Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 30, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Title Sponsor: Ideal Mortgage Solutions Gold Sponsors: Access Credit Union and Powerland Silver Sponsors: G & L Sales, Riverbend Transportation & Logistics Inc. Bronze Sponsors: Lisa Paterson, Shane & Kate Paterson, VAW Systems Ltd. Lunch Sponsor: Powerland Drink Sponsor: Lange Law Gold and Lunch Sponsor: Powerland To learn more about making our province more inclusive and accessible at manitobapossible.ca. Team Manitoba Possible Golfers teed off for the 5th Annual Gary Bachman Classic in support of Easter Seals Manitoba. Thank you to Century 21 Bachman & Associates for organizing an amazing day at St. Boniface Golf Club on June 20,2024. Gary Bachman Classic The generous support of sponsors, players and volunteers give children and youth with disabilities the opportunity to experience the joy and independence of summer camp in an inclusive and barrier-free environment. This year’s tournament raised over $60,000 for Manitoba Possible camps Putting Sponsor: A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections Winnipeg SW Title Sponsor: Ideal Mortgage Solutions Gold Sponsor: Access Credit Union Team Members from C21 Bachman & Associates SPONSORED CONTENT WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A5 P ARKS Canada officials and pol- iticians angrily denied Monday that forest management policies in Jasper National Park contributed to a catastrophic wildfire that damaged one-third of the townsite. Ron Hallman, CEO of the federal agency, said it was “ridiculous” to as- sert his organization puts a higher value on nature than people. “That is offensive, frankly,” he said. “There is nothing that is more import- ant to Parks Canada than the safety of our employees, our guests and the people that we work with.” Although fire officials said Monday that fires within the Jasper townsite have been extinguished and progress against the fire is being made, flames in the Rocky Mountain park 360 kilo- metres west of Edmonton continue to burn. More than 20,000 people in and around the community were ordered to evacuate last Monday because of the speed of the fires and more than 30 per cent of the town’s buildings have been destroyed. Federal Environment Minister Ste- ven Guilbeault said a staged re-entry plan for those residents is being de- veloped, although he did not give a timeline. The highway through the park remains closed. Critics have suggested more could have been done to reduce the fire haz- ard in the area. Some say prescribed burns should have been used to thin out forests thick with highly flammable dead trees, es- pecially those killed by mountain pine beetle infestation. Hallman said Parks Canada has been using prescribed burns in Jasper since 1996. He said in the last decade, Jasper has had 15 prescribed burns that have covered thousands of hectares. “We do everything we can reason- ably do to remove underbrush, to do prescribed burns, to reduce risks to assets, to towns, to people.” Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland de- fended Parks Canada, saying the im- pact of mountain pine beetle was so widespread in the park that removing all the dead trees would have been im- possible. “We’re talking about a valley that is kilometres wide and 30 kilometres long and it is absolutely full of pine-beetle- dead trees. There is no way to remove all of them.” He called the response to the Jasper wildfire a success. He said the town and Parks Canada were aware of the risk and took steps to prepare the town against them, such as becoming one of Canada’s first FireSmart communities. “We anticipated that something like this could happen so we fortified our community,” he said. “When the attack came, those de- fences worked. We suffered casualties but we did hold our ground.” Steve Carr, executive director with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said exercises were done six weeks ago in anticipation of such an event. “I would suggest that they were very well prepared and very well integrated and worked very well to face this emer- gency, the scope of which it is hard to imagine in advance and very hard to prepare for such a dramatic situation,” he said. “They were a well-prepared com- munity by all accounts.” Guilbeault also stood up for Parks Canada, pointing out 70 per cent of the historic town was saved. “Years of preparation, forest management, simulated evacuations and firefighting efforts paid off,” he said. Parks Canada has said information on what has been damaged outside the town is being collected. Firefight- ers are working to protect homes and other accommodations in those out- lying areas. Jasper National Park remains closed and RCMP are ensuring the town is se- cure, Parks Canada said, noting there are checkpoints to keep people out. A Parks Canada official said Satur- day the fire could burn for months. Evacuees from Jasper learned Sun- day the Alberta and federal govern- ments will provide additional money for relief, with both saying they’ll match donations to the Canadian Red Cross 2024 Alberta Wildfires Appeal. Federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan and Mike Ellis, Alberta’s minister of public safety and emergency services, said in a joint news release that the donation-match- ing initiative means every $1 donated will become $3 to support people most affected by wildfires in Jasper and across the province. — The Canadian Press NEWS I CANADA TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024 AMBER BRACKEN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Fire crews work in a devastated neighbourhood in Jasper, Alta., on July 26. Parks Canada, minister defend wildfire preparations BOB WEBER Intelligence task force to monitor byelections for foreign interference OTTAWA — The Liberal government says measures to monitor and assess foreign interference threats will be part of all future federal byelections, not just general elections. Public Safety Minister Dominic Le- Blanc said Monday the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force will be watching for signs of med- dling in two September byelections, one in Quebec, the other in Manitoba. The federal body, established in 2019 to protect the electoral process, includes representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Global Affairs Canada and the Communications Security Establish- ment, Canada’s cyberspy agency. The SITE task force already has some experience monitoring federal byelections this year and in 2023. During byelections, the task force will provide intelligence assessments to a committee of deputy ministers. In turn, the committee will brief and advise ministers responsible for fight- ing foreign interference and shielding democratic institutions from harm, Le- Blanc said in a statement. Lines of communications “continue to be opened” with representatives of political parties to ensure engagement as necessary over the course of a bye- lection period, the statement added. The SITE task force will also produce both a classified and an unclassified re- port on its overall assessment of any attempts at foreign meddling during a byelection. The classified report will be made available to the prime minister, rel- evant ministers, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Par- liamentarians — made up of MPs and senators — and security-cleared repre- sentatives of political parties, the state- ment said. The next scheduled byelections, in Elmwood—Transcona in Winnipeg and LaSalle—Émard—Verdun in Montreal, will be held on Sept. 16. The process is somewhat different during general elections, when the fed- eral cabinet assumes a “caretaker” role limited to routine, non-controversial functions. Under a protocol introduced in 2019 for general elections, there would be a public announcement if a panel of bureaucrats determined that an inci- dent — or an accumulation of incidents — threatened Canada’s ability to have a free and fair vote. The panel receives information from sources including the SITE Task Force. There was no such announcement concerning either the 2019 or 2021 gen- eral elections. In both ballots, the Liber- als were returned to government with minority mandates while the Conserva- tives formed the official Opposition. In a recent report, a national spy watchdog found the SITE Task Force and the panel “were not adequately designed to address traditional, hu- man-based foreign interference.” The National Security and Intelli- gence Review Agency report noted the task force focuses on threat activities during the election period, but “trad- itional foreign interference also occurs between elections.” Unlike broad patterns or campaigns — such as widespread online disinfor- mation — intelligence on traditional foreign interference in elections is typ- ically granular and specific, pertaining to the activities of individuals in par- ticular ridings, the report said. “Assessing the impact of those ac- tivities at the riding-by-riding level requires receiving and analyzing all relevant intelligence on an ongoing basis. This is doubly challenging given the short time frame in which elections occur.” The intelligence review agency’s findings followed an interim report from a federal commission of inquiry, which said foreign meddling by China did not affect the overall results of the 2019 and 2021 general elections. In her report, commissioner Marie- Josée Hogue said while it is possible that outcomes in a small number of rid- ings were affected by interference, this cannot be said with certainty. — The Canadian Press ‘When the attack came, those defences worked’ JIM BRONSKILL ;