Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Regional partners work best for now

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 01/31/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The province passed legislation seven years ago ordering the 16 municipalities that comprise the capital region to establish a joint planning committee and to start behaving in a more co-operative manner. That was as far as the government was prepared to go to end the piecemeal development and occasional animosity between the parties in the region.

Former premier Gary Doer said then he would never consolidate the region into a single municipality, much the way a previous NDP administration did when it merged 13 municipalities to create one big Winnipeg in 1972. Unfortunately, the Doer government's legislation did not go far enough in establishing a timeline or even a requirement for the establishment of a regional planning process for development, transportation, water and sewer, emergency services and roads.

Nor was there any method for judging whether the required co-operation was actually working.

Despite that failure, the City of Winnipeg under Mayor Sam Katz has succeeded in making deals with various municipalities on a bilateral basis, an improvement over previous civic administrations that opposed almost any co-operation on the grounds that it would merely fuel urban sprawl.

Unfortunately, the challenges are likely to become more intense in the future as the city and the regional municipalities continue to expand and grow. Land-use principles that are dramatically different on opposite sides of the street, for example, won't help promote social cohesion.

An effective capital region is vital if the urban district is to compete against other cities in an era of globalization. If the region looks disorganized and confused about its objectives, other cities may start to look more appealing to companies with an international outlook.

A new civic report on the pros and cons of realigning the municipal boundaries in the region is unlikely to pick up much steam at city hall or the legislature, although some councillors believe the region would look much better if it followed Winnipeg's planning principles.

Many of the citizens of the surrounding municipalities do not agree and there is no point engaging in a debate that will merely foment animosity, instead of a spirit of co-operation.

The time may come when annexation or amalgamation or some other form of border realignment is necessary, but until then, it is in everyone's interest to build a strong capital region for the benefit of all.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 31, 2012 A10

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