Ontario's Office of the Worker Advisor has a large list of Workers' Compensation Boards, Health and Safety Associations, Resources for People with Disabilities, Worker Adviser and more from across Canada.

Union members, injured worker advocates and others have created an organization, the Public Compensation Coalition to work towards restoring the balance and fairness to the workers' compensation system in BC and in Canada. The website has information on how to get involved and resources about the workers' compensation system.

CCPA has a report, Negotiating Without a Floor: Unionized Worker Exclusion from BC Employment Standardswhich examines a lesser- known change to Bill 48 - Employment Standards Act, 2002, namely the exclusion of unionized workers from these basic rights. It details the growth of employer-accommodating union and their willingness to enter into collective agreements with substandard provisions.

Working on the Edge, a report created by the Workers' Action Centre, documents the experiences of workers in low-paid temporary agency and contract jobs where employers fail to meet minimum labour standards. The report makes policy recommendations, including changes to the Employment Standards Act.

Link Up Employment Services for Persons with Disabilities is a not-for-profit website with resources for people with disabilities looking for employment and employers looking to hire people with disabilities.

It is up to every worker to ensure that he or she is being treated fairly, and to look out for abuses in the workplace that affect the rights of others. WorkRights gives you a chance to access the latest information on the labour codes to your province, and to compare practices in your region with those of other provinces and territories in Canada.

Despite the fact Aboriginal peoples offer diverse skills to the workforce, their participation in the labour force is lower and their unemployment rate higher than that of non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Aboriginal Workforce Participation Initiative's (AWPI) tool-kit for employers has been published and is available online.

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) sponsors the WorkRights.ca website for workers to "access the latest information on the labour codes to your province, and to compare practices in your region with those of other provinces and territories in Canada." The site also offers a discussion forum: "the discussions among Canadian workers on all topics related to labour issues and workers' rights. In the Workers' Forum, you can raise new issues, or join in the existing discussions. Read what others have to say to learn about the labour situation in all parts of Canada."

The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in Mexico, Central America, and Asia organizing in maquiladora factories and export processing zones to improve employment with dignity, fair wages and working conditions, and healthy workplaces and communities. A recent campaign saw members of the Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG) -- a coalition of church, labour and non-governmental organizations concerned about ongoing links between Canadian apparel companies and abuses in overseas factories where their clothing is produced, take tens of thousands of clothing labels to Allan Rock's Industry Canada office.

On July 27, 2001 the British Columbia government established the Administrative Justice Project to conduct a comprehensive review of the province’s administrative justice agencies.

The Administrative Justice Project will:

Review the mandates of administrative justice agencies to ensure they are relevant to a modern and efficient economy.
Make recommendations to eliminate overlapping jurisdictions and multiple proceedings.
Make recommendations to streamline administrative procedures.
Make recommendations for government to support the work of administrative agencies in an appropriate and effective way.

Full terms of reference for the Administrative Justice Project is available on the Administrative Justice Office website. A synopsis of the Core Review process provided by Jim Sayre of the Community Legal Assistance Society explains the levels of scrutiny involved in the core review. Jim's review was written to explain the core review as it relates to WCB but provides a good overview of the process.

Included in the Administrative Justice Project is a review of the BC Benefits Tribunal.

PovNet has been given permission by the authors of two separate submissions to the Administrative Justice Project regarding the BC Benefits Tribunal process to post the submissions:

• One submission, Fair for All: A Principled Approach to Administrative Justice For Low Income People in British Columbia (in PDF) is the result of a collective effort made by seven advocates (lawyers and paralegals) representing six offices funded either directly or indirectly by the Legal Services Society.
• The second submission was written by FLAW - Front Line Advocacy Workers (in PDF.) FLAW is comprised of several community groups that work on behalf of people seeking to access all facets of BC Benefits. Its members include professionals, paraprofessionals, and lay advocates.

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ajp-fair_for_all.PDF	63.79 KB
FLAW_submission_on_Adminsitrative_Justice.PDF	30.65 KB

There are four separate review processes going on at this time in British Columbia which affect the workers' compensation system.

1) Legislation and Policy Core Review.

The government announced at the end of September that Alan Winter had been appointed to conduct the core review of the workers' compensation system's legislation and policy. Alan Winter is the leading B.C. lawyer for employers in workers' compensation matters, and represented employers' groups before the recent Royal Commission, where he argued forcefully for cutbacks to coverage, benefits, and appeal rights.

The terms of reference for the core review cover virtually all aspects of the system, as well as those recommendations of the Royal Commission (222 in all) which dealt with legislative and policy changes. Specific changes that are being considered include:

a new governing body for WCB, with minimal if any representation for labour or injured workers;
reducing the levels of appeal to a single, sudden-death procedure;
reducing the (non-taxable) benefit rate from 75% of gross average earnings to 80-90% of net earnings.
deducting CPP disability benefits, if any, from WCB pensions.
eliminating all benefits for permanently disabled workers who return to their previous occupations, except for a modest lump sum based on the worker's age and the nature of the condition.
reducing or eliminating benefits for certain disabilities, including pain conditions, some psychological injuries, and some cancers and other occupational diseases.
reducing the WCB's duty to provide vocational rehabilitation so that a worker who has been retrained for a new occupation will be deemed capable of those earnings whether or not an actual job is available.
having the government, rather than WCB, establish and enforce health and safety regulations.

The review will be completed by January 15th, 2002, and the amendments required to implement the recommendations will be introduced in the spring legislative session.

The consultation process will be very limited. Alan Winter has said that he won't meet with or receive written submissions from anyone but the organizations designated by the government at the time of his appointment. On the workers' side, this means only the B.C. Federation of Labour, Workers' Advisers, and Workers' Compensation Advocacy Group. The only way that community groups, private lawyers, and individual unions and injured workers can show their opposition to the likely cutbacks is by communicating directly with the Minister, Premier, MLAs, and the media.

2) Service Delivery Core Review

The second part of the core review of WCB will be a review of the Board's delivery of services conducted by Allan Hunt, a U.S. based researcher who previously prepared full administrative inventories of the B.C. workers' compensation system in 1990 and 1995, and a partial inventory in 1996.

Allan Hunt will consult more broadly that Alan Winter. He has set up a web site to describe the process, and an email address to receive comments and submissions: labour.ministry@gems2.gov.bc.ca

He will also be meeting with certain groups and individuals during the next two weeks, before returning to his base in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The Service Delivery Core Review will address the non-legislative recommendations of the Royal Commission, which was very critical of WCB's service delivery and decision-making. Another possible source of recommendations is the special report of the Auditor General, who made some very good suggestions in 1997 about improving the Board's accountability for its decisions.

3) The Administrative Justice Project

This is an ambitious and far-ranging review being conducted by the Attorney General to review the mandate, jurisdiction, structure, procedures, and staffing of approximately 60 administrative tribunals, including the Workers' Compensation Review Board and Appeal Division. A descrisciption of the Core Review process is available on the Administrative Justice Office webpage.

The first deadline is Nov. 30 for the preparation of background papers for each of four specific projects, which will occur simultaneously:

1)Administrative Justice (Core Review)
2)Workplace Tribunals Review
3)Human Rights Review
4)Agency Appointments Policy

The remaining phases and deadlines are

Feb. 28, 2002 for preparation of a White Paper containing detailed recommendations for changes to the law and practice;

April 30, 2002 for completion of public debate and input about the recommendations in the White Paper;

June 30, 2002 for a review of how government can ensure the competency of the people it appoints, and how tribunals can be made accountable for carrying out their duties; and

August 31, 2002 for a final report to government on implementation of the results of the process.

Alan Winter's review will deal with changes to the WCB appeal system long before the Administrative Justice Project is finished. The discussion paper floats the idea of combining the appeal tribunals for
various work-related laws, such as employment standards, labour relations, human rights, and WCB. However, Alan Winter has said that he opposes this, and so do nearly all worker advocates. On the whole, it seems unlikely that the Administrative Justice review will end up having any effect on workers' compensation.

4) The Red Tape Reduction Task Force

This process is being conducted by Kevin Falconer, Minister of State for Deregulation. According to the government's web site, the first two phases are:

"Ministers complete a count of all regulations and requirements by October 1st. The results will give us a picture of the volume of regulation in British Columbia and a benchmark against which we can measure our progress.

"Ministers develop three-year plans for each government ministry to carry out the commitment, which will include more comprehensive review, reform and streamlining as well as elimination of requirements.

WCB, which enacts health and safety regulations under Part 3 of the Act, was asked to count up all the action words in the regulations. Apparently each verb counts as one regulation, and the Board will be
asked to eliminate one third of them over the next three years. Senior WCB officials recently stated that the Board had a couple of employees counting verbs all summer (slow readers, I guess).

This deregulation mania may lead to a new opportunity for unemployed writers: instead of "plain language" experts, government will need "deverbing specialists" (people who can say the same thing with fewer
verbs ....)

The impact of deregulation on WCB may be deflected by Alan Winter's legislation and policy review. If he recommends removal of the Board's responsibility for enacting health and safety regulations, the Ministry
of Labour will have to do the deverbing.

Jim Sayre
Community Legal Assistance Society

This guide contains information about work permits, application forms, medical examinations, welfare, social insurance numbers, and getting help. It also contains the names and telephone numbers of lower mainland organizations that help refugee claimants.
Getting a Work Permit in BC is available online (in PDF) or it can be order from: Legal Services Society fax: 604-682-0965 or e-mail: distribution@lss.bc.ca

Getting a Work Permit in BC is also available in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, and Spanish from MOSIAC. The brochure was published in 2001 and is free in British Columbia (and $3.50 outside B.C.)