WINNIPEG — Manitobans may get cash for turning down the thermostat during peak energy-use periods next winter.

Money will flow, too, for those willing to limit the use of air conditioning during peak summer times.

“The intent… is just to shift energy use,” said Michael Stocki, Efficiency Manitoba’s vice-president of efficiency programs.

“As our economy continues to grow, as people shift from fossil fuels to electric technology, that peak — and managing that peak — has become more and more important in Manitoba.”

WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg couple who tortured and killed dozens of cats and other small animals for an online paying audience was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday.

Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended the sentence for Irene Lima and Chad Kabecz in a case that prompted massive public outrage.

“The depravity is stunning,” said King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris, who banned both offenders from possessing animals for life. “In over 40 years as a lawyer and judge, I have not seen any facts come close to this … I cannot begin to conceive of the suffering of these defenceless animals as you tortured them to death for your own deviant sexual pleasure and profit.”

Lima, 56, crushed the animals to death with her bare feet, while 41-year-old Kabecz recorded the killings, videos of which were shared with paying customers via a chat group where Lima was known as “Goddess May.”

WINNIPEG — A former truck driver who was responsible for a fatal highway crash that killed a 34-year-old father will not go to jail.

Instead, in a decision released last week, King’s Bench Justice Shane Perlmutter ruled that Sukhbir Singh, 34, be sentenced to two years of house arrest for the February 2020 collision.

“There is no doubt … that Mr. Singh is deterred by his conduct and the risk of reoffending remains very low,” Perlmutter said as he rejected the Crown’s recommendation to sentence Singh to 18 months in jail.

“In my view … it would not be in the long-term interests of society at large to take Mr. Singh — who Crown counsel concedes is an exemplary member of society — and incarcerate him,” Perlmutter said, noting there is a “strong likelihood” Singh will be deported to India upon completing his sentence.