EDMONTON – The next president of the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board should be someone committed to the quick delivery of services to injured working people, says the president of Alberta’s largest union.

"The government needs to make a solid effort to find someone who is serious about treating injured working people with fairness and dignity, and who will make an effort to respond to worker injuries more quickly than in the past," said Dan MacLennan, president of the 46,500-member Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

"Ensuring timely benefits for injured workers must be the No. 1 priority for the new WCB president," MacLennan stated.

WCB President Mary Cameron resigned this week, effective next month, after four years on the job.
AUPE Union representative Grace Dykau, a specialist in workers compensation issues, said it is important the head of Alberta’s WCB be someone who remains committed to the Meredith Principle, set out in 1918 in a Royal Commission report by Sir William Meredith, chief justice of Ontario.

The principle, which has guided workers compensation in Canada ever since, says injured workers must receive compensation benefits at no cost for work-related injuries with employers bearing the cost of compensation in return for protection from lawsuits. It also says negligence and fault are not considerations in determining compensation, and the system must be administered by a neutral agency.

"This is the cornerstone of fair workers’ compensation in Canada, and it is imperative that attempts not be made to model the WCB along the lines of a commercial insurance company," Dykau said.

During the new president’s term, she added, a tribunal on long-standing and contentious claims will begin its work. "We hope this new person will learn from the mistakes in WCB delivery the tribunal may bring forward."

MacLennan urged that the open-door policy on stakeholder discussion implemented by Mary Cameron be continued by the WCB’s new president.

In addition, he called for the policy consultation process commenced by Cameron to continue. "During Mary Cameron’s tenure, WCB made an effort to improve its accountability to injured workers and their representatives, and took positive steps such as raising minimum insurable earnings," he said. "It would be most unfortunate if the new president were to declare that process at an end."

MacLennan also called on the government through its WCB board appointees to choose a WCB president committed to maintaining the Millard Centre in Edmonton as a publicly funded rehabilitation facility for injured workers, and to not permit it to become a private health care facility.

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cell phone)
Grace Dykau, Union representative, AUPE, 780-930- 3343
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-7176-2943 (cell phone)

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