Thank you, Madam Chairperson. As I explained earlier, the intent of workers' compensation is to have a no-fault insurance scheme, whereby employees receive benefits and get a percentage of their wages and get medical treatment and whatnot after they are injured on the job, whether or not they are at fault themselves and they do not have to prove fault on the employer's part. In return, the worker will not sue his employer or another employee. We felt that to allow this type of thing would be inconsistent with that.

Also, we looked at the previous ten year history on this area where this had occurred in the past. Benefits going to the actual families or the injured workers themselves seem to be insignificant. Most of the money seems to be going up in smoke in the lawsuits as expenses. We did not feel that it was worth it to be the only jurisdiction in Canada that would allow something like this for those types of benefits. Thank you.