Inventor rebuffed in effort to borrow sandbag machine
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2009 (6041 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WINNIPEG — THE man who invented a speedy sandbag filling machine that’s been used to save homes since before the 1997 Flood of the Century says he was rebuffed by the province when he wanted to borrow one for the taping of a TV show.
Guy Bergeron, a 79-year-old Elie resident, said he and his Sandbagger were to be featured on the CBC program Dragon’s Den.
Taping was to take place in Toronto during the past week.
He said Wednesday he approached the province about a month ago to borrow a machine because he had none left.
He said he waited three weeks for a response before the government refused to loan him one.
"They just said we cannot let it go out of province," Bergeron said Wednesday at the legislature, where he was invited to appear in the visitors’ gallery by the Tories. Morris MLA Mavis Taillieu raised the matter during question period.
Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux, whose department reportedly refused to loan Bergeron the machine, was out of the city at a conference.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Steve Ashton — the government’s point man during this spring’s flood — said he was not aware of the issue before Wednesday.
"I’m not sure what happened. Certainly we respect the work he’s done," Ashton said of Bergeron.
"It’s unfortunate that something couldn’t have been arranged," he said outside the chamber.
Bergeron said he’s disappointed he didn’t get an answer sooner because he has since learned the City of Winnipeg would have been willing to loan him one.
A provincial government spokesman later said that when Bergeron made his request, floodwaters were still high.
The machine was not "necessarily being used at the time, but there was the concern that if a dike failed or something like that, we would need to put it back into operation," the spokesman said.
— with files from Jen Skerritt
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca