Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. In 1999, Mr. Speaker, 2,911 workers filed claims with the Workers' Compensation Board. In 2003, five years later, that number rose to 3,349; about a 10 percent increase in the total number of claims filed. An interesting statistic, Mr. Speaker, is that the number of claims rejected in 1999 was 186, and, in 2003, it was 435; an increase of about 240 percent. Mr. Speaker, I have been making statements for several days now on the state of affairs in our claims adjudication and implementation of services of the WCB. Statistics of this nature tell me that there is something that is not right in that organization, that there is something that needs to be investigated. We have to try to find a way to return to the expectation, the mandate and the belief that employers and employees have of the WCB; to serve the interests of injured workers.

This is just one statistic, Mr. Speaker, that proves that we do, indeed, need to have a serious operational review of at least this aspect of the Workers' Compensation Board. I am going to continue to press for this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause