Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The initiative that I have proposed, and my colleague from Nunakput is seconding, is not a small or a lightly undertaken initiative. The function of the WCB is one that is essential to the success and the stability of our workers and our workforce in virtually every endeavour here in the NWT, in our communities, in our governments, in our small businesses and big businesses too. Mr. Speaker, over my time here as a Member of this Legislative Assembly, I have had frequent traffic with a number of workers who have come to me with what really is a common story of in some cases denial, in some cases interference, in some cases of avoidance of their situation when it comes to managing our obligation and our promise to them through the WCB and promises made by employers to handle their case in a compassionate and a fair way.

Mr. Speaker, a very common assumption that comes up through these situations and the correspondence that I've seen over the last five years through Ministers' offices from the WCB is that when difficult cases come along or those that may have aspects of interpretation or implementation that aren't quite cut and dried or aren't all that straightforward, that there's been a very marked and demonstrated tendency, I believe, for the people in positions of authority and responsibility that if there's going to be an error, it's made in favour of the Workers' Compensation Board and especially of the fund.

Mr. Speaker, it is I think one of the great agreements of our modern world, our modern workforce, that the idea of a no-fault insurance process was created called the Workers' Compensation Board here. There are many like it, certainly all over North America. But for it to have the confidence of both the employers, who are major stakeholders, and, of course, employees, it has to be implemented. It has to be seen to be working with a mandate and indeed this is expressed over and over and over again, Mr. Speaker, where there's benefit of the doubt it goes to the worker. In my experience, our WCB does not give this benefit of doubt.

In asking the Auditor General to come into this and make this enquiry on our behalf, I recognize that the Auditor General does perform a regular auditing function for all of our government departments and our Crown agencies, but there is something that we cannot rely on, Mr. Speaker, on a regular basis. That is a performance review of just are they doing what they are expected to do in the spirit and the intent by which the legislation was created. This is such an investigation.

I'm very, very pleased with the support that I've gotten from my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, in bringing this forward. I'm looking forward to a very clear report from the WCB that will help us to set a new course, perhaps in legislation or in regulation, on how we can better manage situations on behalf of injured workers. I know from talking to the people, Mr. Speaker, the damage that it does not only to their lives; their working careers sometimes are ended very badly and eroded because of an injury. The impact that this has on the families of these injured workers, Mr. Speaker, as they strive to try to get some degree of stability or normalcy back into their lives after a serious injury. The events they find themselves in of never ending loops, Mr. Speaker, of appeals, of having to explain their situations to different case workers. A lot of these systemic kinds of things, Mr. Speaker, that I know we can do a better job of and that is why I'm very pleased to be presenting this motion and looking forward to its acceptance and the report of the Auditor General in due course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause