The Policy and Regulation Development Bureau ("Bureau") advised the Board of Directors of the Workers' Compensation Board concerning occupational disease policy development.

The Director General of the Bureau created a committee called the Occupational Disease Policy Development Committee ("ODPDC") to consider occupational disease policy development issues and to make recommendations to the Board of Directors.

In order to assist with proactive identification of occupational disease policy issues, the ODPDC prepared a Priority Planning Protocol. The purpose of the Priority Planning Protocol was to describe the process and criteria the ODPDC would use to set priorities for occupational disease policy development.

The Priority Planning Protocol received approval from the Priorities and Board Governance Committee of the Board of Directors at their April 1, 2003 meeting.

The Bureau asked for stakeholder comments about occupational disease issues that they wanted to suggest the ODPDC consider in the priority planning process.

Consultation closed April 14, 2003.