By Gerald
Gray (Minister of Labour)
Hoffman (Minister of Health)
Sabir (Minister of Community and Social Services
As a tax payer and stake holder in workers compensation in Alberta, I
question why Alberta Health Services and Social Services are providing
services to workers for work related compensable injuries or diseases
that have been accepted by WCB as being work related but WCB are not
providing any health benefits or earning losses for disabled workers. As
Ministers who are in charge of these services, you are responsible to
the tax payers of Alberta to ensure that what we pay in taxes is spent
responsibly for programs such as health care and affordable housing to
ensure that there are no homeless people, better access to health care
etc. rather than squander our tax money in assisting WCB to defraud tax
payers which include workers and employers. This is not hearsay as I can
publicly name these people as these people have graciously provided
their claim files to me. If you are familiar with the Meredith
Principles, the whole idea of workers compensation was to provide
benefits to workers so they would not become a charge on family, friends
and society. That being so, why is the Minister in charge of WCB dumping
these people unto Alberta Health Services and Social Services and why is
the Minister in charge of Alberta Health Services and the Minister in
charge of Social Services accepting disabled workers on tax payer funded
services. Why should tax payers (workers and employers) be burdened with increasing health care costs, long waiting lists for MRI examinations
and providing social assistance to disabled workers whose claims have
been accepted but workers compensation not paying for these services
such as personal care allowances, house keeping allowances, home
maintenance allowances and earning replacements. This being the case,
why not simply abolish the whole system, eliminate premiums for
employers and have workers simply apply for services from Alberta Health
Services and Social Assistance as that is what is happening now. The
Government performs audits on every thing else but fails to perform any
audits as to how many disabled workers are on Social Services and
medical care by Alberta Health Services.
I do realize that the Conservative Government who ruled this province
for 44 years did nothing to address this problem and you did inherit a
total mess but the role of Governments is to correct the mess,not to
perpetuate the mess.I commend you on attempting to fix the mess left by
the former Conservative Government but doing things half assed is not
the solution. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Workers are the
back bone of our society as without workers our economy would crash, so
why is it that workers in Alberta are treated with contempt and inhumane
treatment by a body such as WCB when the whole intent was or is to treat
workers with compassion, fairness and respect and not dump them onto a
scrap heap for tax payers to look after.
