Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Ms. McLaughlin, Mr. Mercer, welcome back to the House.

Committee, Bill 69, we’re going to open up to general comments. Is committee prepared to go to detail?

Thank you, committee. If it’s committee’s wish, I’d like to do that in groups of five. Is committee okay with that?

Thank you, committee. We’ll defer bill and the title until we’re complete. Clauses 1 to 5.

---Clauses 1 through 19 inclusive approved

The bill as a whole.

Does committee agree that Bill 69, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, is ready for third reading?

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Mr. Bouchard, Ms. McLaughlin and Mr. Mercer for joining us.

Sergeant-at-Arms, if you can please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Continuing on with Committee of the Whole business, we’re going to turn our attention now to Bill 45. With that, we’ll turn it over to the Minister who is responsible for the bill. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to introduce Bill 45, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act.

Bill 45 proposes to amend the Workers’ Compensation Act to add five additional forms of cancer that have been identified as occupational diseases for firefighters.

A firefighter is defined in Section 14.1(1) of the act as workers who fight fires full time, part time, or volunteer members of fire departments and do not exclusively fight forest fires are recognized in the act as occupational special risk, occupational diseases, resulting from complex chemical combinations involved in fighting urban fires.

Those diseases are defined in Section 14.1 as listed diseases. The exposure minimums or minimum period of employment for various occupational diseases are then set out in Firefighters’ Presumption Regulations in the schedule.

On the passage and coming into force of this bill, we intend to enact amendments to the firefighters presumption regulations to add minimum periods of employment for the proposed additional forms of cancer listed in this bill.

Following up on the comments by some members of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, I am pleased to report that members of the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission are in contact with a representative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to determine if that department recognizes any special risk to forest firefighters.

I can assure this committee that if this is the case, we will seek a legislation solution to recognize such occupational risk.

I am pleased to report that the proposed legislation is supported by the International Association of Firefighters in Canada and locally by the Yellowknife Firefighters’ Association.

I am pleased to answer any questions the Members may have regarding Bill 45.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. At this time we’ll turn our attention over to the chairman of the standing committee which reviewed the bill for comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure held its public review of Bill 45, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, on September 17, 2015. The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.

Bill 45 amends the definition of listed diseases specific to firefighters to identify five additional forms of cancer. The committee initiated one amendment of the bill which was adopted during the public hearing with the Minister’s concurrence. This amendment changes the coming into force clause of the bill to March 17, 2015, to coordinate with Nunavut’s equivalent bill which was enacted in March 2015.

Following the clause-by-clause review, a motion was carried to report Bill 45 to the Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole as amended and reprinted.

This concludes the committee’s general comments on Bill 45. Individual Members may have additional questions and comments as we proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We’ll turn our attention now to Minister Lafferty to see if he has witnesses he would like to bring in.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses in.

Minister Lafferty, if you’d be kind enough to introduce your witnesses to the House.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. To my left we have Mr. Dave Grundy. He’s the president and CEO of the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission, and Ms. Emerald Murphy, legal counsel, to my right.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Murphy, Mr. Grundy, welcome back to the House.

Committee, again, we’re on Bill 45. We’re going to open it up to general comments. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention, and I want to thank the workers’ compensation and safety organization plus the Minister and our Justice staff for the quick work on putting this bill together. I’ll leave it at that.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Hawkins.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just want to use the occasion to ask a similar question I posed to the Minister and certainly the department on the list of diseases that I used in committee. During Committee of the Whole I had asked and I thought it would be important to put it on the official record as well as how comprehensive or updated is this new changing to our listing of diseases for the workers’ compensation to cover for full-time firefighters? I do have another couple of quick questions, but we’ll start with that particular one. The reason I ask now as I asked then was to ensure that we’re fully up to date with the most current sort of knowledge or understanding of the challenges that the organization, the WSCC, may face, as well as the challenges and impacts that firefighters may be facing in the perceived reasonable future.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Lafferty.