Effective June 30, 2002, the Workers Compensation Amendment Act, 2002 (Bill 49) significantly amended the Workers Compensation Act in relation to benefits for injured workers. To facilitate the implementation of the policies developed to implement Bill 49, the Rehabilitation Services & Claims Manual was restructured into two volumes. Chapter 1 of each volume was amended to explain the distinction between Volume I and Volume II.

At their June 17, 2003 meeting, the Board of Directors approved revisions to Chapter 1 to expand and clarify this explanation. In particular, an Addendum has been created for Chapter 1 in Volume I that provides a mechanism for identifying the few changes made to Volume I since June 30, 2002.

The Board of Directors also incorporated into Volume I the policy amendments made last year to the definition of "recurrence" in Volume II for purposes of the section 35.1 of the Act, which contains the transitional provisions for Bill 49.