* AlO- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Workers’ group leery of WCB assistance

JIM SMITH says there’s a growing number of people dealing with what he calls

“constant denial” of claims by the Workers’ Compensation Board

(WCB) for people injured on the job.

Smith, a representative for the Northwest Injured Workers’ Association, says dealing with the compen- sation board is enormously complex and fraught with unneccesary red tape,

People are telling him they're frustrated’ by the claims process and are left feeling helpless.

“They are completely lost and they have no idea how to deal with a system like this,” Smith says.

He adds an increasing number of people in Ter- race are showing interest in the workers’ associa-

Jim Smith

tion, a new group formed late last year. It discusses strategies for dealing with problem WCB claims and offers support for injured workers and their families.

It meets once a month

and at its last meeting, local WCB official Ken Beddie answered ques- tions.

“No matter how serious your injury is it seems there is constant denial,” Smith says. “WCB seems to think that unless you're missing a limb that you're, not injured.”

He adds many people are dealing with persistent injuries that make it im- possible to continue work- ing yet the compensation board forces them back on the job.

“A large majority of the cases we are dealing with, WCE has forced these people back to their jobs where they are reinjuring themselves or making their injury worse,” Smith says.

He said the group has more than 100 members.

Gov't fills vacancies on the college board

A TERRACE man is one of six new members who have been appointed to the Northwest Community College board.

John Nester, former pre- sident of the Northwest Loggers Association, is a financial: advisor with Great-West Life Insurance.

Edward Bobb, a retired certified general accoun- tant and former Bulkley Valley Health council member, is from Smithers.

Alcan consultant John Bower is a human resource and training manager from Kitimat.

Two appointments are from Prince Rupert; Pene- lope Denton is a registered nurse and Ridley Termi- nals director who used to serve on the Prince Rupert Port Corporation board.

y.Mark' Newbery, a chamber of commerce dir- ector, is the maintenance superintendent at Prince

Rupert Grain Ltd.

Claudette Lavoie, is the principal of Queen Char- lotte Secondary School, and is the regional repre- sentative on the B.C, Sta- tus of Women committee.

The six appointments fill a gap created when previous ones ran out.

Only two public board members remain from the previous group, Caledonia school teacher Ed Harrison from Terrace, a former college board chair, and Sandra Harris, representing Moricetown and the Ha- zeltons.

Their appointments don’t run out until Later. There are a0 representa- tives, at least for now, from Stewart or the Nass.

There are three fewer board members on the new

attached to Premier Gor- don Campbell’s office.

The board will be deal- ing with tough decisions in the weeks ahead.

NWCC is facing a po- tential $2.3 million ‘budget deficit for the coming year. Layoffs and program cuts ate inevitable.

“The diversity of back- grounds and experience of our new board members will be an asset to us as we look for ways to meet

changing educational needs in challenging times,” college president

Stephanie Forsyth said.

The new slate of ap- pointments were effective Feb. 11, not quite two weeks after the previous board was supposed to be dissolved.

Not affected by the

board then served .on_.the. ..changes..are..board. repres. sentatives elected by stu- dents, faculty and other college workers.

previous one. The appointments are made by a special branch

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