Headlines from this weeks SPEC

Dec. 22, 2002

Call Centre to go in Murdochville
Charlene Eden

A call centre for the Quebec Automobile Insurance Society (SAAQ) will be implemented in Murdochville in 2003. An investment of $4.5 million dollars is to be made into the call centre, with the majority of the funds coming from SAAQ. The call centre is the first major investment into Murdochville since the closure of the mine last spring.

SAAQ receives more than nine millions calls per year and currently has only two call centres in Montreal and Quebec to handle the load. The corporation therefore determined that a new call centre was needed. While SAAQ first considered Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, it ultimately decided on Murdochville.

Eastern Quebec Nurses Union has many demands

Charlene Eden

The Eastern Quebec Nurses Union (SIIEQ), representing 1,250 nurses for 25 establishments between Rimouski and the Magdalen Islands, argues that nurses in the region are currently facing work conditions that result in the inability to take holidays in the summer months, large amounts of overtime and the overuse of call-back lists. The union also argues that a major shortage of nurses in the region is imminent. The union has therefore come up with a set of proposals that could potentially alleviate some of these concerns. The proposals will be submitted to the government.

According to SIIEQ president Micheline Barriault, the region will see a substantial shortage of nurses in the next 15 years. "We know that a shortage of nurses at the level of the Gaspesie and Magdalen Islands will be perhaps more present by 2005. According to figures, we foresee that in 15 years, for the Gaspesie and Magdalen Islands territory, we will miss 445 nurses. For the Bas St. Laurent, there will be 250 missing nurses in the next ten to fifteen years. We have no measures put in place. The reorganization of work is one means to conquer the shortage of nurses," she said.

Alexandre Gauthier played more than he expected in his first year in the Canadian Football League
Gilles Gagne

Alexandre Gauthier, probably the first Gaspesian ever selected in the Canadian Football League draft, and the first francophone ever selected as the number one pick of that yearly April selection, saw more action than he expected during his rookie year with the Ottawa Renegades.

Gauthier, a 6 foot 7 inches and 335 pounds giant offensive lineman, was not sure that he would play at all during that first season, also marking the return of an Ottawa team in the CFL. He had been warned on draft day by the coaching staff that he would be brought along slowly.

"For some people, I did not play a lot because I just appeared in four games. But I could have ended the season without playing at all, just practicing with the team. It would have been fine anyway. I had a lot to learn", comments the graduate of Universite Laval's Rouge et Or, former Canadian champions of university football.

Bodies finally found in the debris of the plane
Gilles Gagne

Two bodies were finally found on December 11th in the airplane that had been identified two days before as the missing Piper Cherokee owned by Air Tuteurs, from Saint Hubert, near MontrŽal. The plane had not been seen since January 20th, after its departure from the Gaspe Airport.

As we went to press, Moira McLaughlin, an anthropologist based in New Brunswick, was trying to formally identify the two bodies. In all likelihood, they are the remains of Lamia Bakka, aged 25, and Morgan Furmansky, aged 19, the two pilots of the small plane.

The members of the Search and Rescue Unit of the Canadian Army who found the missing plane on December 9th on the New Brunswick side of the Patapedia River, could not see the bodies. Their first mission was to locate the plane.