LIBERALS WANT WORKER COMPENSATION BENEFITS FOR WIDOWS OF SPRINGHILL MINERS
Date: Monday November 2, 2009

(Halifax, NS) Liberal MLA Leo Glavine reintroduced a bill today that
will retroactively restore survivor benefits to widows of the Springhill
mining disaster and other industrial accidents in Nova Scotia.

Currently, those Springhill widows whose spouses died before 1985 and
who subsequently remarried were stripped of their survivor benefits. A
Supreme Court of Canada ruling changed the parameters in 1999, but
Glavine says the 14 years worth of benefits that were lost should be
returned.

“It was wrong to exclude remarried widows from receiving that small
survivor benefit in 1985 and it’s still wrong today,” says Glavine.
“These women raised their families while struggling with limited
incomes and fighting for these benefits for decades.”

Glavine believes the NDP will, in fact, pass this piece of legislation.
The last time the bill was introduced in December of 2007, current NDP
Deputy Premier Frank Corbett confirmed that his party supported the bill
and wanted to see the widows retroactively reimbursed.

“There are nearly fifty Springhill widows who are entitled to 14
years worth of compensation and I’m urging this new government to
adopt this bill and ensure that they get it.”

“Without a doubt, it’s the right thing to do.”


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