Don Inverarity, the Liberals' critic for the territorial workers' compensation board, has stepped down from his role on advice from the territory's conflicts commissioner.

The advice was sought after Inverarity's wife filed a claim for compensation with the board.

'The conflicts commissioner said it would be best to remove Mr. Inverarity from his role as critic because of his wife's pending claim,' Liberal leader Arthur Mitchell said last Friday. 'We are acting on that advice.'

Inverarity assumed his critic role in October 2006.

In an interview this morning, he said he sent an e-mail off to the conflicts commissioner as soon as he knew of his wife's claim.

Some argued he could step away from issues over his wife's claim, which he declined to give details on.

However, he noted that as critic, he felt anything he criticized could be contrived as trying to influence her claim, and he didn't want to do that.

Mitchell said this morning it will likely be a couple of more days before a new critic is announced.

He noted the party is again in touch with the conflicts commissioner to determine if a potential critic has a conflict in taking the role.

After that's determined, Mitchell will select a new critic and an announcement will be made about who will take on the responsibility.