Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 13, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba winnipegfreepress.com/ photostore Own a piece of Manitoba’s history Choose from 150 years of Free Press archived photos. M A K E S A N I D E A L G I F T SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872. FOREVER WITH YOUR SUPPORT. MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2025 WEATHER SUNNY. HIGH -20 — LOW -29 TOP NEWS TALK OF CANADA AS 51ST STATE A DISTRACTION: PM / A3 Vandals hit city car wash chain twice in 10 days A CHAIN of local car washes has been hit twice by different vandals — who, on both occasions, drove into separate facilities and caused an estimated $20,000 in combined damages — in 10 days. Gil Gauthier, owner of Blondie’s Car Wash, said he’s relieved no one was hurt as a result of either crime, but recent events have left him feeling “on edge, all the time.” “What can you do? I just tell the staff to be very careful,” said the owner of three car and pet wash locations, including a Main Street site just north of Kildonan Park, another in the Lei- la-McPhillips Triangle and his newest addition near the intersection of Route 90 and the Perimeter Highway. “’If you think someone’s going to be real trouble, a real headache, just back away — leave them alone. Don’t provoke the situation.’” There’s been an uptick in violent incidents on the premises, as well as at a hotel his family owns, over the last few years, Gauthier said, adding the vehicle cleaning business he’s owned since 2006 recently stopped offering all coin vacuum services because of frequent theft. Crime is consistently among the top concerns reported by business owners in surveys conducted by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. “It has only been growing as a top- of-mind issue for our members — in particular, during the pandemic and then in a post-pandemic environment,” said Loren Remillard, longtime presi- dent and chief executive officer of the chamber. “We recognize that these are diffi- cult times for everyone, economically and socially, and when you have those kinds of conditions, you will see an increase in criminal activity.” Remillard noted that many business- es have installed video cameras, hired security guards and bolstered lighting to deter bad actors. Others, such as Liquor Marts, have started controlling entry to curb theft. MAGGIE MACINTOSH Death toll rises as crews fight L.A. blazes LOS ANGELES — Firefighters scrambled Sunday to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 24 people in the Los Angeles area as forecasters again warned of dangerous weather with the return of strong winds this week. At least 16 people were missing, and author- ities said that number was expected to rise. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 m.p.h (80 km/h) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 m.p.h. (113 km/h). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson. “You’re going to have really strong gusty Santa Ana winds, a very dry atmosphere and still very dry brush, so we still have some very critical fire weather conditions out there,” Thompson said at a community meeting Saturday night. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said 70 addi- tional water trucks arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. “We are prepared for the upcoming wind event,” Mar- rone said. Fire retardant dropped by aircraft Sunday will act as a barrier along hillsides, officials said. Fierce Santa Anas have been largely blamed for turning the wild- fires sparked last week into infernos that leveled entire neighbourhoods around the city where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months. Twelve people were missing with- in the Eaton Fire zone and four were missing from the Palisades Fire, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Luna added that “dozens” more reports might have come in Sunday morning and investigators were reconciling whether some of the missing might be among the dead. There are no children among those reported missing, he said. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 24 over the weekend. Eight of the deaths were attributed to the Pali- sades Fire and 16 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a statement Sunday evening. Officials said they expected that figure to increase as teams with ca- daver dogs conduct systematic grid searches in levelled neighbourhoods. Authorities have established a centre where people can report the missing. Officials also were building an online database to allow evacuated residents to see if their homes were damaged or destroyed. In the mean- time, L.A. city Fire Chief Kristin Crowley urged people to stay away from scorched neighbourhoods. “There are still active fires that are burning within the Palisades area, making it extremely, extremely dangerous for the public,” Crowley said at a Sunday morning briefing. “There’s no power, there’s no water, there’s broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures.” Officials warned the ash can con- tain lead, arsenic, asbestos and other harmful materials. About 150,000 people in Los Angeles County remained under evacuation orders, with more than 700 residents taking refuge in nine shelters, Luna said. Officials said most of the orders in the Palisades area were unlikely to be lifted before the red flag warnings expire Wednesday evening. CHRISTOPHER WEBER AND HOLLY RAMER NOAH BERGER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A car is driven past homes and vehicles destroyed by the Palisades Fire at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates in Los Angeles on Sunday. NDP touts new education dashboard while Tories question move amid info breaches Province scraps $50-M student database T HE Manitoba government has scrapped plans to create a centralized database for student registration, report cards and other information at a cost in excess of $50 million. The Free Press has learned the initiative is not moving forward — un- related to a series of recent cybersecu- rity incidents, although the Opposition Tories argue the shelved proposal, which was widely endorsed, would better protect school data. The project, spearheaded by the Progressive Conservatives when they were in government, sought to create a one-stop-shop for student, parent, teacher and school-program informa- tion. “If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have put my name to it,” said interim PC leader Wayne Ewasko, the educa- tion minister prior to the last election. In the spring of 2023, the Tory gov- ernment issued a request for proposals to combine the Education Depart- ment’s legacy data-collection system that operates with 38 separate entities operated at the school division level. The auditor general’s office, 2019 education commission and Manitoba advocate for children and youth have all recommended the province develop a mega student-information system. Since the majority of Manitoba divisions currently pay for software by PowerSchool, their internal data was leaked when the technology company was hacked over the winter break. Winnipeg’s Pembina Trails School Division, a recent victim of a different cyberattack that was flagged earlier in December, is restoring internal sys- tems, including staff payment process- es that continue to be disrupted. The acting minister of education, a mother of three school-aged children, is among thousands of Manitobans who have been affected by recent events. Tracy Schmidt said she sympathiz- es with other caregivers in the same situation and vowed to support school divisions. At the same time, she noted that no security system is guaranteed to fully shield data from bad actors. “There is absolutely no evidence that one single system would have or could have prevented (the latest) unfortunate incident,” she said, referring to the NDP’s decision to abandon its prede- cessor’s consolidation project. The province has come up with a more efficient way to improve data collection than hiring a contractor to centralize it, Schmidt said, adding the price tag was estimated to be at least $50 million. A new education dashboard that draws on existing resources is in the works, per government officials. Ewasko accused the NDP of putting student and school staff information “at risk.” MAGGIE MACINTOSH ● DATABASE, CONTINUED ON A2 ● VANDALS, CONTINUED ON A2 ● WILDFIRES, CONTINUED ON A2 LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER ;