Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 31/01) - A Yellowknife firm says it looks as though its eight-year-old battle against the Workers' Compensation Board is far from over.

Gordon Stewart thinks the $40,000 annual WCB premiums he paid in 1993 and 1994 is too much. He wants half the $80,000 back.

Stewart's logistics company, then known as Braden Burry Expediting Services, never had a serious workplace accident. The only time the WCB became involved was in 1993, when it paid $300 for an employee's X-ray, Stewart said.

It's not so much the money he's after -- legal fees alone are creeping to the $20,000 mark. Stewart wants to change what he thinks is a bad attitude at the board.

He recently vented his feelings in front of an independent panel looking at how the law can be changed to improve the system.

"Is it reasonable for either a worker or an employee to spend eight years trying to resolve a dispute?" Stewart told panelists.

He requested an audit in 1993, after realizing he was "paying an exorbitant premium for WCB coverage." Stewart maintains the work his company does, logistics for resource companies, is low-risk when it comes to accidents.

Premiums for his category of business have since been slashed by more than half, but Stewart is looking for a refund of two years worth of overpayments. After the WCB and its appeal board turned down a request for lower premiums, Stewart tried the NWT Supreme Court. It ordered the WCB to take another look at the merits of the company's argument. The board lost an appeal to the court and it was no surprise to Stewart when the WCB appeals tribunal turned him down a second time.

"I question the impartiality of this tribunal," Stewart told the review panel Aug. 16.

"The chairman has already decided against the appellant because he is a member of the WCB board."

The dispute is headed back to court, on grounds that the WCB has yet to address the arguments. A date with a judge has not been set yet. In an interview Stewart said he is most upset hearing stories of former workers facing the double whammy of coping with injury while lacking the resources for a protracted battle like his.

"In the unfortunate event one of your employees is injured, you just would assume they'll be taken care of. What I heard is maybe they're not being taken care of."

The Worker's Compensation Board won't comment on Stewart's case, citing his court application.