December 2021
Annual Payroll Report
START SUBMITTING AS EARLY AS JANUARY 1, 2022
By now, employers should have received information on submitting the Annual Payroll Report through WSCC Connect. The deadline for submitting is February 28, 2022, but you can submit as early as January 1, 2022. Remember, you must submit an APR even if you are reporting zero (0) payroll. The penalty for late submission is 15% of your previous year's employer payroll assessment.

Review your Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Questions

In 2022, WSCC is launching a new program called Safe Workplace. The OHS questions on your APR will be used to help determine your company’s status as a Safe Workplace. WSCC Connect users should consult with the person who manages OHS for their company (or the company they are filing for) to provide answers to the OHS questions. The complete set of OHS questions with updated explanations of what to look for is in Section 4 of the Guide to Completing Annual Payroll Reporting.

For support with the OHS questions, contact us today. If you need technical support with WSCC Connect, see the WSCC Connect Help page or contact the Help Desk toll-free at 1-844-238-5008.
Safe Workplace 
WHAT WE HEARD
As WSCC prepares to launch the NEW Safe Workplace program in January 2022, we wanted to thank you for your feedback. Employers and partners from across Nunavut and the NWT reached out to us to tell us what they thought. This input has been an essential part of building this new program to advance health and safety in workplaces across the north. To read our “What We Heard Report”, please visit the WSCC website.
NEW Resource Feature
PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE GUIDE
Discussions about the importance of mental health are becoming more and more commonplace in the workplace. It is a positive step to have this important topic in the spotlight, but where do we go from there? WSCC has created a practical, step-by-step guide to help employers create safety programs that will work to improve psychological health and safety in their workplace(s). The guide discusses some perspectives of people managing mental health challenges and tools to help supervisors better support these individuals and keep employees safe, engaged, and productive. The guide will take businesses through three important steps:

  1. Organizational Commitment – establishing the value that your business/organization puts on the health and safety of your employees, from their physical to their emotional and mental well-being.
  2. Planning and Implementation – the process of planning for real changes within your organization, and then following through with your plans.
  3. Ongoing Commitment and Continual Improvement – follow up is key. Create a schedule to reflect and evaluate the successes of your plans, and importantly, find areas where you can continue to improve. 

It is important that mental health isn’t just a one-time conversation, but is something that we prioritize and make space for in our workplaces. To find this guide, adapted from the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, visit WSCC’s website today.
Personal Optional Coverage 
DUE DECEMBER 31, 2021
If you are a business owner, partner, registered director, or self-employed, you do not automatically receive WSCC coverage through your employment. To receive WSCC coverage, you need to sign up for Personal Optional Coverage, which provides you with the same benefits as other workers in case of workplace disease and injury.

You can apply for coverage for as little as one month and up to one full year. You need to renew your coverage each year. To ensure there is no break in coverage, please have your 2022 Personal Optional Coverage submitted to the WSCC by December 31, 2021.

To view and fill out the Personal Optional Coverage form, please click here. You can email the form to either our Nunavut or Northwest Territories office, or fax it toll-free to our Nunavut office at 1 (866) 979-8501 or toll-free to our NWT office at 1 (866) 277-3677.
WSCC Stakeholder Survey 
WSCC is working with Malatest, a private research firm, to find out directly from employers and workers about their service experiences with the WSCC.

Employers can participate in the survey by calling 1-866-247-6465 toll-free or completing an online survey. Feedback received until December 22, 2021.

All findings from the survey will remain private and confidential, meaning that participants will not be identified by or linked to their responses. All information provided is protected under the provisions of the NWT Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Policy Changes
The Governance Council reviewed and approved the following policies at its December 2021 meeting:

  • Policy 00.03 - Interjurisdictional Agreements 
  • Policy 02.04 - Coverage Outside of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut
  • Policy 02.07 -Mega Project Assessments
  • Policy 06.01 -Pension Entitlement
  • Policy 06.02 -Pension Conversions and Advances
  • Policy 06.03 - Calculation of Permanent Compensation

Please refer to the WSCC Policy Manual to view all WSCC policies, and the Governance Council Directives to view all governance directives.
WSCC Office Closures
WSCC Offices will be closed on Thursday, December 23, and will reopen on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

To report a serious workplace injury or incident, call 1 (800) 661-0792.

To report unsafe work, use our online Report Unsafe Work service on WSCC Connect.
Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut,
5022 49th Street, 5th Floor, Centre Square Tower, Box 8888, Yellowknife, NT X1A 2R3 Canada