Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would note for the record that the Minister is stumped. Well, I agree with the
Minister that indeed the WCB is a worthwhile fund and is sponsored by the employer. I think that is obvious to everyone, and that is not the question I was asking. The Minister in his response stated that indeed labour groups and so on had been consulted and had no problem, but they had requested $58,000. My question was simply, how was that $3,000 amount arrived at? That is all I asked. I do not think it was a hard question and the Minister tells me that indeed it is based partly on the CPI, it is based on inflationary factors and also the ability of the worker, the labourer, I should say the employer, to pay.
I will leave it at that for now and probably in some type of written form I will address the question to the Minister so that a proper clarification, not just for me or this House, for all the injured workers in the Northwest Territories so that they will also be able to understand how come the average wages in the Northwest Territories for injured workers which are in the mining field around $78,000 and the maximum YMIR was $52,000. If you look at the southern based rates, $52,000 is quite an amount. But if you look at the cost of living in the north, for a lot of these workers $52,000 is not very much. I never did agree with the amount when we said that most of these workers were living in the south, now, it does not matter. They were hurt, and they were working in the north, and with that, I would leave and not broach the question today in oral form. We will try to broach it in a written question later. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.