McPherson vows to overhaul the WCB

Tory leadership hopeful Gary McPherson vowed to overhaul the Workers' Compensation Board if he becomes premier.

"I know that the Tory party needs a makeover from the inside ... and the same smell is coming from the WCB, maybe even worse," McPherson said yesterday.

"Every day I hear something wrong that's going on with the WCB and it seems to me that there are some injustices that need to be righted."

McPherson's pledge comes on the heels of Sun writer Jeremy Loome's feature series exposing complaints of mistreatment of injured workers and bungling bureaucracy at the WCB.

McPherson said he's concerned that a shortage of skilled labour is leading to less skilled workers taking high-risk jobs, putting their well-being in jeopardy.

"Because they might be going in there before they're ready because of a shortage in workers, we expose ourselves to safety concerns," he said.

"When a safety concern occurs in an injury as a result of an accident on the job, they wind up at WBC. If they have a short-term problem, they get pretty good treatment and can be turned around quickly, but if it's something more serious, they seem to get the runaround and get screwed."

McPherson said he believes that can change.

"There are many remedial activities that can be done to attain the goals the WCB seeks, but you can do it by taking the high road rather than kicking people when they're down."