Calling On The Canadian Parliament And Senate

Wayne, notwithstanding whether or not they should be, the federal government's employees are not covered by the workers' compensation act of any province or territory. And at this point, that gives the feds no say in workers' compensation. They are not even an 'employer' under provincial or territorial workers' compensation law.

These workers are, in fact, covered by the Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA). The feds have an arrangement that allows for the workers' compensation authority of each jurisdiction to administer the claims, according to local rules. In other words, an injured federal employee in New Brunswick does not have the same rights and benefits as an injured employee in Manitoba. Ultimately, however, LabourCanada has the final authority to overrule the compensation boards (and I saw them do it, although rarely, during the years I worked for the Saskatchewan and Ontario compensation boards).

So long as the Canadian legal system devolves authority for labour to the provinces/territories, this isn't going to change. LabourCanada is responsible for certain labour issues, including the Canada Labour Code, but frankly they are so weak that workers are better off covered provinically anyway.

However ... it is my belief, and this is the work I have done for more than 30 years, that: labour should be a federal responsibility; that workers' compensation should be universal across the country and managed at the federal level; that provincial health and safety laws should be struck down and replaced by solid federal H&S laws (probably a mix of BC and Ontario laws would do it, heavy on the BC portion).

Paul Harris