During the years 1941 to 1968, issues relating to workers’ compensation in British
Columbia were subjected to the unprecedented number of three royal commissions. An
explanatory framework that evaluates the merits of the commissions and their
recommendations, both perceived and otherwise, and the degree to which governments
adopted the recommendations, is presented in this paper. The framework is designed to
make use of the available relevant primary sources, particularly minutes of the commission
proceedings, newspaper accounts and legislative statutes.
All three of the Commissions were thorough, well-received exercises whose
recommendations were almost wholly adopted by B.C. governments, though in differing
time frames. The need for the second Commission, which was created a mere six years
after the finish of the first, primarily arose because of rapid developments in the B.C.
labour movement during the mid-1940’s. An infusion of leaders with communist ties
caused it to harden demands for workers’ compensation benefits and reforms. The first
Commission had been considered a success by all parties, but the context of its
recommendations had changed due to the increase in labour’s militancy. This second
Commission was also considered to be reasonably successful. However, dissatisfaction
with a Workmen’s Compensation Board that had completely turned over shortly after the
second Commission, led to demands, particularly by labour, to create another commission
to review its work and procedures. Board members, at that time, were subject to long
tenures and were without any formal mechanism with which to be reviewed.
Critical to the success of the three Commissions was the independent, non-partisan
nature of their proceedings and recommendations. Because of this, the credibility accorded to the recommendations, particularly by labour, caused the Commissions to supercede the
traditional mode of cabinet or legislative committtee deliberation for public policy
formation in this case. The series of Commissions ended because of satisfaction with the
Workmen’s Compensation Act, a much higher turnover rate of the Board and increased
strength of the provincial labour-backed New Democratic Party. Thus, the Commissions
and the three B.C. Supreme Court Justices that served as the Commissioners, must go
down in history has having played a significant role in the evolution of occupational safety
and health policy in British Columbia. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/3303 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Chaklader, Anjan K. |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 1940581 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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