Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 18, 2007, Winnipeg, Manitoba a4 Winnipeg free press tuesday december 18, 2007 top news Mcfadyen will tour province to Stop Power line biggest Blunder in Manitoba history by Joe Paraskevas p provincial opposition Leader Hugh Mcfadyen will spend two months touring Rural and Urban communities next year to Muster sup port for what he says is the greatest pol icy Blunder in Manitoba a history ? the decision to build a hydroelectric trans Mission line Down the provinces West Ern flank. Since the $2.2-billion project was announced Mcfadyen has become one of its most vocal opponents arguing instead for the line to take a Shorter less expensive route through Eastern Mani Toba. In fact Mcfadyen said monday he would stake his political future on the Issue. Following a breakfast speech to about 75 people at an event by a Winnipeg based think tank the Frontier Centre for Public policy the progressive conservative party Leader said he would turn the Effort to convince Manitoban to build a transmission line East of Lake Winnipeg into the Foremost political Issue of the following three years essentially until the next provincial election. We be got to take this Story directly to Manitoban Mcfadyen said. What we plan to do in the next number of months is to visit some of the communities around Manitoba that May have an inter est in the new transmission line Mcfadyen said he also planned to talk to Manitoba Hydro ratepayers in Winnipeg. In september Premier Gary doer sur prised Many people by agreeing to a plan to build the dipole Iii transmission line West of Lake Winnipegosis at a distance almost 500 Kilometres longer and a Cost $1.5 billion higher than a similar line East of the provinces major lakes critics said. The new transmission line years on the drawing Board is meant to meet new Phil Hossack / Winnipeg free press archives or. Mark Godley says Maples surgical Centre expects to have a new Fri machine in six to eight months. Maples mris out of service better Quality machine if there were at health sciences Centre two at St. Poor image Quality concerns about poor Quality. Boniface Hospital and another at the Wright said the Maples machine had pan am clinic in River Heights Whicha concern Warha magnets that were not As powerful As the health authority owns. The magnets on other Fri machines. Godley expects to have a new Fri we know the machine needs to be machine which can Cost As much As by Joe Paraskevas upgraded and that a what our Inten-$3 million in the next six to eight tons Are said or. Mark Godley one months. The provinces largest health author of the owners of the Maples clinic. While the Warha discontinued its Ity has stopped referring patients to a for now we re going to Stop doing contract with Maples for Fri Access privately owned Winnipeg medical mris on the current machine until we it will not terminate other services it clinic for magnetic resonance imag get another one acquired through the clinic Wright ing. Godley says the current Fri said. Last year the Warha signed a on dec. 10, the Winnipeg regional machine installed in 2005 is outdated. Two year Fri Deal with Maples and a health authority told the Maples sur think of the new machines As High separate three year agreement to Pur tical Centre on Jefferson Avenue in definition televisions that give you Chase operating room Access at West Kildonan it would discontinue a that Brilliant picture Godley said. Maples. Contract signed Early last year to pro with Fri machines that have a More the health authority will continue vide Warha patients with Access to powerful Magnet its More Likely it to have five Days a week of surgical the Maples clinics Fri machine. Will pick up things and you wont miss activities performed at Maples the health authority was concerned Wright said. About the Quality of the Maples mris about 100 Warha referred patients the Warha entered into the con images from which Are used to diag per month were visiting the Maples tracts to reduce patient wait times and nose a wide Range of medical Condi clinic Wright said. The Warha Over Deal with technologist vacancies tons and ailments such As broken sees about 3,000 mris monthly he Wright said. A year ago patients had Bones and muscle tears. Added. To wait about nine weeks for an Fri Warha vice president or. Brock we can absorb that additional 100 he said. Currently the average wait is Wright said patients were not put at caseload Wright said. We can pick four to six weeks and the Warha has risk by going to Maples for an Fri up that also filled its technologist vacancies. Because radiologists could Send any Fri patients in Winnipeg can patient for a second appointment to a receive scans from five machines two. consumer demand in this province As Well As potential hydroelectric contracts in Canada and the United states. In his speech Mcfadyen touched on the arguments against the West Side project that he has made frequently he called the extra spending unnecessary and the government Foolhardy for pan Dering to american and Canadian environmental lobbies by avoiding Eastern Manitoba. He also raised the matter of the Hydro electric projects legacy by saying future Manitoban will pay for today a Deci Sions. A generation of politicians Gary doers generation Are making decisions which May seem attractive in the Short run to some people but will leave the costs to the next generation Mcfadyen said. So i think its up to our Genera Tion those younger than us to fight to ensure that the legacy that a left to us is a legacy of a better province not a province saddled in debt. If the government Sticks to the course that they re on now he added i believe it will be the number one Issue of the next election Campaign and the number one Issue of the next three years because of the fact that its a decision that will Impact on everything that we do in our province our ability to build roads hospitals schools reduce taxes. All the other things that we might Bob Foster an Engineer and Consul Tant said he had worked on Many Manitoba Hydro projects in the past and believed Many of the provinces Engi neers consider the East Side route to be the Wiser Choice for a Large transmission line. We be already seen in the Media some reaction from the engineering Community he said. I think there might be More support for an East Side line from the engineering Community than has so far Foster said the province could spend any Money it would save on a transmission line East of Lake Winnipeg on health care education or aboriginal Community needs and he urged Mcfadyen to make the East West Issue one of the High est priority matters at the legislature. ;