Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 4, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a11 Winnipeg 2000 cites water Quality water treatment Plant right for City by Brant the recent frontage Story 23 and editorial 24 on the proposed City water treatment Plant do not fairly reflect several relevant the Public concern Over the walk Erton disaster should not be Overly focused on the specific cause of waterborne disease in that town As noted in your Arti Winnipeg is quite Well protected against that particular the most important lesson from Walker ton is to take seriously All potential threats to drinking water Winnipeg faces a number of without an appropriate treatment Winnipeg is not Well equipped to Deal with these the City of Winnipeg water and waste working with a number of have completed a number of studies and process testing programs Over recent the proposed treatment Plant addresses a number of challenges pathogenic bacteria parasites like Guardia Lamilia and viruses bacterial regrowth in water distribution disinfection byproducts like this and Halo acetic acids and tastes and the decision to adopt the recommended process was not made or without prudent consideration of All potentially feasible alter a misleading the comparison made to the Situa Tion in Vancouver is you quoted an individual who suggested that Vancouver is building a simple zonation this is True for one of their three water for the Seymour Vancouver is implementing a full scale filtration which also pro Vides for ultimately filtering Capulano Reservoir water in the As the initial phase of the filtration Plant tender Call a request for submission of expressions of interest from contractors and engineers was advertised in the Public press several months Vancouver will be Able to shut Down Supply from any unfiltered source in the event of Quality such As after a heavy and rely on the water from the filtration Plant until unfiltered Reservoir water Quality in any Winnipeg water source is not quite the concentrations of natural organic sub stances in Winnipeg water can create unacceptable Levels of potentially carcinogenic byproducts organics can also provide a food source for bacterial regrowth in distribution piping this last Point is critical since zonation stimulates biological if the Ozon ated organics Are not removed by clarification or the bacterial regrowth will happen in the City with consequent deterioration of Quality to the the editorial mentioned the issues of Lead and the City has already initiated a water Quality stabilization program to mitigate against leaching of Lead from older service connection and plumbing sys tem As for i believe Only about 15 per cent of City Mains consist of Asbestos Cement according to research Over Many As reported by use a and the american water works there appears to be no significant risk from ingestion of Asbestos in any Winnipeg water is relatively compared to the generally acidic Waters of Eastern North the Cement matrix that binds the fibres of Asbestos typically stands up Well when the conveyed water is on the alkaline Side of the pm even with All the engineering work done to the cites water and waste department engineers Are continuing to consider alternative tech if newer treatment t process proves More effective or less the cites engineers Are not Likely to disregard it before the new Plant is in any new plants Are typically designed to allow future modifications and to respond to changing water Quality stricter standards and new tech nolo As Well As comparing Winnipeg to consider that City has surface water Supply sources that Are relatively Remote and isolated from human they debated for half a Century As to whether a water treatment Plant should be about five years a sustained Community wide boil order was implemented and maintained to Deal with an outbreak of waterborne it was not lifted until a Plant incorporating Ozona clarification and filtration was Winnipeg residents should not have to suffer a Lon term boil order before being forced into building a City Council apparently specialists the Public would be better served if your newspaper would interview qualified specialists when soliciting technical or scientific you May refer to the association of professional engineers and Geo Scien lists for a recommendation As to whom to direct questions on any technical there would then be some Assurance that the quoted expert is a registered professional qualified in the Field in professional engineers and Geo scientists Are legally required to protect the and our code of ethics Canon Only allows us to comment publicly upon subjects for which we Are is a director and Western Canada water and Wastewater association and a Canadian water and waste water Wayne Lowacki Winnipeg free press treatment Plant would protect cites water letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email votes wasted on withdrawn candidates i was dismayed to see that approximately voters in Winnipeg South were disenfranchised when they voted for a nonexistent pc As reported by the free Geoff Lam Bert withdrew his candidacy Long since he withdrew just after the election Canada his name was still printed on the i was advised by the office of the returning officer that he had with drawn before the ballots were yet they still included his name on at the there was no Sig nage to indicate that the pc candidate was so apparently Many residents cast their votes for when this was called to the attention of the elections Canada person on she said that nobody with any Intelli gence would vote for wrong but they did vote for the and therefore their votes were ultimately wasted to them and not available to the other theres something wrong with an election system that knowingly lets you waste your rus Bolton Winnipeg ditch proportional representation i am stunned that there Are still people who believe in a proportional representation style of democracy according to the article Liber als the says democracy watch dog in the 23 edition of the free supported the Green party and the nip in their proposals to restructure government in a proportional representation this style of government has proven itself to significantly fragment a coun try and open the doors to Radical fringe Italy is a perfect due to the fragile nature of coalitions with in its the government has on once a year for the last 10 to 15 that seriously reduces the effectiveness of any gov the Middle East peace process would have been much further along if the israels Parlia was not a proportional style of the larger Par ties in the Knesset have to Cater to the Radical fringes in order to ensure that the government does not while i wholeheartedly agree that prime minister Jean Chretien and the Liberal party Are far too secretive and old be taken for increased government account Abil proportional representation is a Large step toward widespread political instability and a More fragmented and dysfunctional parliament than Canada has Ever it clearly does not work and should never be adopted in Greg Scheelar Winnipeg where minority rules Correct me if i am but i was under the impression that one of the Central principles of a representative democracy is that the majority does the liberals 41 per cent of the popular vote translate into 57 per cent of the seats in the House of commons and a so called majority government and Why has essentially the same thing happened in every National election since the Mulroney Era the answer is simple Canada continues to practise an antiquated first past the Post electoral system that is unsuited to multiparty with Only two of the person with the most votes always receives a majority of the and the majority does but with a Multi arty sys tem such As we have democracy Breaks according to the constituency Statis tics published in the free press on in Only 157 maps of the 298 reported on actually captured a major Ity of the votes in their the other 47 per cent simply got the most which does not add up to a when is this country going to admit that our electoral system is obsolete and adopt a system that is better adapted to a multiparty system for also has Sev eral parties and has adopted a system of proportional representation where the percentage of seats received is proportional to a party percentage of the National if such an approach had been followed in the present elec the results would have been roughly As follows lib Ca pc by nip other 6 mostly for the who did Field 109 Candi dates this would have been a much better reflection of How canadians actually since Only four out of 10 wanted to return the liberals to As Long As the Quebec vote remains split Between the by and the and the right split Between the Alliance and dont hold Yoff breath waiting for the liberals to fix the their win is Guaran teed under the current Welcome to where the minority Roy dudgeon Winnipeg thank Joe Clark for grit majority while the liberals did receive a plural Ity of the popular they owe their continued majority solely to the vanity and intransigence of Joe while the right is now less divided under Stockwell Clark did his sin Gle handed Best to Rebuff any accommodation to Stop further splitting of the Centre right a Quick calculation of the preliminary results shows that combined Alliance and conservative strength would have beaten the liberals in As Many As 37 additional Ridings across such a result would have bet Ter reflected the National popular vote and would have prevented a curbing the liberals odour of arro Gance and More the continued split did proportionately More harm to the Cut Ting their potential seats by a third and continuing their slow and painful spi ral to Parsons Winnipeg Betty Granger just stated the facts As a recent Escapee from i know that Betty Granger has it the fact is the changes that have taken place in Vancouver since 1986 expo year have been just after the rules for immigration to Canada were for an invest ment of one could buy Cana Dian the Price of a House in Vancouver became the International political climate also contributed to the Rise of chinese immigrants As the imminent return of Hong King to Chi Nese ownership in 1997 caused Finan Cial uncertainty for its the number of chinese immigrants and investments in Vancouver started to Large mansions in Vancouver Well Todo Shaughnessy District that were bought by Absentee chinese landlords As investment property Lay uncured for and unlined in except for squat ters until the City of Vancouver was forced to clean up the property and Send the Bill overseas to the a simple 500squarefoot condominium in Vancouver now costs Over just Check out mls online real estate listings for Small houses on the West Side of Van Couver Start at which is a bedroom City next to has an extremely Strong asian even the Liber Al member of parliament from Rich mond once stated that it is too easy for the new chinese immigrants in Rich mond not to mix with English speaking they have seven radio Sta three television and at least three local newspapers in Chi so that there is never an impera Tive to learn no one is denying the right of Chi Nese people to immigrate to no one can deny the Rich cultural diversity our Chines Canadian Citi Zens bring with them to Canada or the valuable contributions they make to our political and educational disc is Granger did not denigrate the chinese traditions or country of i do not believe that is Granger was displaying prejudice toward our Chines Canadian citizens she was Only stating i do not believe she should be vilified for Frank Winnipeg quit milking Granger Story i cant believe people Are still milking this Story about Betty she made a mistake in her wording and nothing my Mother is the furthest thing from being a if the aboriginals want to have a fit Over maybe they should look in bettys bettys granddaughter is native Cree background to be to ask her to give up her position on the Winnipeg school Board is nothing More than ridiculous Winnipeg where is retraction for bad vote Call John Cotter states in Edmonton it was a different Story As Justice minis Ter Anne Mclellan went Down to defeat by Alliance candidate Betty Paul Samyn states also lost were Justice minister Anne Why does the 29 free press make not one mention of this wrong Call it appears that the Canadian news Media Are no better than the who called Vic president Al Gore the Winner in Florida and then had to where is the retraction on Edmonton wests wrong Call Karl Olafson Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau ;