Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of the Workers' Compensation Board. I had a call from a person in Inuvik who is very concerned about the rates that a certain industry pays for workers' compensation. The rate is for taxi drivers and dispatchers. The rate is $4.40 per $100 of payroll for dispatchers. This is a straightforward calculation based on salary. For taxi drivers it's different because we know taxi drivers don't usually work on a salary basis. The Workers' Compensation Board treats them as self-employed and they choose to apply for personal operational coverage which is now approximately $2,000 a year, as compared to $365 before.
The concern of this individual was only on the dispatchers who pay a high rate. She said what is going to happen to a dispatcher? He or she can bang their elbow on a table or hit the phone or fall off their dispatch chairs, but they pay the same rate as drivers. So my question to the Minister is why do administrative staff in the taxi industry pay the same rate as drivers?