Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The GNWT is paying too much in unnecessary penalties to the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission and there continues to be a high number of claims filed at five of the territory's six health authorities, Bob Bromley, MLA for Weledeh said in the legislative assembly last Thursday.

In the past three years, cost of claims to the GNWT has more than doubled, according to a written response to a question posed by Bromley in June. This increase has also caused the amount of money the territorial government pays out in penalties under the WSCC's Safe Advantage program to increase.

This past July, the GNWT paid $508,625 for Safe Advantage penalties from the previous fiscal year. Another large penalty is expected at the end of this fiscal year as well, said Bromley.

With respect to claims costs, the Department of Health and Social Services represents 50 per cent of cost and 45 per cent of late filing penalties, said Robert Hawkins, MLA for Yellowknife Centre, during question period on Oct. 30.

On Nov. 1, Bromley gave more details on the performance of individual health authorities. The Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority is the only health authority in the territory that files a reasonable number of claims under the WSCC, he said. In comparison, the Stanton Territorial Health Authority rose to 20 per cent from one per cent proportion of claims in 2008-09 of the GNWT's total claims in 2011-12.

Likewise, the Fort Smith health authority increased to 15 per cent from one per cent of claims during the same period.

Other substantial increases in the proportion of workers' compensation claims filed from the GNWT includes the Yellowknife Health and Social Services (seven per cent from 0.1 per cent), the Beaufort-Delta health authority (10 per cent from two per cent) and the Deh Cho health authority (seven per cent from one per cent).

"The high claims and lack of progress in this area for health authorities are alarming," said Bromley.

In response to a string of questions from Bromley on Nov. 1, Minister of Health and Social Services Tom Beaulieu said he was aware of the situation and working with his department to improve safety in the work place. However, the Department of Health and Social Services employs one-third of all GNWT employees, he said. Furthermore, workers in hospitals, clinics and other health authorities often work long hours and so comparing their number of claims with the number of claims from a department whose workers work office jobs between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. is not exactly fair, added Beaulieu.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.