Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 24, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press wednesday june 3 s Seatbelt get cold shoulder in Manitoba by Brian Cole Manitoba motorists Are Canada s third worst users of Seatbelt a trans port Canada Survey has revealed. A scant 5.5 per cent of the province s motorists bother to buckle up the sur vey revealed. Newfoundland Drivers were the most notorious at 2.7 per cent followed by those in new Brunswick at 5.2 per cent. The Survey also showed the rate of Seatbelt usage across the country has declined from 36.4 per cent in 1979 to 34.7 per cent last year. The report has prompted the Federal and provincial governments to embark on a Campaign to encourage motorists to buckle up. Transport Canada safety officer James Bancroft was in Winnipeg yesterday armed with studies statistics and stories of human suffering to sup port the Campaign. Million for past fiscal year Manitoba ended its fiscal year March 31 with a million deficit slightly lower than the estimate in the april 14 budget. The actual deficit was Only half the million estimated at the beginning of the 1980-81 fiscal year largely be cause equalization payments from the Federal government were almost million More than expected. In Addi Tion the government spent billion million less than planned. The figures were in the preliminary financial report for the year released yesterday by finance minister Brian Ransom. The final audited report Al most always confirms these figures he said. The departments of agriculture Community services and corrections eco nomic development education Energy and mines finance and Northern affairs All underspend their budgets. Over spending occurred mainly in health government services and Urban affairs. In the 1980-81 fiscal year Manitoba reaped in equalization pay ments up from million the Previ Ous year. The million deficit covers both capital and operating expenses of government. Under the old system of separating operating accounts from Capi Tal the province would have shown a substantial operating surplus Ransom said. Capital activity projects for the year totalled million. The net direct debt of the province at the year end was million up from million the previous year. The net guaranteed debt was million compared to million the previous year. End to fixed retirement unemployment linked removal of mandatory retirement could push some older workers into the unemployment lines before age 65, says the Winnipeg lawyer conducting a provincial inquiry into the forced retire ment Issue. Marshall Rothstein said yesterday if workers received the right to keep jobs indefinitely older people May have two Banks hit at same time Bank robberies occurred simultaneously in two areas of Winnipeg yester Day and netted robbers an under Ter mined amount of Money City police report. The two robberies happened at . At the Toronto Dominion Bank 953 St. Mary s Road a Lone thief with a handgun demanded Money. He was wearing a Bell shaped motor Cycle helmet with the plastic visor pulled Down. He was Given Money and left shortly after entering. Those in the Bank heard the sound of a motorcycle outside but did t see one. At the same time a second robbery was being performed at the Bank of Nova Scotia 1169 Rothesay Street by two men wearing Black Nylon stocking masks and dark clothes. One with a Shotgun guarded the door while his partner went behind the counter and cleaned out the Cash draw ers. They told everybody to stay Down then left. Their work More closely scrutinized and perhaps be is there not going to be a financial hardship on those people who Are forced out earlier i have some concern about Rothstein said at a hearing last night. Rothstein said any worker released at age 58, for example could face financial difficulties while waiting to receive Canada pension plan benefits seven years later. In a later interview he cautioned that he has t yet found comprehensive data to show there would a serious problem of older workers losing their jobs should mandatory retirement be scrapped. However he said has been told by some personnel managers that it was a very real possibility. Rothstein said he hoped to collect evidence on the extent to which work output Falls off with age and whether companies now Are keeping older work ers on the payroll despite declining output. Sheila Crawford of the senior Citi Zens Job Bureau told Rothstein that employees whose work is falling off should be moved to another position. If they re slipping in their Job surely there s something else the company can find for them to do. They Don t have to fire employers have the right to dismiss employees but this should be done on the basis of ability rather than age she said adding that Many 65-year-Olds Are let go even though they had been performing Well. They say i was doing a Damn Good Job and i got kicked out Sherman promises gradual Rise in funds for health research pledging a gradual increase in health research Money from the Manitoba government health minister l. R. Bud Sherman yesterday announced a minimum will be available this year. The amount is about More than the awarded this week in the first research Grants Competition for projects in the Fields of Medicine surgery computer technology dentistry nursing and psychology to 16 applicants. This is really the beginning of a thrust i consider to be a major Sherman told a press conference. The minister said by increasing provincial research Grants possibly Matching privately raised Money he hoped the research Council s base fund would amount to a few millions of dollars within a few years. About million is now available for health sciences research in Manitoba each year from governments and non profit agencies such As cancer heart and arthritis societies. But or. Lyonel israels chairman of the Manitoba health research Council formed in 1980, said most of the re search funds available in the province come from various National agencies. But to compete for those funds Manitoba researchers must have a Laboratory base and possibly one or two years of investigative research experience. Research in your Community is the underpinning of Good Medicine. Unless you have people who Are working at the forefront who can bring in the new techniques As they develop you can t function anymore in modern Medicine. It s essential to Day to Day israels told reporters. In the first year of the Grants Competition 105 applications were made for the in Grants. They included re search into various aspects of cancer maternal and child health studies Par Kinson s disease hypertension asthma muscular dystrophy and muscular sclerosis. Bancroft one of four people touring the country As part of the Campaign said he is baffled by the apathetic attitude of canadians. I Don t know he said in answer to a question about Why canadians refuse to buckle up. Although he acknowledged personal discomfort May be one reason people Don t use Seatbelt Bancroft said he does t see Why that should be a major consideration when a life is at stake. Besides he said Seatbelt can easily be modified to suit the personal preference of the Driver. The former chief of motor vehicle investigations for the Road safety Branch of transport Canada speculated that perhaps people weren t aware enough 1 of the benefits. Bancroft who has More than 20 years experience in the traffic safety with transport Canada seems a Likely candidate to change that situation. During his years with the government he has seen endless studies which support the use of Seatbelt. The statistics for last year alone Are startling. D of the about 110 a week people killed in automobile accidents last year of them would be alive today had they used Seatbelt. O of the injured in automobile accidents last year would have escaped injury had they worn their Seatbelt. D motor vehicle crashes produce More new quadriplegics and paraplegics than All other causes combined. O millions of dollars Are lost through Hospital care of people crippled in automobile accidents. But the Issue is More than one of statistics Bancroft said. I be seen a Mother and father killed in an Automo bile Accident and the kids become orphans just like he said snapping his fingers. James free press As you like it at the red River sex rotary rides Are for those who enjoy Riding Rawluk to the House of Glass. Then there Are those who think High. If you prefer to stay on the ground and still be 10 feet tall not Only Small but smaller like Kent Martin. By yesterday you can follow the footsteps of Laura Drosdowich and Colleen have visited the sex Down from last year. Councillors say proposals failed before by Greg Bannister members of the City s recreation and social services committee yesterday questioned whether the proposed Core area initiative program goes far enough toward curing the ills of the inner City. Several members of the committee including councillors Jim Moore and Evelyn Reese said the proposals in the program have been tried before with Only limited Success. Moore singled out the building component of the Core program As his primary concern. He asked mayor Bill Nome present at a special committee meeting to explain the Core project what Type of incentives were contained in the pro Gram to entice the private sector into building residential and commercial properties in the Core. He also questioned whether the Core project provided for enough Green space or Parkland. He said people with families would not relocate in the Core unless such facilities As Parks Arenas and baseball diamonds currently in Short Supply in the Core Are made available. Norrie said the program had two Means of encouraging the growth of residential housing in the Core Poten tial owners will be offered subsidized mortgage rates through the Manitoba housing and renewal corporation and the Federal residential rehabilitation assistance program which provides funds for Home repair will be expanded to cover the entire Core area. He told Moore it May be necessary to subsidize builders to entice them into the area due to the current High interest rates. The object of the program however is not to subsidize the Indus try but to subsidize the prospective he said that by encouraging owner ship of Homes in the Core the Community will achieve stability. Reese also expressed concern Over the program saying it was not innovative enough. Councillor Moore is right when he says we be tried these things before and they Haven t she suggested making the City the landlord of All the new housing to be built in the Core on a basis similar to that employed by the City of Edmonton in its Core area renewal program. She said that under the Edmonton arrangement the Homeowner leases the land and can sell the lease. Reese said the scheme boosted the housing Indus try because the builders did not have to invest As much capital to pay for the lots. If Winnipeg adopted a Simi Lar scheme the million allotted for housing in the Core would stretch much further she said. Norrie said the concept of leasing the lots from a landlord is common in Europe. The programs devoted to housing when taking into account the reduced rates and the renewal Money available from the province would total about million he said. Edmonton s scheme was examined and the Winnipeg proposals were considered Superior said Norrie. Reese also said she wanted to see opponents of the plan such As the North Portage Avenue merchants whose properties Are to be expropriated for a Park allowed to make comments and suggestions on the proposed plan. These Are the people who Are most directly affected and they should have a Core plan can prime economic pumps if private sector responds says expert by Manfred Jager the director of the University of Winnipeg s Institute of Urban studies warns it would mistake to consider the City s Core redevelop ment plan a Blanket solution for inner City problems. Christine Mckee said in an interview yesterday the Core plan can Only Bene fit Winnipeg into the 1990s and beyond if business and Industry As Well As the three Levels of government involved in it see the expenditure As merely a priming of economic pumps. What needs to happen and what we at the Institute expect to happen is that people and enterprises will come Back into the Centre of Winnipeg both from the suburbs and from out of the prov Mckee said. Mckee said the Winnipeg plan is the first such tripartite Federal provincial and City governments each pay million of total expenditures project tried on this continent and directed at social economic and physical renewal of a City Core. I think this will turn out to be a Model for the future in other parts of Canada As Well Long As the Pri vate sector takes advantage of the opportunities involved in the redevelop As for the future development of Winnipeg As a whole Mckee said All planners and researchers she is familiar with expect continued slow growth into the 1990s. I Don t see Winnipeg shrinking or even standing still at she said. In fact toward the turn of the Century development May be quite different from what it has been and is Likely to be during the eighties. I think our wealth particularly in Hydro electric Energy the possibilities for research and development in such Fields As solar Energy could make us the holders of the new wealth flowing from our Energy Mckee predicted that total expenditures from various Federal government departments will push the total Money infusion into the inner City Economy Well past the also million Mark during the next five years ;