Second

Session, 45th General Assembly

Elizabeth II, 2005

AN ACT TO AMEND THE

WORKPLACE HEALTH, SAFETY AND COMPENSATION ACT

Received and Read the First Time ...................................................................................................

Second Reading .................................................................................................................................

Committee ............................................................................................................................................

Third Reading .....................................................................................................................................

Royal Assent ......................................................................................................................................

HONOURABLE

PAUL SHELLEY

Minister

of Human Resources, Labour and Employment

Ordered

to be printed by the Honourable House of Assembly

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The purpose of this Bill is to amend

the Workplace Health, Safety and

Compensation Act to establish a procedure for the Workplace, Health, Safety

and Compensation Commission to issue electronic worker's clearance certificates

to persons authorized to request and receive them. The amendments would come into force on April 1, 2006 .

A BILL

AN ACT TO AMEND THE WORKPLACE HEALTH,

SAFETY AND COMPENSATION ACT

Analysis

Ss.18.1 & 18.2 Added

18.1 Electronic registry

18.2 Time of notification

2. Commencement

Be it enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor and

House of Assembly in Legislative Session convened, as follows:

RSNL1990 cW-11 as

amended

1. The Workplace

Health, Safety and Compensation Act is amended by adding immediately after

section 18 the following:

Electronic

registry

18.1

(1) The

commission shall establish an electronically accessible system to provide information

respecting employers, and may determine the information respecting those

employers, that may be provided.

(2) Notwithstanding

section 18,

(

a) legal counsel;

(

b) an employer; and

(

c) a member of the public,

may, as the commission may permit, request

from the commission via electronic means information respecting the account

status of an employer.

(3) The commission may charge a fee for the

provision of information requested under subsection (2) and may establish different

fees or forgo fees for different categories of persons requesting information

under that subsection.

(4) A request under subsection (2) shall be

accompanied by the information required by the commission to identify the

transaction concerning which the request is being made.

(5) The commission shall, within one business day

after receiving a request under subsection (2), confirm that receipt by issuing

an electronic notice of confirmation to the person who made the request.

(6) Where a notice of confirmation has been issued

with respect to a legal counsel request, the commission shall provide the requested

account status not more than 21 days after the issuance of the notice of confirmation.

(7) Where the commission does not provide the account

status in response to a legal counsel request within 21 days after the issuance

of the notice of confirmation of that request and a transaction for which that

request was made is completed

(

a) after that 21 day period; but

(

b) before the commission provides the account

status,

assets included in that transaction shall

be considered to be free and clear of a lien imposed under this Act and a

security interest included in that transaction shall have priority over a lien

imposed under this Act.

(8) An account status given by the commission in response

to a legal counsel request under this

section shall be valid only for 45 days

after that account status has been provided to the person who made that legal

counsel request.

(9) In this

section and

section 18.2

(a) "legal counsel request" means a

request made by a legal counsel under paragraph (2)(a);

(b) "notice of confirmation" means a

notice of confirmation issued under subsection (5); and

(c) "security interest means an interest in

property that secures payment or performance of an obligation.

Time of

notification

18.2 Electronic

information given by the commission in response to a legal counsel request

under

section 18.1 shall be considered to be provided to the person who made

that legal counsel request when it enters an information system outside the

control of the commission.

Commencement

2. This Act shall come into force on April 1, 2006 .

Earl G. Tucker, Queen's Printer