Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 2, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press. Saturday May 2, 1981 3 Selkirk studies suing City Over red River pollution re run fam shall by Ron Campbell angered by Winnipeg s refusal to clean up its upstream pollution of the red River Selkirk town Council has unanimously voted to consider suing its big Southern neighbor. A letter will be sent to Winnipeg mayor Bill Nome works and operations committee chairman John Angus and municipal affairs minister Doug Gourlay warning of the suit Patrick Joyce Selkirk s waterworks committee chairman said yesterday. However the feasibility of a lawsuit has not yet been discussed with Jack Walker the town s lawyer Joyce said. Safety report ready by Gregg Shilliday preliminary inspections indicate at least five townhouse developments in Winnipeg share design and construction faults similar to those in the fair Lane Meadows Complex that was Des troyed by a Flash fire last Spring. City officials refuse to identify the developments at least until a report on townhouse safety by the Winnipeg building commission is submitted to the civic environment committee Mon Day. At that time the committee is expected to approve the report s recommendations which largely support ear Lier proposals from the provincial building standards Board. The provincial Board found several design and construction faults in the Fairlane Meadows Complex and con firmed that these faults contributed to the rapid spread of the fire May 20. Bill before House labor minister Ken Macmaster has said he will Force the owners of at least 10-4 townhouse apartments to upgrade their structures to eliminate fire Haz Ards. A Bill designed to give the provincial fire commissioner More Power in these matters is currently before the Legisla Ture. Macmaster said this week that he was still intent on upgrading the developments and that he had the necessary authority through the fire prevention act to Force unwilling owners to comply with the new recommendations. In matters like this the Buck stops right Here in my office f have the Power to Force them if i have environment committee chairman Jim Ernst said yesterday he expected the committee to very Likely act on the City commission s recommendations. One City official said however that the recommendations will be taken with a Grain of these recommendations Are Basi Cally tailored to one specific building Fairlane Meadows. They re not applicable to everything. There s no ques Tion that Well have to use some discretion when implementing he said the City has t had any discussions with townhouse owners. Nome favors Marl s stance the mayor s advisory committee on race relations should contain peo ple who have been exposed to racial problems. Mayor Bill Norrie said thursday in agreement with the views of a delegation from the Manitoba association for rights and liberties. According to a Marl statement Norrie was very responsive to the concerns expressed by members of the delegation and stated that representatives of various communities and Community groups in Winnipeg should be represented on the advisory commit tee. The Marl delegation was headed by or. Ralph James president and Abraham Arnold executive director and included officials of seven other Community organizations. He said no specific monetary amount has been decided on because it s hot off the thoughts of the if the suit does go ahead the town would charge that the human sewage Winnipeg dumps into the River up Stream damages its portability and recreational potential when it reaches Selkirk Joyce said. A environment Canada study published last july found a focal Coli form count in Winnipeg s Section of the River to be As High As per 100 Millilitres of water and to average about per 100 Millilitres. The Federal Standard Calls for 200 per 100 Millilitres. These bacteria enter the River from Winnipeg s South end water pollution control Centre and the North end sew age treatment Plant and affect the River from the South perimeter High Way Bridge downstream to Selkirk. The study found 57 per cent of these bacteria were resistant to three com Mon penicillin derived antibiotics ampicillin oxytetracycline and chloramphenicol. But Winnipeg officials have Down played the significance of these find Ings. Harold Lacey head of Winnipeg s Laboratory services told the provincial clean environment commission in february that the same conform counts Are obtainable in a shovel of Earth from your Back Selkirk officials Are so concerned about the pollution however that last summer following release of the report they took the town off red River water for drinking purposes. The town now gets All its drinking water from two Wells located within the town limits and is planning another Well drilled into a new aquifer North of town to replace another Well which has been capped because of deterioration. Joyce said the town is trying to get Federal and provincial financing for the new Well. Before last summer Selkirk s residents were drinking blended water from the red River partly from the Wells. The decision to abandon the River for drinking purposes has been an expensive one. Within the last decade the town had spent More than building a pumping facility and piping to take water from the red to the civic water treatment Plant to make the River water potable. It was less expensive to treat the soft River water than the hard Well water with its higher Mineral Content Joyce said. The standards imposed by the provincial clean environment act on the town s sewage and water treatment methods have been a big Burden for the town s relatively Small tax base Joyce said. But As a result our sewage treat ment is one of the Best in North Ameri but Winnipeg unlike any other municipality in Manitoba is exempted from the clean environment act in this respect since under the City of Winni Peg act it is empowered to Monitor its own sewage treatment standards. That is what we take exception to said Joyce. James free press in danger Over firefighters with Gas masks and oxygen tanks leave the Robinson and Webber Ltd. Chemical Plant at Dublin Avenue and Orange Street yesterday where they found the situation pretty much under control after a leak of chlorine Gas. A Transfer pipe in the building apparently broke releasing about 23 kilograms of the Gas into the Plant. General manager Bob Keith said alarms were sounded and about 50 people were evacuated within piece of paper a expense until six months ago Home buyers paid for land Survey certificate by Brian Cole a Legal technicality is forcing Many Winnipeg Home buyers to pay up to for a land Survey certificate that used to Cost about Alex Worster a City zoning officer said yesterday. Since 1972, a Home buyer who could t obtain a certificate from the seller or the original owner could get a copy of the document from the City for Between and but the practice ended about six months ago after the association of Manitoba land surveyors convinced the City that the Sale was illegal. They claimed they had a sort of copyright on it and Pur lawyers had to Worster said yesterday in an interview. As a result Worster said quite a few people requesting copies of certificates registered with the City have been turned Down and forced to approach the land Survey companies. The Issue was raised in the Legisla Ture yesterday by progressive la Sidney Green who asked attorney general Gerry Mercier to investigate the matter and determine whether the fee could be eliminated. Rip off Green Inkster said the fee was unnecessarily put on purchasers for something that could be copied for a Penny and a it s a Green said. The fee is a Complete waste of Money for something that has Al ready been Green charged. Meanwhile Barrie Flower of Flower and Beattie land surveyors said the fee protects the interests of the consumer As Well As the Surveyor. Flower a former executive of the Manitoba association of land Survey ors said the certificate is part of a contract Between the Surveyor and his client and should t be available to just anybody. It s no different than going into a doctor s office and demanding to see files of a he said. An old certificate May not detail recent changes to the property there by giving the purchaser a misleading picture of what is being bought he said. Occasionally a purchaser May Dis cover an alteration to the property such As the construction of a garage which encroaches on the Homeowner s land that was t on the certificate. He May then try to sue the Surveyor even though the Surveyor May not have had anything to do with the property for 20 years said Flower. Some people assume the certificate is valid but there is nobody to fall Back on if something goes he said. Copying machines also make it easier for people to tamper with Origi Nal certificates he said. Flower said members of the association were concerned when they discovered the City was Selling copies of the certificates and subsequently decided to have the practice halted. But Green rejected the arguments saving that if a person acquired a copy of the certificate and then noticed there was another building on his land or encroached on his land he could then decide to get a updated Survey. Like Legal decision Green said the certificate could be More closely compared to a Legal decision than a doctor s file. A client May pay thousands of Dol Lars during a court Case but that does not give him a copyright on the judge s decision he said. Green said the association has also requested that the City of Brandon halt a similar practice. Legionnaire link suspicion startles family by Deborah read relatives of a woman who died of pneumonia in february say they were never told Legionnaire s disease was suspected As the cause of death. Jessie Sinclair daughter of the East Kildonan woman said the family first became aware of the suspected link through a free press article wednes Day. Everything in the article was just so said Sinclair i said my god it just sounds like they re talking about she phoned the medical examiner or. Gilbert Welch and was told her Mother also named Jessie was indeed the person involved. When my Mother died they told us she died of a massive heart said Sinclair. We weren t told any thing else. Here it is in the paper arid we Don t know anything about or. Welch said yesterday he does t know How the news Media found out about the suspected link but it was t his responsibility to inform families of tests ordered after a postmortem. I never phone any parents or family or Tell them a postmortem is usually done if a patient Dies outside a Hospital and the Case becomes the medical examiner s responsibility. All my Job is is to Rule out foul play and i m acting under the auspices of the attorney general s of said Welch. You have to have a cause of swabs to lab there was no suspicion of foul play in the Sinclair Case but tissue swabs were sent to a provincial Laboratory because of the rapid Onset of her illness which led the pathologist to suspect legion Naire s disease said Welch. Sinclair said her Mother was sick Only one Day saw her doctor that afternoon and received antibiotics. She died the night of feb. 20 before an ambulance could arrive. Sinclair said her father Ernest was not contacted or told of the lab tests. He just wanted to leave her in peace. Why All of a sudden is All this coming out he Welch should have said some thing to us it makes you wonder is it her or in t Welch said he had spoken to report ers because i m the medical examiner responsible but nobody wants that kind of hassle thrown at May prove false he said the suspicion of legion Naire s disease May prove false in the Sinclair Case. I Don t inform any families of anything at any time. If a person wants to know they will Call me. If i were to be phoning everybody i d have to quit private Welch said the tissue samples Are still at the lab because techniques for identifying the disease Are not exact and require a series of tests. Cause of death listed on the death certificate was pneumonia said Welch and the family could have Learned that from the funeral parlor. But he said investigators Are still unsure what Type of pneumonia she had. Legionnaire s disease a strange pneumonia like disease takes its name from the 1976 american legion Conven Tion in Philadelphia when 31 delegates died. Ads dispute claim fee boost pact close health minister . Bud Sherman is hopeful the government and the Manitoba medical association Are just hours away from a fee increase for this year but doctors Are less optimistic. The two sides have reached a com Mon Sherman told reporters yesterday. I m hopeful we re just. Hours away from a new fee schedule but a spokesman for the Mma said i Don t think there is any reason for great optimism at the he added it would t be wrong to say a Resolution is in doctors want 49.3% the doctors who exercised the option to re open a two year contract in its second year were seeking a 49.3 per cent general fee increase instead of the near 10 per cent for this year. Sherman said his estimates had made provision for a reasonable increase. He defined reasonable As the 10 to 15 per cent increases doctors were receiving in other provinces. Sherman said the two sides Are scheduled to meet again monday. Claiming spiralling costs of a Ray film overhead and salaries almost half of the province s 40 radiologists opted out of medicare yesterday meaning Price increases of 40 to 50 per cent for their patients. Sherman said their problem was re cognized in the negotiations and was at the Centre of discussions on the fee Sherman noted that 19 radiologists had opted out of medicare while Origi Nally 28 had said they would. The Mma spokesman vehemently denied a suggestion that the radiologists had opted out to pressure the government in negotiations. Radiologists feel it is a Long term solution to regain control Over their he said. He said radiologists were Only one group of specialist medical practitioners facing problems. Anaesthetists in Short Supply in Manitoba also need special attention he said. Or. Peter Duncan head of the Mani Toba anaesthetist society said govern ment offers Are far lower than the offers in neighbouring provinces each year we Are stumbling farther per mile fare boost proposed taxi fares in Winnipeg will Rise 20c per mile if the provincial taxicab Board approves a proposed increase three weeks from today. Board Secretary . Leech said the proposal which comes from the greater Winnipeg taxicab association will be discussed at a Public forum where anyone May make a submission. The taxicab association representing owners of Winnipeg s 400 cabs wants to charge for the first of a mile instead of for the first of a mile. They also want 20t for each additional of a mile instead of lot for each of a mile. The owners want to charge 20t for each 48 seconds of waiting time up from inc for each 30 seconds. Ken Chadwell managing director of uni City taxi said yesterday the rate increase is necessary to cover in creased gasoline prices car repair and Cost of living. The taxicab Board hearing will be held at a.m., May 20 in room 202, 301 Weston Street ;