Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 14, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba A gift made to The Winnipeg Foundation’s Community Fund today, has the flexibility to support the needs of Winnipeggers, now and forever! An act of kindness today can positively change our community in the future! Learn more about community funds @ wpgfdn.org Proudly telling the stories that affect Manitobans. COMMITTED TO OUR COMMUNITY TOP NEWS A3 WEDNESDAY MAY 14, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Caribou killers on notice: Kinew P REMIER Wab Kinew promised Tuesday that the people who slaughtered dozens of caribou, including pregnant cows, and dumped their carcasses at the doorstep of American-owned lodge properties in a provincial park, would be punished. “Anybody who participated in this has no respect for animals, has no right to be able to hunt in this prov- ince and will be pursued and held ac- countable to the fullest extent of the law,” Kinew told the legislature in response to questions about the grisly discovery in Nueltin Lake Provincial Park last month. “We’re going to do that by working with non-Indigenous and Indigenous people,” the premier told the house, saying he’s spoken to people who live off the land in that part of the prov- ince. Nick Scigliano, who owns two lodge properties in the park just south of the border with Nunavut, shared video of the grisly scene, discovered April 11, when he chartered a helicopter to check on his properties. He said he used his phone to record video from the air of people on snow- mobiles chasing caribou and of doz- ens of dead caribou strewn in bloody piles across the snow. The video shows a helicopter door open at ground level and people pass- ing by on snowmobiles. Scigliano said he didn’t confront them before flying to Thompson to file a report to RCMP and Manitoba Conservation. He later returned to the site with RCMP. The lodge owner said near- term calves were among the caribou carnage, as well as unharvested meat. Cabins had been stripped and trashed, with furniture used as firewood. The vandals left human waste behind. The Florida resident, who has busi- nesses in Pennsylvania and is an avid outdoorsman, bought the lodge four years ago. He planned to restore the buildings as fishing and eco-tourism hubs. Scigliano said he gave conservation officers and police 8,000 images and video surveillance clips that show several snowmobilers dragging the caribou carcasses behind their ma- chines to the lodge property and hack- ing at them. “I feel that it’s just critically im- portant for the public and for your leadership to be aware of the magni- tude of what has occurred,” he said Tuesday. “These images in the video, they speak for themselves.” In the legislature Tuesday, Tory natural resources critic Rick Wow- chuk demanded to know what the province is doing about the “senseless waste of caribou and this unsustain- able madness.” The member for Swan River said in an interview the video upset him and should upset all Manitobans. “When cows are returning to the calving grounds to give birth and to bring on the next generation, it’s just totally unacceptable to see this type of slaughter occur.” Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie said RCMP and Manitoba con- servation officers are on it. “I am deeply concerned by these reports of unethical hunting practices and wastage,” Bushie said in a pre- pared statement. “We want to ensure that caribou can continue to be harvested for gen- erations to come… it is critical that we hold the people involved to account,” said Bushie, who was not available for an interview. The RCMP said Tuesday that no ar- rests have been made. Manitoba Conservation wouldn’t comment on the active investigation or say whether charges are under consideration. Scigliano said he doesn’t know the motive, or if it has anything to do with him being American and animosity towards the U.S. over tariffs and rhet- oric about making Canada the 51st state. “I sure hope not. That would be so sad, because I do not agree with the 51st state rhetoric whatsoever.” The Manitoba Wildlife Federation, which advocates for hunters, anglers, trappers and sport shooters, said the slaughter has to stop for the sake of the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd. “We can’t be shooting pregnant cows and expect a population to sur- vive,” said federation policy analyst Chris Heald, who travelled to the site with Scigliano. “It’s hard to process what we witnessed,” Heald said Tues- day. “The wastage of the meat and the shooting of the cows, it’s just beyond words.” In a bulletin Tuesday, the federation said the herd has declined to 253,000 animals in 2022 from 496,000 animals in 1994. “To ensure caribou are maintained for northern Indigenous communities, as well as for non-Indigenous caribou hunters, it’s time for serious conver- sations that include everybody, to en- sure that all hunters embrace sustain- able caribou harvesting,” it said. The provincial government must take the lead by getting all stakehold- ers to the table and laying down the law, said Heald, who noted Indigenous hunters are legally allowed to harvest cows right now. “The province has to sit everybody down to have some difficult discus- sions,” he said. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the government is committed to lis- tening to Indigenous communities, hunters and lodge owners. “We’re always listening to one another and bringing Manitobans together to find solutions.” carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Perpetrators of northern Manitoba slaughter, vandalism ‘will be pursued’ CAROL SANDERS SUPPLIED A photo from security camera footage showing hunters butchering caribou outside Nueltin Lake Lodge. NICK SCIGLIANO PHOTO The grisly scene was discovered on April 11, when lodge owner Nick Scigliano chartered a helicopter to check on his properties. ‘Anybody who participated in this has no respect for animals, has no right to be able to hunt in this province’ — Premier Wab Kinew Winnipeg hottest city as heat records fall WINNIPEG was the hottest place in Canada Tuesday afternoon, joining more than a dozen Manitoba commun- ities that shattered local records amid an ongoing heat wave expected to break later this week. Preliminary data collected by En- vironment and Climate Change Canada showed at least 13 weather stations ex- ceeded previous local daytime temper- atures set on May 13. Winnipeg broke the day’s oldest rec- ord by reaching a high of 36.9 C — well above the city’s 33.3 C record set in 1932. It remained the national hot spot as of 5 p.m., despite dropping slightly to 36.5 degrees, according to ECCC data. “We had very hot temperatures yes- terday, we had hot temperatures the day before, so it’s definitely a remark- able heat event,” said Natalie Hasell, a warning preparedness meteorologist. “The data is quite impressive… espe- cially for mid-May.” Many of the records exceeded 35 C, including those set in Altona (35.7), Arnes (36.2), Carman (35.8), Deerwood (35.1), Emerson (36), Gretna (35.7), Steinbach (35.1) and Gimli (36.2). Tem- peratures were marginally lower, but still record breaking, in Pilot Mound (32.4), Pinawa (34), Pine Falls (34.8) and Portage la Prairie (33). Seven of those communities broke heat records for the second time this week, including Winnipeg, which reached a new high for the second con- secutive day, according to ECCC data. Collectively, Tuesday’s broken re- cords span from 1932 to 1977, Hasell said. Meanwhile, northern Manitoba near Churchill experienced snow Tuesday, she said. The meteorologist warned the pub- lic to prepare for an incoming Colo- rado low that will blanket most of the province in cold weather, frost and storms later this week. Temperatures will begin to cool slightly tomorrow and through Thursday night, when the forecast indicates showers are a strong possibility, she said. The current forecast projects tem- peratures as low as -1 C accompanied by rain Friday night in Winnipeg, with daytime highs at 5 C Saturday. The weather will warm again through the remainder of the weekend and is ex- pected to reach 18 C by Monday. “I want people to be ready for large variations in the weather. We can have these very hot conditions in one part of the week and then, as the systems move and the cold fronts go through the area… we’ll see a very sharp change,” Hasell said. The long-term forecast is projecting heat to continue beyond the weekend and into the near future, she said. “That doesn’t mean it’s going be like this the whole (summer). We are still going to have variability, we are still going to have systems come and go and bring what they bring as they pass. The important part is paying attention.” Low-pressure systems in the south and some northern parts of the prov- ince will move east as the Colorado low arrives, Hasell said. The short burst of cool weather and possible precipitation may help the parts of the province dealing with ram- pant wildfires, but it will likely not be long enough to completely quell the emergencies, she said. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE ;