Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 13, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba A2 Winnipeg free press wednesday april 13, 2005 digest deaths Anderson Alfred Peter 84, widower of Margaret. Bearne Eileen of Exmouth Devon England of Gordon. Bramwell Marion. Brechin Harrison Dorothy of Carman widow of Buster. Deans Audrey of Vancouver Island b.c., widow of Bill. Densley Harold 91. Dobrowolski Louise. Drabik be Merrick Kathleen 88. Dugard be Cresswell Helen Marjorie. Falconer John Ramsay of North Vancouver b.c., husband of Jean. Fraser Emma. Galusha Charles Jack John 90. Habib Trumaine Maine Abraham son of Heather and Charles. insurance continued from Page a1 initially All jobs now excluded ? including teachers Farmers lawyers and mom and pop shop owners among others ? would be on the list of excluded industries in the regulations to the new act government officials said yesterday. But Manitoba business leaders expressed alarm at what they said is a significant and costly reversal in the Way the employer funded system works. They said the government could shorten or remove the list of excluded industries with the stroke of a pen and worried the Bill heralds a massive expansion of who is covered. Employers oppose full web cover age saying participation should be voluntary and a mandatory system could impose higher costs on businesses and Consumers. Until now an Industry had to be specifically named on a list to be Cov ered by workers compensation and the Board of the quasi Independent workers compensation Board decided who was covered and who was not. Under the new Bill the provincial Cabinet not the web Crown Corpora Tion would make the coverage Calls. Massive change we be continuously been concerned through the process that they May attempt to go to full coverage and we be been totally opposed to that since the get go Darlene Dziewit president of the Manitoba federation of labour said this is a massive change said Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president and ceo Graham Starmer who said a special meeting of the Manitoba employers Council will Likely be held today to discuss the Bill. Starmer said mandatory coverage would mean increased costs in Many sectors. Lawyers Are not covered and would charge More for their Legal ser vices if they were he said. Farmers Are not covered largely because they Don to want to be he said. The workers compensation Board ? which has equal representation from business and labour and can calculate the financial Impact of any expanded coverage ? should make such decisions not the government Starmer said. The web fund had revenues of $220.1 million and handled 17,492 time loss injury fatality and pension claims in 2004. The Bill comes at a tur Bulent time for the web. Auditor Gen free Sunroof 2005 impalas starting at $290 Jutras Stewart Wendy Joan of Prince Albert sk., wife of Danny. Keiver Margaret Grace of Carman widow of Harry. Lewicki Peter John 89, widower of Mary. Lund Gertrude Irene. Nebesny Zofia 93, of Calgary ab., widow of Joseph. Perry Doris of Toronto on. Polten Karl Heinz husband of Hilde. Prince Clarence Thomas 56. Rector Roger Joseph 65, of Calmar for Merly of Calgary ab., husband of Roberta Bobbi. Romas Delores. Samson Bruce 56. Semenchuk be St fora Patricia Betty widow of Makar. Smoluk Bert. Sokalski Corinna. Swiderski Dennis Michael 49, of Selkirk husband of Darlene. Woychyshyn be Golet Zanne. Zacharkiw Thomas widower of Kay. . Classified death notices b9. Compensation Bill highlights a controversy about expanded coverage erupted yesterday Over the provinces new workers compensation Bill. Other changes out lined in the Bill would. Remove the Cap on the amount of earnings for which a worker can be insured. Increase awards for permanent injuries. Ensure nobody on workers compensation receives less than the minimum wage. Remove a provision that slightly reduced benefits for workers older than 45. Add certain cancers and heart attacks within 24 hours of a fire Call to firefighters coverage. Add coverage for part time and Volunteer firefighters. Strengthen web committees and audit requirements. Eral Jon Singleton is expected to release soon the results of his investigation of the Agency and Wally Fox decent its longtime chairman recently resigned citing health Rea sons. Controversy Over the coverage change could overshadow other aspects of the Bill which gives improved benefits to workers but includes changes demanded by Busi Ness that would place greater Finan Cial controls and accountability on the web and its investments. At a news conference Allan cited inequities and anomalies in workers compensation coverage that have developed through a Patchwork sys tem of largely voluntary inclusion Over time. For example indoor win Dow washers Are covered by workers compensation but outdoor window washers Are not she said. The proposed act is affordable balanced and practical Allan said. Dziewit said Manitoba has one of the lowest rates of workers compensation coverage in the country because this whole idea of bringing people in on a voluntary basis has to seven out of 10 provinces have a system like the one Manitoba is moving toward under which everyone is covered unless specifically excluded she said. The Bill is largely based on the work of a review committee chaired by Fox How to reach us Winnipeg free press 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6 switchboard 697-7000 privacy policy & questions . Reader service City delivery 697-7001 . Advertising classified Mon Fri 697-7100 obituaries 7 Days 697-7384 display 697-7122 . Editorial newsroom 697-7230 newsroom fax 697-7412 photo desk 697-7304 sports desk 697-7285 decent that reported earlier this year. Of the committees 100 recommendations 78 were included in the Legisla Tion and 22 were either modified or referred to the workers compensation Board for further study officials said. But the Fox decent report made no mention of Universal or mandatory coverage. That a a major problem because it was a consensus report that involved concessions by both business and labour representatives said Dave Angus president and ceo of the Winnipeg chamber of Commerce. We had to hold our noses at Many aspects of the report said Angus who is concerned that government is now Cherry picking certain recommendations from the report and adding oth ers that were not recommended. I Hope the government in to play ing games with the report in terms of making some changes that would be fairly More than 200 firefighters crowded into the Public gallery of the legis lature to applaud the governments plan to improve their workers compensation coverage. Allan introduced new legislation that would see lung Colon and urethra cancers added to the five others currently covered by the workers compensation Board. This is also one of the most dangerous jobs Allan said of the fire fighters. When everybody else is running out of a building they re run Ning into a building. This legislation follows the science that we have Avail Able to the Bill also includes heart attacks within 24 hours of fighting a Blaze and applies to volunteers and part timers As Well As full time workers. Allan said the changes Are based on scientific studies that prove direct links Between firefighting and specific cancers. Firefighters have Long argued they Are exposed to a soup of toxic Chemi cals released by synthetic materials set aflame in fires and that Many of them Are cancer causing. The five Job related cancers already covered include cancer of the brain bladder kidney non Hodgkins Lym Phoma and leukaemia. Last july Premier Gary doer indicated he was looking seriously at amending workers compensation Laws to give benefits for additional kinds of cancer and for heart disease. entertainment 697-7234 business news 697-7235 Reader feedback 697-7293 City desk letters to the editor . Photo reprints to order reprints 697-7063. To subscribe Call ? 697-7001 outside Winnipeg 1-800-542-8900 president up Canadian newspapers limited partnership Rudy Redekop 697-7362. Directors publisher Murdoch Davis 697-7362 director of sales and marketing Laurie Finley 697-7164 director of finance Dan Koshowski 697-7425 pandemic scare continued from Page a1 we contacted the United states health authorities and the who and it soon became apparent that a number of labs around the world had gotten this Strain Tam said. The Winnipeg lab traced All the Sam Ples to the College of american pathologists which accredits standards for laboratories around the world but mostly in the . And Canada. An investigation showed vials of the live virus had been sent to labs in february As an annual proficiency test by the americans. The contents of the vials Arent labelled because labs use them to see How Good they Are at detecting Dif Ferent strains of viruses. For reasons that Are not yet Clear the company contracted to put together the kits included an h2n2 in this years proficiency test instead of the Garden Vari Ety of influenza a it usually sends out. There was some potential for consid Erable trouble or. Klaus Stohr head of the world health organizations global pandemic program told the Canadian press in an interview from Geneva. Fortunately it was found fast by the canadians after there was initial probability is Low a Laboratory Accident with the Unla belled virus could have sparked a flu pandemic Stohr said. I think that a fair to say. If Many bad Luck things had come together it could have caused really a global health Emer gency he admitted. The risk that this is going to be Hap pening is Low however. Many things would have to go wrong that this virus would really go into humans. But even though the probability is Low. The risk exists. Therefore we moved fast to get things under the Winnipeg lab uncovered the error after it tested a flu Sample sent from a director of operations and technology Glenn Williams 697-7045 Canada Post sales agreement no. 0563595 recycled newsprint is used in the production of this newspaper. Please Recycle. Reaching More than 325,000 readers daily 450,000 weekly Vancouver Hospital labelled As belong ing to a patient admitted there. When the lab came out with this diag Nosis i immediately contacted my counterpart in British Columbia to find out Why this patient had this virus Tam said. The Vancouver Hospital investigated and believes the patients routine Sam ple was Cross contaminated with the asian Strain by Accident. The Winnipeg lab used genetic sequencing to confirm the finding. What must have happened is some tiny amount from the test Sample must have contaminated the patients Sample Tam said. Destroyed samples or. David Butler Jones of Winnipeg Canadas chief Public health officer said All the Canadian labs that received the test have destroyed their samples. We re thinking that we May have caught this before there is any Issue. But obviously we re following up to make sure we Haven to missed anything he said in an interview. We re not expecting to see human cases but you just can to guarantee that. If they the labs practise Good Labora tory technique the risk of that should be i will never say Zero but As close to Zero As lab accidents do happen however. Three of the last six known cases of sars in the world were the result of lab accidents. Lab technicians who worked with the samples Are being interviewed to see if they suffered any flu like illnesses in an attempt to ensure the Strain did not break out of the confines of laboratories. We All know that Laboratory technicians Are very Well trained and take care with what they re doing. But we have seen sars slipping out in laboratories which belong to National Vir logic institutions said Stohr. ? with files from Canadian press can West news service paramedics hot after patient rides in fire truck paramedics Are angry that a patient patients. With abdominal pain was taken to Grace operations Deputy chief Ken Sim said Hospital on a fire truck sunday. There were lots of paramedics on duty the paramedics Union says the 1 . That Busy morning. A medical super i ride is a sign that Winnipeg a ambulance Sor a highly trained paramedic decide service is Short staffed and the departed on the fire truck after two ments new plan to save Money by Cut ambulances were re routed to higher Ting Down on overtime will Only make priority Calls. The supervisor went with matters worse. The patient whose problem was not life Union spokesman Tommy Walsh says threatening. 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