Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you may recall, we started this session on February 1st with concerns of many franchise businesses speaking out against the ever skyrocketing WCB rates. Mr. Speaker, the Minister took questions in this House and told us that the governance council was meeting in Yellowknife. I assume that we would have received his answers by now. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we are February 28th now, with two days left to go in this session, and we are still scrambling to find time for a meeting between the businesses and the governance council and the Minister afterward. I have no idea what the outcome will be. We need to remember that meetings cannot be an alibi for inaction and indecision. At this point, Mr. Speaker, I have to believe that the good chair on the governance council will do right by these businesses and not spend the meeting defending why the things are the way they are and why they have to continue on with the status quo.
Mr. Speaker, if we are to understand the grand purpose and goodwill of an insurance system, as a workers' compensation system is, it is that the businesses pay to the system to be prepared in case of worker's injury and fatalities and that the advantage of an insurance system is to share and spread the cost across the board. Where one sector of the membership keeps seeing a 25 percent or more rates increase year after year, the governing body has to look at how to address that situation and make adjustments to address this situation and improve it, whether it be a specific business, subgroup, or the WCB system as a whole, and that, even without being asked to, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion. This is what franchises are looking for from the governance council and the Minister. I believe these are eminently reasonable and sensible positions.
I would like to, once again, challenge the governance council to do right by the businesses. After all, Mr. Speaker, they are the very backbone of our community. If the outcome is not going to change the system for the better, I could give plenty notice to the Minister that I would expect the Minister to take an action and no more speaking about that is not my department; I am just a Minister and can't do anything about that. I just want to give the Minister proper notice today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause