Selkirk doctor says he never wanted to leave the community

Dr. Lamin Benshaban is temporarily working at the Leila Medical Clinic in Winnipeg. The Red River Medical Clinic, which he ran for the last five years in Selkirk, closed at the end of June but the doctor says he never wanted to leave the city.

By Austin Grabish

A Selkirk doctor, who abruptly closed his walk-in clinic’s doors in June, says he didn’t want to leave the city and is desperately looking for a way to come back.

Dr. Lamin Benshaban was the primary physician at the Red River Medical Clinic, which shut down suddenly on June 28.

Benshaban said he had to close his clinic because his lease with Towers Realty Group, which owns Selkirk Town Plaza, was up and mall management wouldn’t let him renew it, instead they offered him a chance to rent the space on a month-to-month to basis.

Benshaban said he declined, citing uncertainty as a concern, and in July started working at a clinic on Ellice Ave. in Winnipeg, before moving to the Leila Medical Clinic.

“I told them I can’t go for that space just after a month you ask me to move again, that doesn’t make any sense,” Benshaban said.

Benshaban is a father of four and lives in Winnipeg but insists he never wanted to leave Selkirk despite the daily commute.

“I’m still hoping to go back,” he said. 

“I felt I am connected to the people there and I have hard time to quit that clinic.”

Benshaban had worked at his Selkirk clinic for five years before it closed in June.

The clinic was technically a walk-in, but the majority of patients were regulars of Benshaban’s who couldn’t find a family doctor, he said.

The doctor estimates he would see 40 to 50 patients in his clinic on an average day.

He estimates the Red River Medical Clinic has at least 3,000 patient charts and some belong to longtime patients who were there before he took over the clinic in June 2010.

The files remain in Selkirk, but Benshaban admits he doesn’t have a timeframe of when he could be returning to the city.

“For the last two months I’ve been in a dilemma,” he said. “You don’t know what you have to do, because something happened without plan to do this move.”

Benshaban said Towers Realty offered him a different spot in the mall, but the estimated $40,000 in set up costs for him to move was too expensive.

Property manager Linda Muron said she couldn’t comment on the matter, because she didn’t handle the file. However, she did say leases and their length vary and depend on both the person coming forward and agents who handle the contracts.

“It just depends on what the individual wants and if the landlord and owner is prepared to accept it,” Muron said.

Benshaban said he is still exploring other options that would let him re-open in Selkirk, but warned if nothing happens soon he may not come back to the community.

“If it’s going to take too long, I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m going to establish patients here (in Winnipeg).”

Benshaban said he is welcoming patients in Winnipeg, in the meantime and can be reached at the Leila Clinic by phone at 204-953-2787. 

 -- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition August 20 2015 p.11

Selkirk shelling out thousands to defend $25 parking tickets

RECORD PHOTO BY BRETT MITCHELL

A ticket for a parking violation sits on a vehicle on Manitoba Ave. in Selkirk Monday morning. The City of Selkirk is spending thousands on legal fees to defend $25 parking tickets it has issued.

By Austin Grabish

The City of Selkirk is spending thousands on legal fees to defend $25 parking tickets it has issued, but is still retaining a hefty amount of revenue from the fines.

Documents obtained by the Selkirk Record through a Freedom of Information request show the city spent a total of $7,127.20 on legal fees associated with defending the tickets over the last two years.

Despite the cost, the city still managed to pull in $25,100 from parking fines during 2013 and 2014, leaving the city with nearly $18,000 in revenue from the tickets.

The legal costs stem from fees the city incurs when a lawyer represents them in court and when the city receives legal advice on parking ticket related matters, the city’s CAO Duane Nicol said via email.

Currently, formal parking ticket challenges can only be made in a provincial court.

A ticketed driver can plead not guilty, or guilty with an explanation, and a provincial judge then determines if the person is guilty and what fine, if any, should be paid.

On July 15, at least two ticketed drivers pleaded guilty with an explanation in Selkirk traffic court.

Both offered explanations for why they violated parking rules, but were ultimately found guilty by a provincial judge.

The City of Selkirk’s legal counsel was asking for $200 fines to be upheld in each case, but the judge only ordered the original ticket amount of $25 to be paid, saying $200 was too outrageous for a parking ticket.

Nicol said the city sees the current expenses as reasonable and necessary given current provincial legislation that requires tickets be fought “formally” in court.

He said people have the right to challenge a ticket outside of the city’s own appeal process and added when the city gets proper legal advice and representation, it has a better chance of getting the fine paid.

Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson said the cost of a lawyer is necessary because the city has to do its due diligence and make sure parking tickets get paid.

“If we didn’t do anything on it and just left it up to people’s good faith to come in and pay them, I really don’t think we would see very many parking tickets paid,” Johannson said.

Nicol said while the city is retaining revenue from the tickets, there are other costs to consider like the salary of a bylaw enforcement officer.

“The purpose of our enforcement activity is achieving public compliance with the by-law, not issuing tickets,” he said.

Parking tickets in Selkirk are $25 if paid within 11 days, they then rise to $50 if paid within 20 days, before finally going up to $200.

The tickets are placed on vehicles parked in no-parking zones, time-restricted areas, loading zones, and fire hydrants, for example.

After 30 days, an unpaid ticket is defaulted and can be handed over to a collection agency, and the city also has the authority to place a lien on a vehicle.

The city wasn’t able to provide the total number of parking tickets issued for both years and couldn’t say how many were contested in court, because it doesn’t track that information, Nicol said.

Breaking down the numbers...

• In 2014 the city spent $3,917.20 on legal costs associated with parking tickets and collected $12,900 from tickets that year in revenue.

• In 2013 the city spent $3,210 on legal fees associated with parking tickets and collected $12,200 from the tickets the same year.

- Information provided by the City of Selkirk

 -- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition August 20 2015 p.2