' Compensation Board and, particularly, the appeals committee, knew was under serious public scrutiny, and understandably so. They are making every effort to quickly, effectively and fairly deal with these important outstanding issues.