Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 10, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press March Page 3 Manitoba mks Trade double tuition urged for local Pwll mess burning bed firefighters drag smouldering bedding from a fort s lighter Are suspected of causing the fire at 43106 Garry townhouse children playing with a Pembina no injuries were recall Al contract endangers welfare recipient work councillors say by David Roberts a government Job program for welfare recipients risks being torpedoed because of the selfish demands of a Public service City councillors charged ironclad Layoff provisions in the cites collective agreement with its largest Union mean the City must spend half the programs budget to hire Laid off City work ers rather than people on councillors were the recalled City workers would supervise welfare recipients in a cleanup program of Riverbank Trees killed by dutch Elm these Are wonderful Union con tracts we just Mike Oshaughnessy Jeffer son criticizing the pact be tween the City and Canadian Union of Public local Dan a manager with the cites welfare said the Federal government has stipulated that its portion of the funding could Only be used for hiring welfare recipe not Laid off City the City can Only operate this project if their share is used to hire recalled cupe employees to super and direct the activities of project Kosheluk said in a Brief to councillors on the civic planning the City would have to increase its share of the program costs to unless the Federal govern ment changes its Rind about hiring Laid off he cupe president de Blackman said the Union wants to make sure welfare recipients dont end up Tak ing jobs from Union some employers find these projects you could Well keep part of your business going without having to hire Blackman also noted that trained staff Are needed on such the program would run 20 weeks and would employ 20 Laid off City workers and take 44 people off the welfare Kosheluk during a similar Riverbank clean up last workers were observed and photographed playing cards while at disciplinary action was taken against some City workers after the fire department had to be called to extinguish a Brush fire after a Burn ing tree was left Kosheluk said that an info Stu episode which occurred on the last Day of the planning committee chairman Chris Lorenc asked City officials to meet the Union to further discuss the supervisory Lorenc Sisler also has written Federal health minister Jake asking Ottawa to review its funding i can understand the unions Posi Lorenc but whether the project is intended to compete with unionized employees is another i would think the Union has some moral and social Blackman said the Union Doest want to take anything away from welfare but also wants to protect the Best interests of its Mem he said the Union has been involved in dozens of similar pro Grams Over the last 10 which Benefit both those on the welfare Rolls and Laid off error s of fire c darks checks computer program funding Aid demanded for wider Mosquito War the City will not undertake an expanded Mosquito Larvic iding pro Gram unless the province shares the the chairman of a civic committee said we dont feel we can quite to spend Don Mitchelson Henderson he said the province should pay half because much of the area that would fall under the expanded pro Gram is outside City As he the province imposed restrictions that have severely hampered the cites fogging creating a greater need for City entomologist Roy Ellis told the Parks and culture committee yesterday that fogging would be reduced if the City expands its Larvic iding which kills newly hatched mosquitoes and reduces the number of he mosquitoes can Fly up to 15 Kilometres so the area covered by Larvic iding would have to be increased to 24 Kilometres beyond City limits from eight kilo metres to prevent adult mosquitoes from flying into the expanded coverage would in crease the cites Larvic iding buget to million from a he Ellis said increased Larvic iding would decrease the annoyance caused by mosquitoes and the num Ber of complaints from people who object to fogging adult mosquitoes with weather conditions would remain an important Factor in the effective Ness of he he said the province has agreed in the past to the principle of an expanded Larvic iding but has refused to pay anything toward the Kathi a member of the Safe Mosquito abatement commit said although Larvic iding is an improvement Over the com Mittee is opposed to any program requiring the use of synthetic Chemi Ellis Waid mosquitoes should Start hatching by the end of ibis month and Larvic iding Likely will begin around the Middle of by Gerald flood the Winnipeg fire department will begin weekly checks of its computer to ensure All firefighting equipment is properly the chair Man of a civic committee said yes the procedure is being adopted in the Wake of a programming error that prevented a pumper truck being sent to a fire that killed Twoy Earold Jason Kasprick March fire chief Jack Henderson has said that when the Nairn Avenue overpass was closed for repairs in june the departments com Pute raided dispatch system was re programmed to prevent it calling equipment from a Northend firewall to the Eastend area where the fire when the overpass reopened last the computer was not reprogrammed to show the pumper truck could Cross the Over when the fatal fire at 464 Martin Avenue was the computer did not identify the pumper As Avail Able to respond to the Don chairman of the Parks and culture said Henderson told the committee at a closed session yesterday the boy would have died even if the truck had been sent to the his report said the fire was too far advanced when the alarm was called to be of any help with respect to getting the who unfortunately from the he firefighters have said flames were already leaping from windows when they arrived at the Henderson said a Rescue unit arrived at the fire within six minutes of the and firefighters entered the House and searched for the boy on the second where his room was the boys body was found in a Mai floor Mitchelson Henderson said a pumper unit was on the scene shortly after the Rescue but not As quickly As the wrongly programmed unit would have perhaps at most it would have made a minutes he but the fire was so the one minute would have had no bearing on whether that child would have checking system Mitchelson said no formal system of checking computer information had been in it was done As circumstances he he said he is not worried about a possible lawsuit Over the from the report i saw i would not be concerned at All that there Are any Legal he Mitchelson said committee Mem Bers did not criticize the chief during the 90minute session there were questions asked very exhaustive and intensive questions and they were answered so there was no reason to Chew anybody Henderson refused comment on the Issue cited aids fear conservative Leader Gary Fil Mon was accused yesterday of spreading unnecessary fear about the transmission of aids in Hospi tals and education minister Jerry Stone made the accusation after in a series of questions about the safety of Hospital school staff and noted statistics Indi Cating that 35 per cent of people exposed to aids develop the fatal illness within six to eight Storie said there is no evidence to Date that acquired immune deficiency syndrome can be spread through casual health minister Larry Desjar dins saying what is being done by Filmon right now is be mainly the worst that could Filmon said later he is Well aware the 35percent figure plies to people exposed through Contact with blood or and not through casual he said he raised it to show that new information on the disease is still coming to at one Point it was thought a much smaller Proi ution of exposed people developed Lull blown he and it May similarly be shown in future that people can be infected from guid Eunes Filmon said the government has not developed adequate guidelines for school students and Hospi Tal among other it has not taken a close enough look at whether Hospital staff should have the right to refuse to Deal with aids he he said he has nut made up his own mind on he said there is no doubt in his mind that the govern ment should require doctors to re port aids cases to the just As it requires them to report other types of sexually transmitted Filmon said Manitoba is one of Only two provinces in Canada that do not require aids cases to be said he plans to meet representatives of teach ers and school trustees groups to discuss ways of getting information on aids prevention to High school aids is dealt with in family life courses at the Grade 9 but Storie said he would like to see the information going to More Stu especially in the senior High school age Filmon aids queries school budget far from trustees say by Julia Necheff programs and services Cut from the Winnipeg school divisions draft budget May be re instituted when the final debate on spending begins trustees since the Board has made a number of program cuts and imposed user fee increases for night and summer but Only after heavy debate and narrow going into the final budget trustees said yesterday the outcome is still far from its not Over until its Board chairman de Kowalchuk adding he wants to have All the cuts and fee increases the preliminary budget stands at about not including salary trustees must still add salary projections to the final Kowalchuk he noted that settlements with teachers in other divisions around the province Are starting to come in with increases Between three and four per a settlement in that Range would amount to Between million and million added to Winnipeg Divi Sions he the province funds about 67 per cent of Winnipeg divisions and the school Board raises the remaining amount through the special Levy portion of property trustees Are considering school tax increases ranging Between two and four per Kowalchuk said if the Board re verses previous cuts and restores programs and services to 1986 Levels and includes provisions for salary it will mean a Fourier cent increase in school in order to accommodate salary increases and limit the tax increase to two per about million would have to be Cut from programs and Ward 2 trustee Jim Frey said he and trustee Enid Gillespie who have urged substantial budget cuts to prevent a tax increase have now agreed to support a tax increase to a maximum of two per trustee Mario Santos said he would support a maximum three percent while Susan cur Rie said she would favor a percent Currie considered the swing vote in the budget debate by other Board members voted for some cuts to the first she said she would consider res Toring some portions of funding Cut from the nutrition program and a sexual abuse prevention program called feeling feeling after seeing program evaluations just completed by the programs facing the axe include the food experience program in inner City elementary schools Only funded until teaching students about How to shop for groceries and plan feeling feeling actors showcase live production on sexual abuse prevention touring All the divisions division elementary schools Only funded until the end of swim including Adap Tive aquatics for disabled students Only funded until As Well As a water safety program cancelled last d extra Grants for French Immer Sion students to attend cultural act other programs which have seen user fees imposed Are a division wide violin program that used to be offered in elementary schools at no charge to d classes in English As a second language for immigrant adults at night As Well As for Immi Grant students at summer both of which previously were d fee increases for academic credit courses offered at night school for and at summer school for students in grades 7 to special tax class rejected the Manitoba government has re fused to create a special taxation class for Large lot owners in South heading Ley and other outly ing areas of mayor Bill Norrie said members of the cites and hoc committee on property reassessment met Urban affairs minister Gary doer yester Day and were told the province would not create a special tax class for hundreds of property owners beyond the Urban limit the province is saying it will not create a separate class for Large lot Norrie we Felt doers position was final and we then impressed upon him the need to defer taxes that is the route the government is last civic politicians were criticized by two suburban Council lors who claimed the committee was not forceful enough with the province in arguing for special tax status for Large lot the and hoc committee is made of Deputy mayor Erie Fanson Charles and civic finance committee chairman Harold Macdonald i think what we have to realize is the outlying councillors Are obviously under a lot of pressure from these particular Norrie Doreen Demare Seine Val Ley has said she wants a special tax class for More than 200 South vital property owners who fear hefty tax increases because of their Large land the residents have filed a mass Appeal of their reassessed proper they claim they will be unfairly taxed because they do not enjoy the same level of water and other services As residents inside the limit Norrie said the cites Legal depart ment has advised him the City does not have the Legal Power to defer but that doer has agreed to Amend the City of Winni Peg act to enable the City to do noted that Many of the Large lot owners will have the Benefit of Mill rate which will soften the Impact of the reassess As he said Council is looking at phasing in tax increases for those who face hikes of More than 10 per entrapment defence rejected in Appeal an undercover police officer who asked a suspect to sell him marijuana four times before he agreed was not guilty of the Mani Toba court of Appeal has in a unanimous decision released the court overturned an earlier acquittal of Barry Michael Biddulph and found him guilty of trafficking in the evidence does not disclose conduct on the part of the police capable of being considered so shocking or outrageous As to bring the administration of Justice into Justice Kerr twaddle said in the was arrested at a Winnipeg restaurant after Selling some marijuana to an undercover officer for according to the court of Appeal the officer asked Biddulph for drugs once in the restaurant and three times in the washroom before the officer first asked Biddulph if he had any smoke to sell and Biddulph said what he had was for personal the ruling it says the officer later approached Biddulph in the Wash again asked for some smoke and was again the officer followed Biddulph on a second trip to the washroom and said i will give you for what you rejected for a third the officer said i will give you for the court of Appeal ruling Biddulph finally took the handing Over about one Gram of marijuana in a plastic bag for and was Biddulph told court he agreed to the transaction because he thought he was getting a Good All i had left was bus fare and i did not have any Money until pay he twaddle noted Biddulph admitted the offence and added the police officers efforts did not amount to undue the commission of the offence was but the accused him self did not claim that any improper pressure was brought to Bear on him or that he was threatened or de twaddle he was a willing participant who thought he was getting a Good Deal and who wanted the Money the Sale would the persistence of the undercover officer needed to persuade the accused to commit the offence was slight on any Biddulph will be sentenced soon by the court of Appeal on the trafficking ;