Thank you, Madam Chair. I need to speak on this motion because I believe this is next to the motion about changing the mandatory, or the Minister reviewing the mandatory that I spoke to earlier. I think this is one single thing that we could make a lot of difference to.

Madam Chair, I have to say that while a lot of discussions here evolve around injured workers who are unsuccessful in their claims, I think all the Members here are aware of the fact that what we are trying to do is create a fair system. The way I see it, it's okay to go through the Workers' Compensation process for most of the injured workers who get their claims answered to and they're satisfactory; but for those who fall through the cracks -- and there is a commonality in cases like chronic pain and the disabilities that are not recognized that has to do with mental disability and such -- once they fall through the cracks, they don't have any assistance whatsoever other than the workers' advisor. In thinking about it, I think the only way that we could fix this is to balance the power structure and that we give more power to the workers to do the fighting themselves.

I agree with WCB and the officials there who may feel that this forum here is not the appropriate place for injured workers to bring their claims to. I agree with that to a certain extent. I believe our job, and the Minister's job, is to do whatever is necessary, either as redistributing resources or changing the laws to equalize the power balance. I have to tell you I know one of the Governance Council members said, well, we can't do that, we can't give resources to workers to sue us and that would be, you know, not good use of resources.

I say to them, then why is it okay for the WCB lawyers and WCB doctors and all the infrastructure built in there to work against the injured worker? Why is it okay to use ratepayers' money, millions and millions, to establish and protect that claim or whatever? I know it would be offensive to the doctors and lawyers who work at the WCB for anybody to suggest that they are not for the workers, but I tell you if you are a worker sitting on the other side, they really feel like they have nobody. If they get no claims, they have to get their own lawyer and they don't usually get legal aid for that. But not only that, the WCB system is not a regular court procedure where if you lose a case at a lower court, you appeal it. If the appeal court says you're right, then you win. Well, that's not how the WCB system works. When you win a WCB appeal, you have to go back to right where you started and you get your hearing reheard by the same people under the same rules under the same medical opinion under the same argument of that reviewed and then you may just fall back again. That's why you see these cases falling back over. That's why you see these cases falling back over and over and over; 17 years, 21 years. You can't make any changes.

Even when there are Supreme Court decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of the NWT, the highest court in the land says your policy is wrong, WCB can, if it chooses to, use all of its legal resources, all of its financial resources, to read the policy as narrowly as possible and not necessarily look at changing the policy that would work for the injured workers and, for that reason, the only way I can see this changing is to equalize the power to the workers. Why is it to use most of the money or use all of the surplus in the fund to just maintain the status quo? Why is not okay to set up a system where workers could have resources they need? I tell you, I would make an argument that this will save money. If WCB people thought that their arguments would be checked and that their legal opinions would be countered, and that their medical opinions could get be looked at by other resources, I tell you they would be more inclined to do the right thing by the workers. Right now, they have nothing to lose. They have nothing to lose by not changing the policy to follow with the Supreme Court decisions or anything. Right now, everything is designed, in my opinion, to maintain the status quo. At some point, we have to say we need to equalize this power, so that there is a necessary check and balance and that there is pressure on the WCB to change policies accordingly when there are new conditions and diseases that come up, when there are new decisions from the Supreme Court that allows them to make decisions. They would know if they don't do it, there is another counterforce. There is a counter balance on the other side that would come at them with a contrary opinion and they would be as strong as their own power. That is the only way I see that my work as an MLA doesn't continue to evolve injured workers coming to my door crying and begging, and me having to tell me them there isn't a lot I can do other than writing these reports and hoping that something would happen.

I would be willing to talk with the Minister and whoever wants to talk more about this, but I think this is not just prolonging the legal process or creating jobs or lawyers. I am not saying that at all. I look at this as a means to improve the power of injured workers, so they have more to go with than having to tell their stories over and over for 17, 21 or 25 years without seeing anything happen. Thank you. I hope I added new layers of argument for this motion.