Assessment rates for WCB may drop

NNSL August 1996
Assessment rates for the Workers’ Compensation Board in 1997 will drop or stay as is, for all but one class of local employers.

That may be good news for employers, but workers are not as impressed, said Jim Evoy, president of the NWT Federation of Labor.

“Nowhere do I see the number of accidents diminishing,” he said. “We live in the most dangerous jurisdiction in Canada. In the end, somebody’s going to have to pay.”

But board chairman Jeff Gilmour said the strong financial position of the board is good news for injured workers. In 1995, the NWT compensation board had a $7.8-million surplus.

“We’re not happy with the number of accidents in this jurisdiction; we want to get our numbers down,” he said. “But if you’re in a poor financial position such as in Ontario, they are reducing benefits by legislation. We don’t have to do that.”

In 1995, the number of claims placed with the board numbered about 3,800, down about 100 from 1994. The number of accidents causing workers to be off for six weeks or more dropped to 179 in 1995 from 249 in 1994, Gilmour said.

Figures for the amount of claims paid out by the compensation board in the last three years were not provided by Yellowknifer deadlines.

Further reductions in the number of accidents is hoped for as “effective case management” is applied, Gilmour added.

But Evoy said that simply means sending people back to work earlier, possibly even before they are ready to return to work.

“They can use all the buzzwords they want. They are cutting people off early,” he said.

As for the rates themselves, Gabrielle Decorby, president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said they are happy the rates are being lowered.

The group is concerned, however, that money from 1995’s $7.8-million operating surplus will be used to help the board “absorb the cost of Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) for the foreseeable future.”

“The money going into the WCB isn’t designed to fund other areas,” Decorby said. “They haven’t given specific numbers on how much or to what degree it will assist with funding OH&S.”

Rates for public utilities will increase to $1.20 per $100 of payroll in 1997 from the current $1.10.

On average, assessment rates will drop 10 per cent to $2.10 per $100 of assessable payroll next year from the current average of $2.33.

The WCB’s operating reserve, which has a funding target of $4.1 million, is now $13.9 million.