Bill 29: First Responders Workers' Compensation Amendment Act

This bill primarily affects employers in the NWT who employ front-line or emergency-response workers — including fire departments, hospitals, correctional facilities, police services, ambulance services, and search and rescue organizations. If you run or manage any of these operations, your workers will now have a much easier path to approved workers' compensation claims for cancer, heart disease, or PTSD without having to prove those conditions are work-related. That means higher likelihood of accepted claims and potentially increased WCB premiums or experience-rated costs for your organization. Volunteer fire departments and smaller emergency services will face the same obligations as larger employers, so even a small municipal fire hall or community-run rescue team needs to be aware of this change.