Amendments to the Workers Compensation Act

Dear members,

Please be advised that amendments to the Workers Compensation Act, regarding automatic coverage for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), have been tabled in the legislature and will soon be sent to Law Amendments Committee where you have the opportunity to provide input to government. Here is a link to the bill:

http://nslegislature.ca/legc/bills/63rd_1st/1st_read/b007.htm

If passed, the Bill will provide presumptive benefits to continuing-care assistants, correctional officers, emergency-response dispatchers, firefighters, nurses, paramedics, police officers and persons in occupations prescribed by the regulations who are diagnosed with work-related post-traumatic stress disorder.

Input can be presented to the government in person or in writing. If you are interested in presenting on this bill, you need to contact the Legislative Counsel Office as soon as possible now that the bill has been introduced, so your name can be added to the list of presenters, and so you can be notified when the date and time of the meeting is determined.

Contact information:

Office of the Legislative Counsel

CIBC Building, Suite 802

1809 Barrington Street

Halifax NS B3J 2X1

Tel: 902-424-8941

Fax: 902 424-0547

Email Legc.office@novascotia.ca

Once you’ve been registered, the Legislative Counsel Office will notify you when the time and date of the meeting is determined. If you want to provide input but do not want to attend in person you can provide written submissions through the Legislative Counsel Office.

Submissions can be in any format (typed or handwritten) but they must be addressed to the committee and include your name. To avoid delays and ensure that your submission is received on time, it is recommended that you submit either by fax or email. The correspondence must be received before the last committee meeting on the bill.

All input provided, both in person or in writing, will become part of the public record.

Once the bill passes the committee stage, it is referred back to the House of Assembly and there is no further opportunity for public input.

We hope you will take this opportunity to have your voice heard as this bill moves forward.