MLA calls for fishing industry to have mandatory WCB insurance coverage

After a North Lake lobster fisher was killedthis summer, Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker is pushing for more to be done to compensate injured workers in the P.E.I. fishing industry.

"The nature of the job is such that it's an inherently very, very dangerous situation," he said Thursday."I think there's a limit to how much can be done. Ithink absolutely we should be doing everything we can to make sure that conditions onboard boats are as safe as they possibly can be."

But when safety procedures don't prevent injuries or deaths, fisheryworkers don't have the same access to compensation as employees in other sectors, he said. That's because paying premiums into the Workers Compensation Board (WBC)insurance system is optional for fishing industry employers.

Bevan-Baker is calling on the provincial government to change that and make coverage mandatory.

Back in June, a man working on a North Shore lobster boat died after being hit by a hydraulic boom being used to hoist out traps. The Workers Compensation Board investigated the accidentand recommended new guidelines for boat gear.

Bevan-Baker said Thursday that the brother of the man who died found out he had no WCB insurance coverage, so the family will not receive compensation over what happened.

"They're dealing with that horrific circumstance and they're also faced with an economic situation where anybody else who was killed on the job would get a lump-sum payment through WCB," he said.

'Important conversations'

The Workers Compensation Act covers 98 per cent of workers on P.E.I., said the spokesperson forthe board.

"Fishing is the only major industry excluded from this coverage," WCBsaid in an email to CBC News. "For fishing to be included in the mandatory WCB coverage, amendments to the WC Act Regulations would be required."

The WCBsaid people in the fishing industry can choose to buy personal coverage, whichis available to employers and independent operators in P.E.I. and would provide compensation benefits and services if they are injured while working, as well as survivor benefits in the event of their death.

Jenn Redmond, P.E.I.'s minister of workforce, advanced learning and population, said that although WCB coverage is optional for the fishing industry, her department will continue to educate employers about its importance.

"We have started and will continue to have those important conversations between employers in the fishing industry and the workers that do the work every time they're on the boat," she said.