Latest news with #Manitobans'
Winnipeg Free Press
09-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Auditor general to review MPI's failed Project Nova
The province's auditor general has agreed to take a deep dive into Manitoba Public Insurance's technology infrastructure boondoggle Project Nova. Auditor general Tyson Shtykalo was asked last month by NDP Finance Minister Adrien Sala to investigate the now-scuttled project, which was originally estimated to cost $107 million but by the time MPI terminated it in March had grown to an estimated price tag of $435 million — of which $165 million had already been spent. Satvir Jatana, MPI president and CEO, said in a statement on Wednesday: 'We have recently received news that the auditor general has accepted the request and will be moving forward with the audit. We are committed to working alongside the auditor and his team to complete this work.' MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES The province's auditor general has agreed to investigate Manitoba Public Insurance's Project Nova. Shtykalo could not be reached for comment. In May, the Consumers' Association of Canada (Manitoba) wrote to the auditor general asking for such an audit. The letter said it was needed 'to prevent repetition of past mistakes by MPI and other public institutions and to complement the Public Utilities Board's protection of Manitobans' interests in setting auto insurance rates.' Last month, Sala wrote to the auditor general, saying an internal government review had found a number of 'concerns' about MPI's management of Nova. 'A review, by Treasury Board secretariat, identified concerns about the selection of the software and the system integrator, terms of the vendor contract and irregularities in contract practices,' Sala wrote. 'In addition, MPI is expected to continue paying software licences that will not be used in the future years.' Project Nova was announced in 2020 by the then-Tory government as a major computer upgrade by the Crown auto insurer, enabling both its Autopac and commercial customers to go online to renew or amend insurance policies and driver's licences. As well, the system was to be designed to speed up processing of damage claims by linking together MPI and repair shops. Then-MPI CEO Eric Herbelin said at the time it would cost $107 million and be implemented within three years. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Two years later, the estimated cost of the project had ballooned to $290 million and the implementation time was pushed to five years. By 2023, Herbelin had been fired by the MPI board after an internal performance review. His replacement, Jatana, later not only terminated all future Nova work (because the total estimated cost was now $435 million) but in early 2025 also said MPI was temporarily disabling part of what it had already implemented — the computer program used for special risk-extension (SRE) renewals and new policies for commercial customers — while going back to a former paper-based system. 'Despite our significant investments in time and resources, especially in recent months, to move this work forward, we have not seen the improvements that we anticipated,' Jatana said in an email sent in April to staff members which was obtained by the Free Press. 'It has become clear that attempting to fix the system while working in it is not in the best interests of our teams, our broker partners or our SRE customers.' Kevin RollasonReporter Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press's city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin. Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
24-06-2025
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
Telus outage in March shut down 177 calls to 911 from Manitobans
The scope of a 40-hour outage that affected Manitoba Telus cellphone users in March is more extensive than first reported — it turns out 59 people frantically dialled 911 without reaching help. The Free Press has reported that family and friends of a Fisher Branch-area man who died of a heart attack had desperately called 911 for 90 minutes, unaware the system was out of service on their Telus-connected phones. In a report, sent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last week, Telus said a review discovered 177 unsuccessful calls were made to 911, by 59 individual Manitobans, from when the service went down on March 22 at 8:15 p.m. to when it came up again on March 24 at about noon. On March 23, 55-year-old Dean Switzer died while family and friends placed 22 calls to 911, which were never answered. They desperately performed CPR on him for 90 minutes. Only after they reached out to an off-duty RCMP officer in the area, whom they knew, were emergency crews alerted. The officer went to the detachment and called an ambulance. Telus blamed the outage on 'an equipment failure on the Bell facilities, that are part of the 911 network that Telus interconnects with Bell to send calls… Telus does not know the reason for this failure.' But Telus does admit, in the June 16 submission, it has disciplined one of its own employees over the incident. The telecommunications company said while the employee was paged within two minutes of the original outage, they failed to follow protocols between Telus and Bell 'to escalate the issue within the company. This contributed to the length of the delay for this outage to be remedied.' The report also says that once the Telus 911 team became aware of the problem on March 24, it was fixed in just over an hour. In response, Telus has added a double backup system, so 911 calls can still go through automatically if the main system goes down, and, if both of those also fail, it has added a third backup in which calls would be rerouted to live operators who would assist the caller and manually connect the call to emergency services. Telus told the CRTC it couldn't divulge further details about the outage because doing so could aid its competitors and help 'bad actors' shut down the country's 911 networks. The Switzer family could not be reached for comment. 'It is heartbreaking.'–Interlake Gimli MLA Derek Johnson Progressive Conservative MLA Derek Johnson said he still believes the province has to call an inquiry to probe the outage. 'It is heartbreaking,' Johnson said on Tuesday. 'I can't imagine the emotional stress families went through at their time of need. We've consistently been calling for an inquiry on this. We have to get this so no other Manitoban has this happen to them.' He said the NDP government 'is failing Manitobans' by not holding an inquiry. Mike Moroz, the minister for innovation and new technology, said Telus did not provide the additional information to the Manitoba government. 'We only found out by looking online at the CRTC,' Moroz said. 'We have no regulatory authority over telecoms. They are providing information to the people who regulate them.' Moroz said the government wants Manitobans to have access to 911 when they need it. 'We always have to bear in mind that this is an absolute tragedy which fell on the Switzer family,' he said. 'Our condolences go out to them. 'We are fortunate, now that we see the number of calls that went to 911, we are very fortunate that it wasn't worse than it was.' Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Moroz said he has not heard from any of the other dozens of Manitobans who unsuccessfully called 911 on that weekend. 'I am certainly pleased to see some additional support has been put in to make sure that 911 is there for Manitobans when we need them.' Telus spokeswoman Liz Sauve said the latest Telus response to the CRTC was issued after the regulatory body asked the company for more information that could be released publicly. Sauve said the latest information provided 'a detailed account of what happened and how we've used learnings from this outage to further enhance our policies and procedures in partnership with Bell to prevent a similar situation from happening again.' Kevin RollasonReporter Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press's city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin. Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Calgary Herald
09-06-2025
- Climate
- Calgary Herald
Wildfire live updates: Fort Chipewyan residents charged after setting off fireworks amid fire bans across Alberta
Article content A fire ban is now in place in the entire Forest Protection Area of Alberta to prevent new fires and allow resources to be available for active fires. The ban was previously in place for the northern and central parts of the protection area but has since been expanded due to the growing wildfire threat. Article content Campfires are not allowed on public or private land, including campgrounds and backyards. Propane fire pits are still allowed. Article content Rocky View County also issued a fire ban across its entire jurisdiction, it said in a news release issued Friday afternoon. Article content 'All burning and fireworks permits are suspended, and burning is banned,' the county said, with limited exceptions for indoor household fireplaces; properly attended camp stoves; charcoal briquette, propane, or natural gas barbecues; wood pellet grills; propane and natural gas fire pit; and oil well flaring with proper county registration. Article content Article content Fire bans are a great way to manage and prevent human-caused wildfires, said Story. Fire bans allow crews to focus on the current wildfire situation and respond to active out-of-control wildfires and not use resources to put out abandoned campfires. Article content 'We all have a role to play in preventing wildfires here in the province,' said Story. Article content 'Many if not virtually all of the fires that we're dealing with in Saskatchewan, although not intentional, are human-caused,' Moe said. Article content With below-normal snowpacks during the winter and predicted summer-time drought conditions hitting various parts of Canada, the wildfire season could be a difficult one. Already, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have declared states of emergency to help protect people from raging flames and significant evacuations of northern communities in both provinces have seen thousands of people forced to flee their homes. Article content Article content 'This is the largest evacuation in many Manitobans' living memory and this will require significant resources and co-operation from all levels of government,' says Manitoba premier Wab Kinew. Already, two people have died in wildfires in that province. Article content 'Wildland fire activity is significant within one or more jurisdictions,' CIFFC says. 'Firefighters and equipment in every jurisdiction is put to use, and international help has been requested.' Article content Article content In Alberta, go to That's where you'll find a wildfire map, dashboard of incidents and forest area updates. In British Columbia, the daily wildfire update is at In Saskatchewan, the active wildifre situation map can be found here and reports on bans along with fire bulletins are here. In Manitoba, wildfire information, reports and updates are here.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Steelworkers Humanity Fund donates $20,000 to support wildfire relief efforts in Manitoba
TORONTO, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Steelworkers Humanity Fund (SHF) is donating $20,000 to support people and communities evacuated due to the recent wildfires in Manitoba. Yesterday, the Manitoba government declared a province-wide state of emergency amid reports of an intensification of the wildfires that have been raging for weeks now. More than 17,000 residents of northern and eastern Manitoba, including the First Nations communities of Pimicikimak and Mathias Colomb and the city of Flin Flon, were ordered to evacuate, in what Premier Wab Kinew described as 'the largest evacuation in many Manitobans' living memory.' Many United Steelworkers (USW) union members in the area have been affected by the evacuation order, including almost all members of USW Locals 7106 and 9338 in Flin Flon. USW Local 7499 members in southeastern Manitoba (Lac du Bonnet) have been forced off work at the local mine for two weeks due to the presence of a nearby fire. The Steelworkers Humanity Fund is responding to the appeal sent by the Canadian Red Cross with a $20,000 donation to support local authorities in assisting those affected by the wildfires with immediate and ongoing relief, including financial assistance, support to evacuees and the communities hosting them, as well as recovery and resilience efforts. 'The Steelworkers Humanity Fund stands in solidarity with the communities affected by the devastating wildfires in Manitoba,' said Marty Warren, SHF President and USW National Director. 'Through our donation to the Canadian Red Cross, we're helping to ensure that immediate relief and long-term recovery efforts reach those who need it most, including our members and their communities. We are proud to support the vital work being done on the ground during this challenging time,' Warren said. Anyone wishing to donate can visit the Red Cross 2025 Manitoba Wildfires Appeal website. Founded in 1985, the Steelworkers Humanity Fund is a registered charitable organization that focuses primarily on development projects and emergency aid in developing countries but also supports Canadian communities. USW members contribute to the fund through clauses negotiated into collective agreements. In some cases, employers make matching contributions to the fund. For further information: Marty Warren, President, Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 416-544-5951Guillaume Charbonneau, Executive Director, Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 416-544-5944, gcharbonneau@ St. Pierre, USW Communications, 647-522-1630, dstpierre@ in to access your portfolio
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Canada under siege: Wildfires force mass evacuations in Manitoba; indigenous communities at the forefront
More than 17,000 residents are expected to evacuate as wildfires rage across Manitoba , marking one of the largest displacements in the province's history. Pimicikamak Cree Nation suffers Among the hardest-hit are Indigenous communities like the Pimicikamak Cree Nation, where 767 people are still awaiting evacuation amid encroaching flames and heavy smoke. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bo Derek's Probably The Most Gorgeous 68-Year-Old. Paperela Undo "It's very smoky here [and] it's getting thicker, because the fire's at our doorstep," said Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation. The community, located approximately 530 kilometers north of Winnipeg, has been grappling with deteriorating air quality and limited evacuation routes. Highway junctions leading to Norway House, the primary evacuation point, have been compromised by fire and smoke, causing significant delays. Live Events Also Read : Over 4,000 evacuated as wildfires threaten Northern Saskatchewan Efforts are underway Efforts to airlift residents have been hampered by adverse weather conditions, leading to unexpected flight cancellations. The Canadian Armed Forces have since arrived in Norway House with planes to facilitate the evacuation. "Please, we need your full co-operation to get on these flights when your name is called," urged Chief Monias. "These fires are unpredictable and dangerous." Situation in Sherrindon The situation is equally dire in Sherridon, a community of about 85 residents, now surrounded by fire. "Right now, we've had no loss [of structures], but it is surrounding us completely," said Deputy Mayor Sheryl Matheson. "I had it at the footstep of my [Kenanow] Lodge yesterday, and the wildfire crew was able to extinguish it." Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew declared a province-wide state of emergency on Wednesday(May 28), enabling the mobilization of additional resources and emergency measures. "This is the largest evacuation in many Manitobans' living memory," Kinew stated. The declaration allows for coordinated efforts between federal, provincial, and local authorities to combat the fires and support affected communities. Evacuees are being relocated to shelters in Winnipeg and other urban centers, with facilities like the Billy Mosienko Arena being repurposed to accommodate the influx. The Canadian Red Cross and other organizations are providing essential services, including food, water, and medical care. Manitoba is battling 22 active wildfires as of May 29, with 83 out of 158 fires nationwide considered out of control. The fires have already scorched approximately 491,000 acres, and smoke is expected to drift south into the US, affecting air quality in the Midwest.
