By Gerry
Click on the following link; https://www.thespec.com/opinio
Much of the problems associated with causation could be solved by bringing in legislation that would make it mandatory for all employers to carry private insurance along with workers compensation insurance to protect workers from having any loss of earnings due to a physical or mental injury. As noted in this article, Manulife were providing private insurance to the city workers. Carrying this further, all public servants have full protection for work and non work related injuries, paid for by workers and their families who themselves have no protection other than workers compensation insurance. The Alberta Workers Compensation Board have dual insurance paid for by employers and workers (Sun Life, I believe) so why is it that workers are also not fully protected. If all workers had full protection as have all first responders for example, they would not have to fight for benefits from WCB where causation is the sole and only prerequisite in having a claim accepted. Rather than workers having to fight over the cause of an accident as cause in the medical profession is in most cases unknown due to the fact that medicine is not an exact science, it would be the private insurance company who have deep pockets fighting WCB as to who was going to pay for benefits rather than the poor schmuck who does not have the financial ability or the knowledge to fight WCB.
The fact of the matter is that the workers compensation does not work and has not worked for decades as witnessed by various Royal Commissions that have always found that the system is and always has been against workers. Bringing in legislation to provide dual protection for workers would solve a lot of problems and would be cost effective as many large employers provide dual benefits already such as large companies like Telus, Rogers, Shaw, ATCO, Fortis Alberta to name a few. As a retired AGT and Telus employee, even when Telus began paying for workers compensation most of the employees filed claims through the private insurance company to avoid the hassle of a workers compensation claim.
