Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Bill 6 would amend the Workers' Compensation Act to prohibit injured workers and the Workers' Compensation Board from suing any worker or employer covered by the act with certain exceptions.
Currently the act prohibits only law suits against the injured workers, employer and co-workers. Under the Workers' Compensation system, injured workers give up their right to sue employers and other workers in exchange for the right to receive benefits under a no-fault compensation system, funded by employers. This is referred to as the historic trade off. Workers are protected from the risk of being unable to collect damages awards from smaller or less financially stable employers and they are not required to prove fault.
A worker is also entitled to benefits even though he or she may have been at fault. However, workers lose the potential to receive higher awards through court action. Employers pay assessments to collectively share the risk of compensating injured workers because of negligence. The general principle which applies in all jurisdictions except the NWT is that no court action may be made against any employer or worker covered by the act.
The injured worker may sue third parties. For instance, parties who may have some responsibility for the injury but who are not employers or workers, covered by the act. Where there is a right to sue, the Worker's Compensation Board may sue the third party in the workers' name or in the board's name, without requiring the worker's consent.
The NWT is different from all other Canadian jurisdictions because not all employers and workers are protected from law suits for work-related injuries. In the NWT an injured worker may not sue his or her own employer or another worker of that employer. However, the injured worker may sue other employers and workers covered by the act. Because of subrogations this means the Workers' Compensation Board may sue employers and workers who have participants in its own system.
This situation has been commented upon in various reports over the years, proposing the act be amended to prohibit court action against all employers and workers covered by the act. As I indicated earlier, this act would amend this. Bill 6 would amend the Workers' Compensation Act to do that, with a few exceptions. Lawsuits would be allowed against workers and employers, covered by the Workers' Compensation System in certain circumstances, including if the person causing the injury was not acting during the course of his or her employment or engaged in an industry to which the act applies when the accident occurred.
Also, the amended bill allows lawsuits where the act is caused in the use of a motor vehicle, as defined in the Motor Vehicles Act. It also allows lawsuits where the accident was caused in a motor transportation, other than a motor vehicle, as defined in the Motor Vehicles Act, but only where the accident is covered by a policy of liability insurance. The final part of the bill, Madam Chairperson, is the bill would only apply to accidents that occur after the bill comes into force so it would not affect prior accidents. Thank you.