Nunavut WSCC Appeal and Review Deadlines

Q: Where is a Nunavut WSCC appeal actually decided?

In Yellowknife. Nunavut and the Northwest Territories share one commission, one Review Committee and one Appeals Tribunal. The Review Committee is internal to WSCC and can maintain, reverse or change your case manager's decision. The Appeals Tribunal is independent of WSCC, is the second and final level, and is based in the Precambrian Building on 52nd Street in Yellowknife. A Nunavut worker's final decision is therefore made outside Nunavut. If you live in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay or any of the smaller communities, walking into the room is not a realistic default.

Q: How long do I have to request a review of a WSCC decision in Nunavut?

Three years from the original decision. That is a great deal longer than most of Canada allows. Ask for your claim file first, because the Review Committee itself encourages workers to request disclosure before filing, and you can request it from the adjudicator, case manager, claims entitlement supervisor or the Manager of Claims Services. Then complete a Request for Review form, or write to the Registrar of the Review Committee. Either way it needs your claim number, the date of the decision letter you want reviewed, the reasons you disagree, what you think the decision should be, and whether you want an oral or a documentary hearing.

Q: How long do I have to appeal a Review Committee decision to the Appeals Tribunal?

Three years after the Review Committee decision is made. The Appeals Tribunal cannot hear an appeal until the Review Committee has decided, so the two steps have to happen in that order and the second clock starts only when the first one stops. An appeal starts with a Notice of Appeal sent to the Tribunal along with a copy of the Review Committee decision.

Q: Is there a deadline once my Nunavut appeal has already started?

Two of them. After the Tribunal requests your file from WSCC it builds an Appeal Package and sends it to you with a Certificate of Readiness to Proceed. Nothing gets scheduled until you complete and return that certificate, and the Tribunal expects it back within twenty one days. Separately, where an appeal sits without explanation for six months, the Tribunal may dismiss it.

Q: How long do the Review Committee and the Appeals Tribunal take to decide?

The Review Committee holds your hearing within 20 business days of your request reaching WSCC and decides within 30 business days of the hearing. Once the Appeals Tribunal has all the evidence, a decision follows within ninety days. The Tribunal's ninety days does not start when you file, it starts once it has all the evidence.

Q: Do I have to travel to Yellowknife for a Nunavut workers compensation appeal?

No. There are four kinds of hearing: written, in person, in person by video conference, and in person by telephone conference. The Tribunal will usually schedule the type you request, and it normally sits as a single member, though the chairperson can appoint a panel of three. An in person hearing is generally held in Yellowknife and if you do not live there the cost of getting there is yours. A video conference hearing only asks you to reach the nearest video conference facility, in most cases less than two hours away, and you can request reimbursement of reasonable travel costs such as mileage and meals afterward.

Q: What is a written hearing, and should I ask for one?

A written hearing is decided entirely from the documents, which means anything you did not write down does not exist for that purpose. No one will ask you a follow up question, notice that you seemed to be in pain, or draw out the detail you forgot to include. It suits an appeal with one or two straightforward issues where the evidence is already in the package, and it is normally the quickest route to a decision. If you choose a written hearing, the written submission is the entire appeal.

Q: Can I deal with my WSCC claim in Inuktut?

Ask, and get the answer in writing. The Official Languages Act of Nunavut recognizes Inuktut, English and French, and gives Nunavummiut the right to communicate with and receive services from territorial institutions, the Legislative Assembly, the courts and municipalities in the official language of their choice. The Inuktut Protection Act sits alongside it. WSCC is the complication, because it is one commission operating across two territories under two separate statutes. We have not confirmed exactly what WSCC owes you in Inuktut, so ask WSCC in Iqaluit and ask the Appeals Tribunal separately and keep their answers. WSCC does publish its claims pages in Inuktut. The Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut is where that question goes if you are told something is not available.

Q: Who pays when I travel south for treatment on a Nunavut work injury claim?

WSCC does, on an accepted claim, where WSCC has asked you to attend. Government of Nunavut medical travel is a payer of last resort and its own eligibility rules require that you have used up all other third party and employer insurance options, or have no plan at all. An accepted WSCC claim is exactly that kind of plan. Where you are sent depends on your region: Qikiqtaaluk generally travels to Ottawa, Kivalliq to Winnipeg or Churchill, Kitikmeot to Yellowknife or Edmonton. Say the words WSCC claim to whoever books the travel, and ask in writing which body is paying.

Q: Do I need a lawyer to appeal, or is there free help in Nunavut?

The Workers' Advisor Office is free and is one office covering both territories. It will obtain your WSCC file on your behalf and it will come to the appeal with you to explain your case. It will take a first call at any stage, including before you have filled in the claim forms, and distance is not a barrier to a phone call the way it is to a hearing. Much of what it does never reaches a formal review at all, because a good deal of what looks like a refusal turns out to be a gap in the file. It can also decline, for example where there is no objective medical evidence or no statutory entitlement.

How a work injury claim is reviewed and appealed in Nunavut. Free. No email required. For anyone injured at work.

Sitting in a cabin, holding the neck and checking something on a phone. — Three years to ask for a review, then three years again to appeal the result. Both of those decisions are made from a file that is being written now, in the weeks when nobody is thinking about appeals yet, and the body that ends it sits in another territory.

Nunavut shares its workers compensation system with the Northwest Territories. One commission, one Review Committee, one Appeals Tribunal. What that means in practice, and what almost nobody tells you at the start, is that the body making the final decision on your claim is not in Nunavut.

Injured in the Northwest Territories instead? The law is the same but the practical experience is not. Read the Northwest Territories version, which covers the same two levels from the territory where the tribunal actually sits.

YOUR FOUR CLOCKS

Only one of the four runs shorter than a month, and it is one you cannot reach until an appeal is already under way. Not drawn to scale.

21 daysReturn the Certificate of Readiness to Proceed

6 monthsThe longest you should let your own appeal sit

3 yearsAsk the Review Committee for a review

3 yearsAppeal that result to the Appeals Tribunal

Short, and only once the appeal is running Longer, but they start now

You have	To do this	Counting from
3 years	Request a review by the Review Committee	The original decision
3 years	Appeal to the Appeals Tribunal	The Review Committee decision
21 days	Return the Certificate of Readiness to Proceed. Nothing gets scheduled until you do.	The Appeal Package reaching you
6 months	The longest an appeal of yours should sit without explanation. The Tribunal may dismiss it.	Your last step in the appeal

They do not all count from the same event. The first three year window runs from your original decision. The second runs from the Review Committee decision, and it cannot start until that decision exists. The other two belong to an appeal you have already begun: one is a form the Tribunal is waiting on, the other is a limit on how long the whole thing can sit.

Where is a Nunavut WSCC appeal actually decided?

In Yellowknife, in another territory. The Review Committee is internal to WSCC and can maintain, reverse or change your case manager's decision. The Appeals Tribunal is independent of WSCC, is the second and final level, and is based in the Precambrian Building on 52nd Street in Yellowknife.

That is not a complaint about the system. It is a planning fact.

If you live in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay or any of the smaller communities, walking into the room is not a realistic default.

It is also why the hearing type you ask for matters more here than it would somewhere the tribunal is down the road. There are four of them, and three do not require you to get to Yellowknife at all.

How long do I have to request a review of a WSCC decision in Nunavut?

Three years from the original decision. That is a great deal longer than most of Canada allows, and it is the single most reassuring fact on this page. If you were told no last year and put the letter in a drawer, the door is very likely still open.

Ask for your claim file first. The Review Committee itself encourages workers to request disclosure before filing, so that everyone is arguing from the same documents. Speak to the adjudicator, case manager, claims entitlement supervisor or the Manager of Claims Services to request it.

Then put the request in. Complete a Request for Review form, or write to the Registrar of the Review Committee.

What the request has to state. Your claim number, the date of the decision letter you want reviewed, the reasons you disagree, what you think the decision should be, and whether you want an oral or a documentary hearing. That last choice is yours to make and worth thinking about rather than leaving blank.

Three years is permission, not advice.

The limit is generous. Your memory is not, and neither is anyone else's. Symptoms that were obvious in month two are difficult to evidence in year three, and the people who treated you will have moved on. Use the room the law gives you to prepare properly rather than to wait.

WSCC, Iqaluit
2A-630 Queen Elizabeth Way, Iqaluit NU X0A 3H0
867-979-8500
Toll free 1-877-404-4407, which is also the Nunavut tele-claim line
ReviewCommittee@wscc.nt.ca

Review Committee Registrar
Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission
Box 8888, Yellowknife NT X1A 2R3
Toll free fax 1-866-277-3677

How long do I have to appeal a Review Committee decision to the Appeals Tribunal?

Three years after the Review Committee decision is made. The Appeals Tribunal cannot hear an appeal until the Review Committee has decided, so the two steps have to happen in that order and the second clock starts only when the first one stops.

How an appeal starts. A Notice of Appeal goes to the Tribunal along with a copy of the Review Committee decision. After that the Tribunal requests your file from WSCC and builds an Appeal Package, which is sent to you with a Certificate of Readiness to Proceed.

Appeals Tribunal, Yellowknife
NWT and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal
Suite 1002, Precambrian Building, 4920 52nd Street, Yellowknife NT X1A 3T1
Toll free 1-888-777-8167
appealstribunal.ca

Is there a deadline once my Nunavut appeal has already started?

Two of them, and neither is a filing date. They are the reason a three year window is less relaxed than it sounds.

Twenty one days for the certificate. Nothing gets scheduled until you complete and return the Certificate of Readiness to Proceed that arrives with your Appeal Package, and the Tribunal expects it back within twenty one days. An appeal can stall here without anyone deciding anything.

Six months of silence can end it. Where an appeal sits without explanation for six months, the Tribunal may dismiss it. That one counts from your own last step rather than from any decision letter, which makes it the only deadline on this page that is entirely in your hands.

The word doing the work in that sentence is "without explanation". If something has stopped you, say so in writing at the time rather than explaining it later.

If your claim were decided tomorrow, what would your file say?

People who were genuinely hurt have lost benefits over a date nobody recorded, a body part left off the first form, or a call nobody wrote down. Caught early that is fixable. A year on it is an argument you have to win. The Nunavut Workplace Injury Companion Guide keeps every date on this page in one place, with the form that goes with each and room to write down what actually happened. $24.99, yours to keep.

See the guide

How long do the Review Committee and the Appeals Tribunal take to decide?

These are their clocks, not yours. You cannot miss one of them. They are here because they tell you how long the process runs once you have started it.

Timeline	What happens	Counting from
20 business days	The Review Committee holds your hearing	Your request reaching WSCC
30 business days	The Review Committee decides	The hearing
90 days	The Appeals Tribunal issues its decision	Having all the evidence

Read the last column before you plan around any of it. The Tribunal's ninety days does not begin when you file, it begins once it has all the evidence. Which means the part of the timetable you can most affect is the part that happens before the timetable starts.

Dates are only half of it. Knowing the two levels does not tell you which of the four hearing types to ask for, what a Certificate of Readiness to Proceed is before one lands in your mailbox, or which body is paying for the flight south.

Recovering after a workplace injury in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut covers the whole process and is free to read. Hurt somewhere else in Canada? Start from the guides by province and territory.

Do I have to travel to Yellowknife for a Nunavut workers compensation appeal?

No. There are four kinds of hearing, and most people only ever hear about two of them. Written, in person, in person by video conference, and in person by telephone conference. The Tribunal will usually schedule the type you request. It normally sits as a single member, though the chairperson can appoint a panel of three.

The video conference option is the one worth knowing about. An in person hearing is generally held in Yellowknife, and if you do not live there the cost of getting there is yours. A video conference hearing only asks you to reach the nearest video conference facility, in most cases less than two hours away, and you can request reimbursement of reasonable travel costs such as mileage and meals afterward.

One warning about cost at the review stage. WSCC does not arrange or pay for travel, accommodation or time lost from work to attend a Review Committee hearing, whether that hearing is in person, by video or by telephone.

That is separate from medical travel on an accepted claim, which is further down this page. Two stages, two different answers, and the gap between them is where the bills appear.

What is a written hearing, and should I ask for one?

A written hearing is decided entirely from the documents. Which means anything you did not write down does not exist for that purpose. No one will ask you a follow up question, notice that you seemed to be in pain, or draw out the detail you forgot to include.

It suits a narrow appeal. One or two straightforward issues where the evidence is already in the package. It is normally the quickest route to a decision.

If you choose a written hearing, then the written submission is the entire appeal. Give it the time you would have given a day in a hearing room.

An Indigenous woman writing in a journal outdoors under northern lights. — A written hearing has no one in it to ask you a second question. On a three year clock, the only version of a difficult week that counts is the one somebody wrote down while it was still happening. An evening's note costs nothing now and cannot be added later.

Can I deal with my WSCC claim in Inuktut?

Ask, and get the answer in writing. The Official Languages Act of Nunavut recognizes Inuktut, English and French, and gives Nunavummiut the right to communicate with and receive services from territorial institutions, the Legislative Assembly, the courts and municipalities in the official language of their choice. The Inuktut Protection Act sits alongside it.

WSCC is the complication, and we would rather say so than guess. It is one commission operating across two territories under two separate statutes, with a language regime in Nunavut that recognizes three official languages and one in the Northwest Territories that recognizes eleven. We are not going to tell you exactly what WSCC owes you in Inuktut, because we have not confirmed it. Ask WSCC in Iqaluit and ask the Appeals Tribunal, separately, and keep their answers. WSCC does publish its claims pages in Inuktut, so start there.

If you are told something is not available in Inuktut and you think it should be, the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut is the place that question goes.

One practical point either way. If you write your own account of the injury in Inuktut, keep that original. A translated version is a second document, not a replacement, and the original is evidence of what you said and when you said it.

Who pays when I travel south for treatment on a Nunavut work injury claim?

On an accepted claim, WSCC does. If WSCC asks you to do something, such as see a doctor, you receive pay for the time away from work and related expenses including travel.

This is the part people get wrong, and in Nunavut it gets expensive fast. Government of Nunavut medical travel is a payer of last resort. Its own eligibility rules require that you have used up all other third party and employer insurance options, or have no plan at all. An accepted WSCC claim is exactly that kind of plan. Booking a work injury trip through the health route and sorting it out later is how people end up arguing about a bill months afterward.

Where you are sent depends on your region. Qikiqtaaluk generally travels to Ottawa, Kivalliq to Winnipeg or Churchill, Kitikmeot to Yellowknife or Edmonton. Each has its own boarding home and its own patient referral office, so the people you deal with on the way down are not the people handling your claim.

Say the words "WSCC claim" to whoever books the travel, and ask in writing which body is paying. Then keep everything. Boarding passes, boarding home paperwork, meal receipts, escort details and the dates of every leg.

A single trip south can involve three flights, two overnight stops and a week away, and none of it reconstructs from memory six months later.

Do I need a lawyer to appeal, or is there free help in Nunavut?

The Workers' Advisor Office, one office covering both territories. It is free, it will obtain your WSCC file on your behalf, and it will come to the appeal with you to explain your case.

Call them before you need them. They will take a first call at any stage, including before you have filled in the claim forms, and distance is not a barrier to a phone call the way it is to a hearing. Much of what they do never reaches a formal review at all, because a good deal of what looks like a refusal turns out to be a gap in the file.

They can also decline. If there are no grounds to take a case further, for example where there is no objective medical evidence or no statutory entitlement, they will say so after reviewing the file. That is worth knowing rather than taking as a rejection.

Can a court review a WSCC or Appeals Tribunal decision in Nunavut?

Very little is left, and it is narrow rather than nothing. Section 133 of the Workers' Compensation Act restricts challenges to a denial of natural justice or an excess of jurisdiction. No court may question or review the decisions of WSCC, the Review Committee or the Appeals Tribunal, or issue an injunction against them. A court cannot re-examine the merits of your case.

The Nunavut Court of Justice considered exactly this in 2025 and applied that restriction. The point is not that the door is shut. It is that the door is a narrow one about process and power, not about whether the tribunal weighed your evidence correctly.

Which is the argument for doing the work early. A process argument is much harder to build than a good file was.

I was injured in a vehicle while working. Which deadlines apply?

Then the road accident side applies as well, and it works differently in the North than the rest of Canada. Our territories car accident page explains why the two year limitation rule published everywhere else may not be yours. For the wider picture of a Nunavut work injury, start from recovering after a workplace injury in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Read that page alongside this one. The windows above belong to the WSCC side of it and say nothing about the road accident side.

Last verified: August 2026
Checked against: the WSCC Reviews and Appeals pages for workers, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal and its Before a Hearing guide, the Workers' Advisor Office, the Government of Nunavut medical travel pages, and the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut. The governing law is the Workers' Compensation Act (Nunavut).
Corrected in August 2026. An earlier version of this page carried no day counts at all and said the time limits were not published plainly enough for us to state them. They are published. Both are three years, and this page now says so.
We still give no figure for the deadline to file a claim in the first place, because we have not confirmed it at source. Report as soon as you can and ask WSCC for your own date.
If you find something here that is out of date, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.

Keeping the record these decisions depend on

A hearing that may well be decided on paper, in another territory, with no court behind it that will look at the facts again. Everything the people deciding your claim will ever know about your injury is whatever reached the file. WSCC tells injured workers to write down everything that happens, and on a three year clock that instruction carries more weight here than almost anywhere else.

Two things decide how an injury claim goes. What you wrote down and whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide handles the first, the daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs that a claim is eventually judged on. The Nunavut Workplace Injury Companion Guide handles the second, the deadlines on this page and the forms, boards and appeal routes behind them. People who have only one tend to end up with a careful record aimed at the wrong process, or the right dates and nothing to put in front of them.

Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.

If you are holding a WSCC decision, the three years to ask for a review is counting from the date printed on it. If you are holding a Review Committee decision, the three years to appeal is counting from that one. If an Appeal Package is sitting on your table, the Tribunal is waiting twenty one days for the certificate inside it. And an appeal that sits without explanation for six months may be dismissed.

EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE, AND WHAT COMES NEXT

The Nunavut Workplace Injury Companion Guide

This page tells you the dates. The guide walks you through them, and gives you somewhere to write down what happened on each one.

Both three year windows, and the date each one counts from
The four hearing types, and what a video conference hearing saves you
The Certificate of Readiness to Proceed, and the twenty one days to return it
Who pays for the trip south, and what to ask before anyone books it

$24.99 · instant download · yours to keep

See the Nunavut Workplace Injury Companion Guide

Most people take it with the National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide, which is the daily record the dates hang on.

Not ready for a guide? The checklist for the first week after a workplace injury is at hurtsquare.ca/7. It is free and asks nothing of you.

This page is general information for people in Nunavut. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by jurisdiction and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with the Workers' Advisor Office or WSCC.

Menu

Your cart is empty

Cart • 0 items