Yes, Mr. Chairman. It's my pleasure to provide the committee with the opening remarks for Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Safety Act. Members will recall that in January 2002, a Legislative Review Panel submitted its report entitled Act Now recommending changes to the Workers' Compensation Act and the Safety Act. Earlier this year, Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act was passed by this legislature and as part of the response to the Act Now report, Bill 23, An Act to Amend the Safety Act, has been introduced. This bill is a positive step to improve the health and safety of workers in the Northwest Territories.

A key component of any legislation is clearly identifying the person to whom it applies and setting out their responsibility. This has been done through amendments to the various definitions and establishing, for the first time, that persons who supply tools and equipment have a responsibility to ensure they are safe and directions are given for their proper use. Often there will be more than one employer working on a worksite. Their activities have to be coordinated so as to ensure the health and safety of their workers is not jeopardized. The principal contractor will now have this responsibility and if there is no principal contractor, the owner of the worksite will be responsible for coordinating the activities of various employees.

Amendments to permit safety officers to issue stop work directions when employers refuse to rectify potential dangers will eliminate the necessity of resorting to costly and time-consuming court proceedings. The current Safety Act only requires employers to have safety committees. However, modern occupational health and safety philosophy requires employers to have appropriate safety programs. Safety committees are but one part of a proper safety program. These amendments will require employers to develop appropriate safety programs for their business. Regulations will be drafted to assist employers to determine the appropriate safety programs for them.

A safety advisory committee made up of representatives of the interest of workers, employers and shared by the chief safety officer will have a mandate to advise on the amendments to the act and regulations that are required in the interest of occupational health and safety. Codes of practice have been used to assist workers and employers to understand sections of the act and regulations which are often unclear. The intention is that codes and practices will be based on the industry's best practice and remain in place until proper regulations can be developed.

Provisions of the act related to disclosure of information will be brought in line to recognize the fact that the WCB has been given responsibility to administer a number of acts related to health and safety in the Territories and can use information obtained under the Safety Act to properly administer other legislation.

The bill also recognizes the Workers' Compensation Board's obligations under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Because the WCB is a shared NWT/Nunavut board, any changes to NWT legislation must be mirrored in Nunavut. The content of the legislative proposal was developed with input from both governments. I would like to give well-deserved credit to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight who spent a great deal of time reviewing the bill. Our discussions with AOC were constructive and helpful and I thank them for their contributions to the bill.

In closing, I would like to thank the members of the legislative review panel who provided the foundation for amendments that have been presented today. Mr. Chairman, they are Louise Vertes, chairperson; Shona Barkley, Dan Hallordson, Steve Petersen, David Samailak, Alex Stuit and Don Yamkowy. I would also like to thank the board and staff of WCB and the Department of Justice for their diligence for developing these amendments and the Government of Nunavut for their cooperation in ensuring this bill will be ready to go forward during the life of our representative governments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.