'Ridiculous' to say appeals tribunal cost WorkSafeNB $100M: chairman

The chair of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal says it's ridiculous to suggest that overturned claims cost WorkSafeNB an unplanned $100 million.

Daniel Theriault was responding to a task force report released Tuesday that recommends that the tribunal's jurisdiction be curtailed because those decisions are costing too much money.

Theriault said the tribunal overturned 405 out of 22,936 claims in 2016, or about 1.76 per cent.

"If you believe this task force, that 1.76 percent equals $100 million... it's actually ridiculous," he said.

The task force was announced in May of 2017 by the Minister of Post-Secondary Education Training and Labour to review New Brunswick's workers' compensation system, focusing on short-term solutions and long-term sustainability.

The task force consists of nine members, an independent chair and three representatives from the employers' stakeholder community and three representatives from the workers' stakeholder community together with an employer representative from WorkSafeNB Board and a worker representative from the WorkSafeNB Board.

Chairman Dennis Browne said their recommendations were agreed to unanimously.

Employers in New Brunswick have faced steep premium increases in the past two years.

But Theriault said the task force recommendations aren't the answer to preventing future hikes.

Workers' benefits the real cost driver, says chair

He said the task force should have examined the 31 pages of injured workers benefits and then left it to elected officials to make the difficult decisions about whether those benefits should change.

"That's what drives 99 per cent of their costs," he said.

Theriault said the tribunal's job is to ensure that WorkSafeNB follows the law.

He said the tribunal has only existed for less than three years and should be allowed to continue its work.

He said the backlog of appeals, by employers and workers, has been reduced from nearly 500 cases to 83 and that waiting time for an appeal is about 120 days.

And he said the number of decisions being overturned has been declining, from about 80 per cent in the first year, to 75 per cent in the second year, to about 45 per cent currently.

The task force recommended that the tribunal lose its power to change WorkSafe policies.

Theriault said if that had been such a problem, WorkSafe could have gone to the Court of Appeal, but it hasn't.

"That tells me our decisions were correct. If something's going to cost you $100 million, wouldn't you appeal that?"

The recommendations would have to be adopted or changed while the legislature sits, meaning the discussion will take place after September's election.

Both the governing Liberals and Opposition Progressive Conservatives said Tuesday they would review the report before making an official statement.