The information contained in previous chapters, when read together with the many statistics, charts and tables which were studied by the Commission, point up the problems facing Greater Winnipeg. In order to assess this mass of material and information, the following three chapters were added, which, although repiticious, should present the issue fairy clearly, and it is to be hoped that these will be of assistance in the study of this report.
As has elsewhere been described, each municipality obtains revenue through the taxation of local real property, through grants in lieu of taxes, through business taxes, and from various other sources. The fact that the above taxes and grants are paid exclusively to the municipality in which the property concerned happens to be located, gives me rise to serious inequities. One municipality may collect all of the municipal taxes paid by particular firms and individuals, when in fact other municipalities in the metropolitan area have valid claims to a share in these revenues.
An industrial or commercial firm contributes to the revenues of the municipality in which it is located in two direct ways - by paying the general realty tax on the assessed value of its land and building, and by paying the local business tax. The presence of such a firm in the municipality may also, however, increase municipal operating costs - by making necessary increased expenditures on education, on police and fire protection, etc. The presence of such a firm may, furthermore, unfavorably affect the value of nearby residential property because of its appearance, or because of noises or odors which it produces. The anxiety of municipal officials to attract industrial and commercial firms suggests that generally business firms contribute in revenue more than sufficient to offset any costs any costs which they impose. The residential property owners of the municipality consequently benefit from the presence of business firms in their municipality, since part of the cost of municipal services provided to them is contributed by these business firms.
The question arises whether it is equitable that the residential property owners of a particular municipality should be the exclusive beneficiaries of the municipal revenue contributed by any business firms located in that municipality. In a metropolitan area a large number of municipalities exist in close proximity; it may be fairly argued that the municipal revenue contributed by a business firm should be allocated among all of them, and should not go exclusively to that municipality in which it happens to be located. The firm may be responsible for additional costs in other municipalities: e.g. its employees may live in other municipalities, so that the latter must bear the cost of educating children, and, in emergencies, give social assistance to employees' families; heavy traffic to and from the firm may pass through other municipalities, raising their costs of street maintenance and traffic control.
Furthermore, even if the firm's presence is in now way burdensome to other municipalities, they might still fairly claim a share of the municipal revenues it contributes. The customers and employees of the firm are obviously entitled to benefit from such contributions by the firm, and not merely the other property owners of the municipality in which it is located. Distribution of the revenue yielded by the firm among all the municipalities of the metropolitan area would ensure that the employees and customers also shared in the benefit.
In Greater Winnipeg today, business firms contribute municipal revenue only to the municipality in which they are located; hence the inequities described above are very much in evidence.
The inequities inherent in the above situation have been vigorously set forth by the Government of Manitoba in its representations to the Federal Government, where it has argued that a portion of the taxes contributed by firms in Eastern Canada properly belongs to Manitoba and other Western provinces, where the firms earned part of the profits upon which the taxes were levied. The principle that the place of origin of wealth is entitled to a share of the tax levied upon that wealth in as applicable in inter-municipal as it is in inter-provincial relations.
To illustrate the above, as well as the inter-dependence of municipalities in the metropolitan area, the tables following will be of assistance.
A municipality does not have the power to tax a senior government, but both Federal and Provincial governments have in recent years been paying large grants, in lieu of municipal taxes on real property which they hold. The payment of these grants exclusively to the municipality in which the property is located, given rise to the same kind of inequity as exists in regard to the contribution of business firms to municipal revenues. The employees of Federal and Provincial offices may live in other municipalities of the metropolitan area; the latter therefore deserve to share in the grants pd by the senior governments; their claim to a share is no less valid than the claim of the municipality in which the offices are actually situated.
One municipality may bear the entire of some facility which is freely available to the residents of all municipalities, and indeed to anyone who visits the metropolitan area. The streets of one municipality may be intensively used by outsiders, who contribute nothing toward the costs of construction and maintenance of roadways, and to the costs of traffic control -- costs for which they are in part responsible. Thus for instance Provencher Street in St. Boniface is heavily travelled by residents of East Kildonan, Elmwood and Transcona, proceeding to and from downtown Winnipeg. The Louise and Redwood bridges across the Red River are both within the City of Winnipeg, but are freely and extensively used by residents o East Kildonan, North Kildonan and Transcona. All of Winnipeg's main thoroughfares are heavily travelled by residents of other municipalities. The costs of street construction and maintenance, and of traffic control, are borne solely by the residents of the City in which the streets and bridges are located, (1) while users who live elsewhere contribute nothing directly towards such services.
The municipalities of Fort Garry, St. Vital and St. Boniface contain long stretches of highways which lead into Winnipeg. These highways feed valuable traffic into the metropolitan area as a whole, but the costs of road construction and maintenance and traffic control are not shared among the metropolitan municipalities as a whole. In each of these municipalities highway traffic control is a major task of the local police force; the accidents which occur frequently in consequence of the traffic density contribute further to local policing costs.
The Provincial Government contributed toward the cost of constructing and maintaining urban thoroughfares and bridges which form links in the provincial highway system. The contribution towards construction costs has been fairly substantial though given on an ad hoc basis in each case, rather than under the terms of a general formula. Even with the provincial contribution, such construction projects have involved heavy costs for the municipalities concerned. Other municipalities of the Greater Winnipeg area, whose residents might benefit equally from the work, are not obligated to contribute to the cost. (2)
The metropolitan area contains two major parks -- the 98 acre Kildonan Park and the 296 acre Assiniboine Park. Residents of suburban municipalities who contribute nothing to the cost of maintaining the parks, are able to use them however, just as freely as do the citizens of Winnipeg, who pay the full cost.
Winnipeg furthermore contributes, alone, to the support of a number of institutions which afford recreational opportunity to all residents of the metropolitan area. The City makes contributions to the local Ballet Company, to the Rainbow Stage, and meets the deficits incurred by the Winnipeg Arena, the Civic Auditorium, the public swimming pools. Suburban residents benefit equally with Winnipeggers from the services provided by these enterprises, but do not contribute toward the deficits which are involved.
Welfare recipients may be divided into two categories:
The incidence of welfare costs is particularly heavy in Winnipeg, and to a lesser extent in St. Boniface. In these cities, especially in the former, there exists a great number of large old homes, which have been converted to cheap rooming houses, or divided up into low grade suites. Families in the lowest income brackets generally seek out this accommodation because it is the cheapest they can obtain. It is in this economically inferior class of persons that welfare cases requiring public assistance chiefly develop; but because appropriate accommodation is lacking in other municipalities, this class of person is concentrated within the City of Winnipeg. As a matter of fact, suburban municipalities often rent rooms in Winnipeg to house their welfare cases, since there is no suitable accommodation within their own limits.
The cities of Winnipeg and St. Boniface also attract considerable numbers of older persons from rural Manitoba who move in to stay in nursing homes, or to take advantage of the extensive hospital facilities. Many of these persons come to require public aid of one form or another.
The taxpayers of Winnipeg and St. Boniface are consequently obliged to contribute toward welfare costs substantially more than do the taxpayers of other municipalities in the metropolitan area. Although the taxpayers of Winnipeg and St. Boniface are no more responsible for these welfare problems than are the other metropolitan municipalities, they are obliged to bear, nevertheless, a disproportionate share of the burden chiefly because they contain the cheaper housing accommodation, and the hospital facilities, sought by the persons who are prone to need welfare assistance. The increase in the Provincial Government's contribution to municipal welfare costs have reduced this inequity, but has not eliminated it entirely.
Each municipality in Greater Winnipeg which has frontage on the Red River is responsible for the construction and maintenance of a dyke along that frontage. These dykes protect not merely the municipalities in which they are built, but the entire metropolitan area. They hold back the water which might otherwise flood neighboring municipalities, (flood waters do not pay attention to municipal boundaries) and indirectly protect the areas not actually threatened by flood waters. If a substantial area of Greater Winnipeg were to be flooded, as happened in 1950, the disruption of business and public service would affect everybody who lived in the metropolitan area, including those people who lived in sections which were not inundated.
The senior governments paid 87.5 per cent of the original cost of the dykes and pumping stations, while each municipality pays the full cost of maintaining the portion of the dyke which lies within its boundaries. This arrangement applies only to those municipalities which have Red River frontage. Consequently Winnipeg, St. Boniface, East and West Kildonan, Fort Garry and St. Vital bear the entire cost of maintaining the dykes which protect the whole of Greater Winnipeg against actual inundation, and the disruption which would occur everywhere if any substantial area were to be inundated. The burden on St. Vital and Fort Garry is particularly heavy, since both of these municipalities have extensive Red River frontage, and are obliged to build and maintain lengthy dykes.
Each municipality in the Greater Winnipeg area maintains its own facilities, equipment and staff to provide services to its citizens. Wasteful duplication consequently exists, since, in some cases, the same facilities, equipment and staff could serve two or more municipalities. Several examples are cited below:
Each municipality in Greater Winnipeg maintains its own garbage dump, so that there are seventeen such dumps in the near vicinity of the actual metropolitan area. There is every reason to suppose that economies and greater convenience would be achieved by arrangements which would enable two or more municipalities to use a common garbage disposal dump.
St. Boniface and St. Vital each maintain a water pumping station, the two stations being in close proximity to each other. A single station of proper capacity could have adequately served both municipalities more economically.
The most modern and efficient engineering equipment frequently consists of large and costly units. To achieve maximum economy, such equipment must be intensively used. Where, however, each municipal engineering department in the metropolitan area operates its own equipment, some units are under-utilized; co-operative action would enable a limited number of units to serve the entire Greater Winnipeg area. Furthermore, many municipalities, unable to purchase or to use effectively large, modern pieces of equipment, today use smaller, older and less efficient equipment.
Within the metropolitan area, some districts are well suited for residential development, while others are best suited for industrial use. It is in the general interest that each district be used for its appropriate purpose; failure to do this results in inconvenience and economic loss to the entire metropolitan community. The location of new housing and industry today, however, is not primarily determined with reference to the convenience and economic efficiency of the Greater Winnipeg area as a whole.
Residential and industrial builders generally require serviced land; hence those municipalities which are able to provide serviced land attract developers, while those municipalities which are not able to offer serviced land remain undeveloped, however suitable their locations may be in other respects.
To be economically feasible, the servicing of land with streets, sewers, and water lines must be carried out on a large scale, the minimum unit of development being a substantial block of land. The initial investment is therefore considerable and a financially weak municipality will be unable to develop its raw land. Private enterprise might be prepared to do the job, but only if it can acquire ownership, at reasonable cost, of the entire area which is to be serviced. If the land is divided up into a great many small parcels, however, each of which is separately owned, the problem of acquiring ownership of the whole area at reasonable cost becomes virtually impossible.
Thus Charleswood, which would be an excellent residential area, is developed today in only limited degree. The municipal corporation is too weak financially to undertake large scale land servicing, while the division of land into numerous small, individually owned properties renders any development unattractive to private enterprise. On the other hand, private enterprise recently developed acreage in St. Boniface despite serious drawbacks inherent n the site. One of the attractions was the fact that the area was comprised of several large parcels which could be purchased from the owners at reasonable cost, another was -- that being large parcels made the physical development more economical.
Such obstacles to the proper location of new developments exist because of the fact that the municipalities in Greater Winnipeg which have undeveloped land are generally financially weak, while the City of Winnipeg, with great financial strength, has no further raw land. Combining Winnipeg's financial strength with the raw land of the suburban municipalities would break this financial bottleneck which is at present imposing cost and inconvenience by driving development into unsuitable directions.
This problem -- the unsuitable location of new development, is of relatively recent origin. Until about 1950 there was ample supply of serviced land in many localities of Greater Winnipeg, mostly serviced by sewer and water lines laid down before 1939, many of them installed prior to 1914. Builders had an ample choice of lots and were under no pressure to develop areas simply because they could be serviced most economically, however unsuitable they might be otherwise.
Practically all such previously serviced land has now been developed, however; it has now become necessary to spend very large sums to service new land, with the consequence that new development has been carried out in localities where, for one reason or another, the installation of services can be financed more easily than elsewhere, and despite major disadvantages which such localities might have.
A municipality may authorize the establishment within its limits of an industry which imposes inconvenience or cost upon the residents of other municipalities, and the latter may be unable to obtain effective redress.
Thus disagreeable odors emitted by oil refineries in St. Boniface and East St. Paul have at times been wafted over to residents of adjoining municipalities. The local sugar refinery, because it is located in Fort Garry, is responsible for difficult problems of sewage disposal, with consequent costs which are borne by all the people of Greater Winnipeg.
Large corporations which were considering the erection of major plants in the Greater Winnipeg area have in some cases offered specially low assessments as an inducement to settle in a particular municipality. This practice has two unfortunate consequences. It may lead to the erection of plants in unsuitable localities, and it enables large firms to contribute to the public revenue of the metropolitan community less than they could and should.
The further points may be noted in connection with tax concessions. The normal tax rate of some municipality may be so low that even without receiving special concessions, a large firm located in the municipality may be paying far lower taxes than it would pay elsewhere in the metropolitan area, and may therefore even without tax concessions, fail to make its proper contribution to the revenues of the metropolitan area.
Secondly, it is probably unnecessary in most or all cases to grant tax concessions to firms to induce them to settle in the Greater Winnipeg area: industrial firms are induced to come here by compelling economic considerations such as the availability of labor and raw materials, and accessibility to markets. With or without tax concessions they would locate somewhere in the Greater Winnipeg area. From the metropolitan community point of view, but instead merely enable them to pay lower municipal taxes than they could pay, and would pay if so required. One municipality gains, but the area as a whole loses.
Approximately a dozen main highways lead into Greater Winnipeg, (joining the metropolitan area to the surrounding countryside and to other centres) and ribbon development has occured along practically all of these roads, as straggly lines of housing have been constructed along them, beyond the developed metropolitan area. The consequences are unfavorable for Greater Winnipeg as a whole: local traffic originating in ribbon developments impedes the flow of traffic to and from the metropolitan area, (for which the roads were constructed), while the scattered character of the development involves unusually high costs of installation of such services as water and sewer lines; since taxpayers living elsewhere would likely be obliged to contribute toward these costs, this additional financial burden is of concern to the community as a whole. Finally, ribbon development damages the scenic value of the highways as the approaches to the metropolitan area; motorists enjoy their drives somewhat less, and the attractiveness of Greater Winnipeg to visitors and tourists is diminished.
Spotty, low quality development on the fringe of the metropolitan area produces similar problems. To service such developments, water, sewer and other installations must be extended in uneconomic fashion. The quality and location of the buildings subsequently interferes with the orderly spread of the built up area.
Because of the inadequate co-ordination of activities of the various municipal governments, the general public is not as well served as it might be. In a number of fields, greater inter-municipal co-ordination would enable more effective service to be provided to the public, with no increase expenditure or personnel employed.
Each municipal fire department operates independently, and is responsible only for the protection of persons and property within its municipal limits. (1) Thus each person and property owner in Greater Winnipeg is protected against fire, not by the total fire-fighting forces maintained in the metropolitan area, but only by the limited force of his own municipality. By special agreement, several suburban municipalities may call upon the Winnipeg Fire Department for assistance in emergencies, but such assistance may be requested only by a senior municipal official, and may be given only with the consent of the Chief of the Winnipeg Fire Department.
When a fire breaks out, therefore, only the resources of a single municipality are brought into action against it, and in a smaller suburban municipality these resources may be quite limited. They may be adequate to deal with a small fire, but quite unequal, despite very great strain by individual firemen, to a large fire. The consequence is that if a serious fire breaks out in a suburban municipality, an insufficient force goes out to fight it, while meantime strong fire fighting forces in other municipalities remain in their own Fire Halls, or are called on belatedly, at a time when every second is precious. Furthermore, most of the suburban municipalities are able to maintain only one fire fighting crew on duty at all times; when the crew answers a call, the municipality is left without protection, despite the fact that thre are firemen on duty in other municipalities close by.
In some instances, part of a municipality is closer to the Fire Hall of a neighboring municipality than it is to its own. Thus a substantial area of St. Boniface, including about a dozen apartment blocks, is closer to the St. Vital Fire Hall, than to either of the St. Boniface Fire Halls. Part of St. James is closer to one of the Winnipeg Fire Halls than to the St. James Hall. The City of Winnipeg Fire Department is responsible for the protection of some properties which are closer to the Fire Halls of suburban municipalities than to any Winnipeg Hall; e.g. the City Fire Department is responsible for the protection of the City-owned Windsor Golf Course in St. Vital, and the buildings of the University of Manitoba and the Manitoba Sugar Company in Fort Garry.
To fight fires most effectively, the maximum force must be brought to bear in the absolute minimum of time. The inadequacy of inter-municipal co-ordination consequently means that some fires which break out in the Greater Winnipeg area are fought less effectively than would be possible with the men and equipment actually available; the nearest men and equipment, or necessary supporting forces, are barred or impeded by the existence of municipal boundaries.
While the several police forces of the Greater Winnipeg area co-operate closely in many ways, co-ordination is far from complete, and problems therefore arise. A criminal may commit a series of crimes, such as break-ins, in several different municipalities; the clues left in any one municipality may be meagre, but if the clues left in all municipalities were placed together, the police might be able to find their man. Complete co-ordination of detective work would improve the prospect of its being sucessfu; such complete co-ordination is presently lackig.
Crime detection work is furthermore a specialized work, requiring highly trained and experienced men. A small suburban municipality normally has little need for such personnel on its police force, and does not have them; where a major crime is committed in such a municipality, the local police force may therefore deal with it less adequately than would trained detectives.
Inadequate co-ordination of police efforts produces problems in emergencies such as during the pursuit of fleeing suspects. Two of the larger suburban forces operate their own radio transmitters to communicate with their cruiser cars; the R.C.M.P., which presently patrols two municipalities, maintains its own communication system. As a result it is not possible to achieve the instantaneou contact and inter communications which is required during a chase.
The control of traffic in the Greater Winnipeg area is essentially a single proble with many parts. Each municipality's police force controls traaffic only within its own limits, however, and there are occasions when, due to inadequate co-ordination, the flow of traffic is handled less expeditiously than could be managed with better police co-ordination. Thus for instance, the City of Winnipeg now forbids parking on main thoroughfares during rush hours; adjoining municipalities, through which the same thoroughfare pass, permit rush hour parking on them, thereby giving rise to bottlenecks which impede the flow of traffic in Winnipeg. A minor difficulty is the confusion caused by the lack of standardization of stop signs, parking signs, and other traffic control measures, throughout the metropolitan area.
A single thoroughfare may serve two or more municipalities; to ensure that it serves them effectively, the route and type of construction should be jointly planned. Such co-opeative planning is infrequently carried out. Recently one municipality sold a strategically located piece of property for building purposes, thereby destroying the possibility of an arterial route that would have been of great value to an adjoining municipality. Keewatin Street, which divides Winnipeg from Brooklands, was built too narrow for the heavy traffic load which it carries; one reason was the fact that Winnipeg, owning the right of way, paid the whole cost, while residents of Brooklands are perhaps the main users.
The recent failure of Winnipeg and Tuxedo to co-operate in regard to the routing of a main thoroughfare through the south part of the metropolitan area has resulted in a route which is more costly.
Our present main thoroughfares are, in many cases, poorly located in respect of public transit. To enable the public transit system to operate with maximum economy and effectiveness, thoroughfares should be spaced about one half mile apart, so that no dwelling should be more than a quarter mile, or about a five minute walk, from the bus line. If the transit system is obliged to provide service on all thoroughfares, then the location of these thoroughfares is important to the efficient and economical operation of the transit utility.
Where arterial thoroughfares are too far apart, the transit system cannot provide good service, or must operate small feeder buses on residential streets at considerable cost, and to the annoyance of homeowners along the route. Where river and rail yard crossings are too far apart, the transit system is obliged to follow circuitous routes which involve increase in cost, and inferior service.
The City of Winnipeg maintains an extensive public library system and several of the suburban municipalities now operate small public librares. There is at present no co-ordination of effort between Winnipeg and suburban libraries, although experts feel that a great deal of benefit could be derived from such co-operation.
While the Greater Winnipeg Water District and the Greater Winnipeg Sanitary District are important co-opeartive projects, which serve Winnipeg and suburban municipalities, problems nevertheless arise in regard to water supply and powers and responsibilities: the GWWD is responsible only for the delivery of water by aqueduct to the Winnipeg area; the municipalities must make their individual arrangements for reservoirs, pumping stations and water mains; similarly, and for the interceptor sewers which lead into it; municipalities are individually responsible for the construction of their own sewage collection systems together with the trunk sewers which feed locally collected sewage into the interceptors (in some cases, into the rivers).
The GWWD does not include all of the suburban municipalities, and is not able to serve them all. A non-member municipality which wishes to have water supplied must make private arrangements with an adjacent municipality which is a member. Such agreements are frequently unsatisfactory. They are not drawn up in a standard fashion, and accordingly vary as to service supplied and rates charged. Furthermore they are subject to termination. The lack of an assured water supply upon reasonable terms is at present hampering the development of at least one district which, in other respects, is well suited for development.
On the basis of the local topography, engineers have divided the Greater Winnipeg area into sewer districts, each such district being the area which could be serviced most economically by a single trunk sewer. In some cases these sewer districts cut across municipal boundaries, giving rise to problems of co-ordination. Thus portions of East Kildonan and North Kildonan were in a single sewer district, bt it was only of late, after considerable controversy, that the two municipalities agreed to co-operate in the construction of a single trunk sewer, which would serve them both. The Jefferson Avenue sewer in West Kildonan, which serves both that municipality and North Winnipeg has been a source of controversy in regard to the sharing of repair and maintenance costs. St. Boniface is confronted with the need for building a trunk sewer to the Red River which will pass through and serve St. Vital as well; some difficulty has already arisen in regard to the sharing of costs.
In a short time, the City of Winnipeg will build an additonal reservoir and pumping station; these new facilities will be used primarily to serve suburban municipalities, including Fort Garry, Tuxedo and Charleswood. From an engineerg point of view it would likely be preferable to locate these facilities in Fort Garry; the City Engineering Department intends to build these within the City limits, however, and has acquired a site for the purpose.
No organization exists which is responsible for the welfare of Greater Winnipeg and which has the authority and capacity to deal with new problems which affect the metropolitan area. Wen new problems arose, they were handled, belatedly, by ad hoc organizations created by the Provincial Government, or through the tardy, unwilling, suspicious co-operation of the municipal councils.
Thus in 1950, when a substantial area of Greater Winnipeg was flooded, the municipalities fought the flood independently and ineffectively; the necessary centralized organization came into being only when the Provincial Government called upon the Army to take charge. During the 1956 flood threat, the Provincial Government was obliged to establish the organization needed to build up Greater Winnipeg's flood defences.
In another sphere , it was not possible to build the Disraeli Freeway, partly because no inter-municipal organization existed which had the authority to undertake the project, and to distribute its cost equitably among the residents of Greater Winnipeg. Arterial highway approaches to Greater Winnipeg are unkempt and unattractive, partly because no authority exists which could assume responsibility for beautifying them, levying the cost over the whole metropolitan area.