Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to thank the WCB and the Minister for coming today to go over this long overdue process of review of the WCB and how we can help from our end to make WCB more responsive and more worker directed, I guess I would put. I don't know how else to put it better. But I'm not going to say all the things the other Members have already spoken about because I'm sure the WCB has pretty much gotten the message through the Auditor General's review and the recommendations that she's come out with. I'm sure they're taking those very seriously and working to resolve a lot of them and make some changes in WCB, I hope, that we'll see in the near future.

When I go out to my constituency, and even here in Yellowknife, and people talk to me about WCB, I never hear any good things about WCB. Maybe one in 100 people that I talk to say something good about WCB. I'd like to see that turned around. I'd like to see people be highly commendable of what WCB does for them and how supportive they are for them, whether they receive compensation or not. I think compensation is something that's a whole different issue altogether. I think the issue of compassion is probably the one that I can think of, as there really is none there. It's just like walking through WCB cold, hard steel doors, like jail doors, and that's the feeling that people get. I hope that what they're talking about renovations and moving things around, that's great. But it's got to go beyond the doors. It's got to go right up to the people that are working there. It's right up to the board level.

One thing that really bugged me during the whole Auditor General's review, that whole process that we were going through, Mr. Chairman, and you were there too, and a lot of Members there were here, and every day that we sat there and we talked with the Auditor General about all this, the review that she put in front of us, the only day that we did see the Worker's Compensation Board there was the day that they had to be there. Every other day there was nobody there from the board. To me, that was really a sad sign of how much they really cared in what they were doing, that they were being dragged through the coals and that they were being turned inside out, and there didn't seem to be any...You know, nobody really batted an eye. I would have liked to see a board member there every day of the hearings, even just to report back to the members.

But we only saw them there that one day and to me that was a real strong indicator that we're going up against something that's really entrenched and going to be really tough to try and turn around and spin around for the betterment of the common worker.

I hope, like my colleagues were saying, we can make some resolution to find better service and better responses and more positive outcomes for the injured worker. I don't want to see it going as far as creating new legislation that all of a sudden doesn't put them at the arm's length that they are right now. But you know, if push comes to shove, I think that's where it's got to go. I would like to see them stay the way they are. I think they're totally financially responsible, which is great. They are definitely in the good books of the government because of their financial situation, but I think we really have to stop thinking about the dollar and start thinking about our workers here in the NWT and all across Canada, because I know they get all kinds of people that are from the East that are filing claims and I know the logistics in trying to sort those out are probably pretty complicated and drawn out, but I think they're totally capable of handling caseloads like that.

With that, again, I'm not going to drag it on much longer, but I'd just like to see after this process that through this sitting in this House that the Minister can come back with some real clear messages for Members, for the public, that the WCB has gone a little awry, I guess, insofar as helping the common injured worker in dealing with a lot of legitimate injuries, I guess, maybe, and even the illegitimate ones. I think even those ones have to get the same amount of attention and support and direction or advice as to what they can do and how they can address those issues. I hope that we can really come out of this smelling like a rose, you know, for the general public, for all the workers that have been working with the WCB for 20 years. Some people have been fighting with WCB for stuff like chronic pain and injuries that they can't substantiate anymore because it was so long ago. To me, just to hear that, I'm just so glad that I haven't had to go to the WCB for anything yet, but lo and behold, that day may come. Anyway, with that, Mr. Chair, I'll just leave it at that and I hope we come out looking really positive in the eye of the public after this and I hope that the WCB does too, you know, right alongside, arm in arm, with the government. At arm's length, mind you, but still working together. Thank you.