was on the north west side driving to the south east and there were entire blocks of lights day burning and I could follow a route taken by the day burners
it was almost like someone had a tool to turn them on in "glove work" mode and was signaling them all on as they drove by
one day later those day burners had turned off
I do not know what network Winnipeg / MB Hydro use but they DO USE a remote system and CAN command "glove work"
there are always a FEW day burners around but usually it is a FEW lamps NOT blocks full and in a "driving path" across the city

They might have been testing the circuits/fixtures. Or searching for dead ones. At my place of work, we would turn the contactors (347V) to manually on when the electricians would re-lamp the dead ones.

I know there is a way to activate a lamp / row of them for testing or as I have heard called "glove work" but it was a 10 KM stretch of them on in a continuous path like someone had the remote set to "ON" then drove across town

And what control method are these using? Centralized control from some dispatch (turn on/off times "modulated" according to the mains power balance so they are used to help stabilize the power grid in the area)? A common photocell for a section? Or local (each lantern its own) photocell?

not sure of the control method they use
I know it is NOT individual lamp as a full street worth all click on at once and it was that way 30+ years ago so I assume some sort of local timer / light sensor system VS a central control centre