Merchant Seamen Compensation Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. M-6)

Insurance

Marginal note:Employer to be insured

• 30 (1) Every employer shall cover by insurance or other means satisfactory to the Minister the risks of compensation arising under this Act.

• Marginal note:Failure to comply

  (2) Every person who fails to comply with subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

• Marginal note:Due diligence

  (3) A person is not to be found guilty of an offence under subsection (2) if they establish that they exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.

• Marginal note:Minister’s consent

  (4) No proceedings shall be taken under this section against any person without the Minister’s consent.

Scale of Compensation

Marginal note:Amounts of compensation

• 31 (1) Where the death of a seaman results from an injury, the following amounts of compensation shall be paid:

  • (a) the necessary expenses of burial of the seaman not exceeding seven hundred and forty-two dollars;

  • (b) in addition to the sum mentioned in paragraph (a), a sum not exceeding one hundred and twenty-five dollars for necessary expenses for transportation and things supplied and services rendered in connection therewith necessitated by the transfer of the body of a seaman from the place of death to the place of interment;

  • (c) if the expenses of burial of a seaman are paid by an employer under section 93 of the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 following any accident in respect of which compensation is payable under this Act, the amount of the expenses shall be deducted from the amount payable under paragraphs (a) and (b);

  • (d) where the survivor is the sole dependant, a monthly payment of $1,451.92;

  • (e) where the dependants are a survivor and one or more children, a monthly payment of $1,451.92 with an additional monthly payment of $161.18 to be increased on the death of the survivor to $164.93

    • (i) for each child under the age of eighteen years, and

    • (ii) with the Minister’s approval, for each child under the age of 21 years who is attending school;

  • (f) where the dependants are children only, a monthly payment of one hundred and fifteen dollars

    • (i) to each child under the age of eighteen years, and

    • (ii) with the Minister’s approval, to each child under the age of 21 years who is attending school; and

  • (g) if the dependants are persons other than those mentioned in paragraphs (d) to (f), a reasonable sum that is proportionate to the pecuniary loss to those dependants occasioned by the death, to be determined by the Minister.

• Marginal note:If no survivor

  (2) If a seaman leaves no survivor or the survivor subsequently dies, and a competent authority has appointed a person to care for the children who are entitled to compensation, the Minister may pay that person the same monthly payments of compensation as if that person were the survivor of the deceased, and in that case the children’s part of the payments shall be in lieu of the monthly payments that they would otherwise have been entitled to receive.

• Marginal note:Additional sum

  (3) In addition to any other compensation provided for under this section, the survivor or, where the seaman leaves no survivor, the foster-parent, as described in subsection (2), is entitled to a lump sum of $16,868.50.

• Marginal note:Duration of payments

  (4) In the case provided for by paragraph (1)(g), the payments shall continue only so long as, in the Minister’s opinion, it might reasonably have been expected that the seaman, had they lived, would have continued to contribute to the support of the dependants, and, in any case under that paragraph, compensation may be made wholly or partly in a lump sum or by any form of payment that the Minister considers most suitable in the circumstances.

• Marginal note:Dependant to whom seaman stood in place of parent

  (5) A dependant to whom the seaman stood in the place of a parent or a dependant who stood in the place of a parent to the seaman is entitled, as the Minister may determine, to share in or receive compensation under paragraph (1)(e), (f) or (g).

• Marginal note:Disabled child

  (6) Compensation is payable to a disabled child without regard to their age, and payments to the child shall continue until, in the Minister’s opinion, the child ceases to be disabled.

• Marginal note:Total and partial dependants

  (7) Where there are both total and partial dependants, the compensation may be allotted partly to the total and partly to the partial dependants.

• Marginal note:Payments to other persons

  (8) If the Minister is of the opinion that it is desirable that a payment in respect of a child should not be made directly to their parent, the Minister may direct that the payment be made to any person or be applied in any manner that he or she considers most advantageous for the child.

• Marginal note:Maximum compensation

  (9) Exclusive of the expenses of burial of the seaman and the lump sum of eight hundred and thirty-three dollars referred to in subsection (3), the compensation payable as provided by subsection (1) shall not in any case exceed seventy-five per cent of the average earnings of the seaman mentioned in section 36, and if the compensation payable under subsection (1) would in any case exceed that percentage, it shall be reduced accordingly, and where several persons are entitled to monthly payments the payments shall be reduced proportionately, but the minimum compensation shall be

  • (a) where the survivor is the sole dependant, a monthly payment of $1,451.92, or if the seaman’s average earnings are less than $1,451.92 per month, the amount of those earnings; and

  • (b) where the dependants are a survivor and one or more children, a monthly payment of $1,613.10 for the survivor and one child irrespective of the amount of the seaman’s earnings, with a further monthly payment of $161.18 for each additional child unless the total monthly compensation exceeds the seaman’s average earnings, in which case the compensation shall be a sum equal to those earnings or $1,613.10, whichever is the greater, the share for each child entitled to compensation being reduced proportionately.

Marginal note:Payment of additional compensation

• 32 (1) In addition to the amounts of compensation payable under section 31 to dependants of a seaman as a result of his death from an accident, there shall be paid,

  • (a) where the survivor of the seaman is the sole dependant, a monthly payment equal to the amount remaining, if any, after subtracting from $100 the amount of any monthly payment payable to that person pursuant to section 31;

  • (b) where the dependants are a survivor and one or more children,

    • (i) a monthly payment equal to the amount remaining, if any, after subtracting from $100 the amount of any monthly payment payable to that survivor pursuant to section 31, and

    • (ii) an additional monthly payment for each child equal to the amount remaining, if any, after subtracting from $35 the amount of any monthly payment payable pursuant to section 31 for that child, that payment to be increased on the death of the survivor to an amount equal to the amount remaining, if any, after subtracting from $45 the amount of any monthly payment payable pursuant to section 31 to that child; and

  • (c) where the dependants are children only, a monthly payment to each child equal to the amount remaining, if any, after subtracting from forty-five dollars the amount of any monthly payment payable pursuant to section 31 to that child.

• Marginal note:Dependent minors attending school

  (2) In addition to the amounts of compensation payable under section 31 to or for a seaman’s dependent children as a result of the seaman’s death from an accident incurred before May 1, 1965, there shall be paid, with the Minister’s approval, to or for each dependent child under the age of 21 years who is attending school, the compensation that would have been payable had the accident from which the death of the seaman resulted occurred on or after May 1, 1965.

• Marginal note:Payment made out of C.R.F.

  (3) The amounts payable pursuant to this section shall be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund and shall be paid subject to the same terms and conditions as apply to the compensation payable pursuant to the other provisions of this Act.

• Marginal note:“Section 31”

  (4) In this section, the expression “section 31” means that section as it read at the date of the accident to the seaman in respect of whose resulting death compensation is payable.

33 [Repealed, 2000, c. 12, s. 190]

34 [Repealed, R.S., 1985, c. 31 (1st Supp.), s. 83]

Marginal note:Orders of Governor in Council

35 The Governor in Council may, by order, increase all or any of

• (a) the amounts specified in paragraphs 31(1)(a), (b), (d), (e) and (f), in subsections 31(3) and (9) and in section 40,

• (b) the percentages specified in subsection 31(9), in section 36 and in subsections 37(2) and (4), and

• (c) the maximum rate of earnings specified in subsection 41(1),

but no order shall increase an amount, percentage or maximum rate of earnings to an amount, percentage or maximum rate of earnings that exceeds the highest equivalent amount, percentage or maximum rate of earnings specified, at the time the order is made, in the enactments of the Legislature of the Province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador relating to compensation of workers and their dependants for accidents occurring to workers during the course of their employment.

Marginal note:Permanent total disability

36 Where permanent total disability of a seaman results from an injury, the amount of the compensation shall be a weekly payment during the life of the seaman equal to seventy-five per cent of his average weekly earnings during the previous twelve months if he has been so long employed, but if not, then for the period during which he has been in the employment of his employer.

Marginal note:Permanent partial disability

• 37 (1) Where permanent partial disability of a seaman results from an injury, the impairment of earning capacity of the seaman shall be estimated from the nature and degree of the injury, and the compensation shall be a weekly payment during the lifetime of the seaman in the same proportion to the weekly payment payable under section 36 as the impairment of earning capacity is to total earning capacity.

• Marginal note:Difference in earnings before and after accident

  (2) If the Minister considers it more equitable to do so, he or she may award compensation for permanent partial disability, having regard to the difference between the seaman’s average weekly earnings before the accident and the average amount that they are earning or are able to earn in a suitable employment or business after the accident, and the compensation may be a weekly payment of 75% of the difference, and regard shall be had to the seaman’s fitness to continue the employment in the course of which they were injured or to adapt themselves to some other suitable occupation.

• Marginal note:Rating schedule

  (3) The Minister may compile a rating schedule of percentages of impairment of earning capacity for specified injuries or mutilations that may be used as a guide in determining the compensation payable in permanent partial disability cases.

• Marginal note:Fixed amount

  (4) Despite subsections (1) and (2), if the impairment of the seaman’s earning capacity does not exceed 10% of their earning capacity, instead of a weekly payment payable under those subsections, the Minister may, unless he or she is of the opinion that it would not be to the seaman’s advantage to do so, fix an amount to be paid to the seaman as full compensation and pay the seaman the amount either in one sum or in periodic payments as the Minister may direct.

Marginal note:Temporary total disability

38 Where temporary total disability of a seaman results from an injury, the compensation shall be the same as that prescribed by section 36, but is payable only so long as the disability lasts.

Marginal note:Temporary partial disability

39 Where temporary partial disability of a seaman results from an injury, the compensation shall be the same as that prescribed by section 37, but is payable only so long as the disability lasts and subsection 37(4) applies.