Employer not on the hook for injured worker's housing, N.W.T. Supreme Court rules

The N.W.T. Supreme Court has evicted an injured Yellowknife man from employee housing in the Kam Lake industrial area.

David Joncas, 30, has been living in Yellowknife since January, 2016. He came to the city as an employee of NW Transportation Services Inc., with subsidized employee housing aspart of his employment contract.

In documents filed in N.W.T. Supreme Court, Joncas said he was injured twice last summer while working for the moving company, and became unable to work thanks to chronic back pain.

But the N.W.T. Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission denied his claim for compensation and support.

Joncas didn't immediately file reports with the workers' compensation board or his employer after being injured, according to a letter written by the compensation board and included in court documents.

That same letter states his employer also challenged Joncas's claim of being injured on the job.

Itsaidhe worked a full 11-hour workday on the day of his claimed second injury, reported no incidents or accidents on the dates he said he was hurt, and was seen climbing stairs to his second-level living accommodations without difficulty something which Joncas claimed he could only do with difficulty.

His employer also claimed Joncas had previously complained of long-term back problems.

For these and other reasons the workers' compensation board rejected Joncas's compensation claim in September 2016, saying his injuries could not be attributed to "an acute tissue-specific injury at work as the result of a workplace incident or incidents."

Medical records filed with the court show Joncas has a back injury. An MRI report from this summer describes Joncas as suffering from a "broad-based disc protrusion" in his lower back, for which he has received epidural (spinal) pain treatment injections.

Joncas said his claim with the compensation board is under review thanks to new information, and the decision may be reversed. CBC Newshas not been able to verify this.

Joncasargues to stay in employee housing

Joncas has been on disability insurance since August 2016 through a private insurance company. His medical treatment, including doctor's visits, physiotherapy, and a MRI, have so far been covered by N.W.T. health care or insurance.

Joncas stayed on living in his employee housing even after he was no longer able to work. He told the court the company should continue to house him as he's never been formally fired, and his injuries are work related.

"My contract says I have a place to live while an employee," Joncas told the court on Friday.

Douglas McNiven, the company's lawyer,said in court that the company needed Joncas out, not only because he was no longer working, but because the company has been unable to make needed renovations to the building while Joncas occupied the unit.

Supreme Court Justice Andrew Mahar said his only concern that day in court was whetherJoncas had the right to continue to occupy employee housing after being asked to leave. Maharsaid the case was before his court because it was a matter of contract law anddid not fall under the territory's Residential Tenancy Act.

He said Joncas may not have been formally fired, but because he was no longer functioning as an employee, his employer had no long-term responsibility to house the man in light of his inability to work.

"Employers do not take on an indefinite responsibility" for their employees, Mahar said, adding that in the case of an alleged workplace injury, "that's what [the workers compensation board]is for."

Mahar ordered Joncas out of housing by the end of the work day on Sept. 2, but declined to award any costs or damages to NW Transportation, who had asked for $5,000 in compensation from Joncas.

Joncas, originally from Windsor, Ont., told CBC News he doesn't know what he'll do next.

He said he can't work, may need surgery, and only collects about two thousand dollars a month on disability insurance.

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