To grow, Winnipeg needs to think big

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This article was published 03/12/2018 (2534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the fall of 2014, Winnipeg was engaged in an election campaign that captured the city’s imagination. Three progressive candidates went toe to toe, presenting big ideas to take the city in a new direction.

The recent civic election campaign was a stark contrast to four years ago. Few progressive ideas were debated, and city-building dialogue was again dominated by potholes and crime.

There was a lot of celebration about Winnipeg growing towards a population of one million, but little discussion about how to sustainably manage that growth. In the past year, Manitoba saw an unprecedented number of people moving away. Almost 9,000 more people left Manitoba for other provinces than came to it, by far the highest number in two decades. A large proportion of these left Winnipeg and around 40 per cent of them were young people between the ages of 20 and 34.

Despite this disturbing trend, few ideas were presented to make Winnipeg more attractive to a young, mobile workforce — who, in greater numbers than ever, are looking for a diversity of lifestyle choices beyond the overwhelmingly suburban, auto-centric city we are building. The election campaign offered few ideas to ensure Winnipeg keeps pace with other Canadian cities that are moving swiftly forward, implementing progressive urbanist ideas that attract investment and immigration and retain young people.

The election is over, and we now have a progressive mayor and council. If we look back, many of the big-picture ideas from 2014 remain valid and can still set the framework for moving the city forward today. A key lesson over the past four years, however, is that to progress on many urban initiatives, the province and city must be engaged as partners moving forward with the same priorities.

A key city-building promise from the 2014 campaign was to grow the downtown population to 20,000 from 15,000 in four years. The unprecedented downtown renewal experienced over the previous decade was driven largely by tax increment financing (TIF) programs. These city and provincial partnerships successfully leveraged public incentives to stimulate significant private investment. The use of TIF levelled the economic playing field for downtown developments, which are more difficult and do not offer the same financial return as suburban projects.

In 2016, the TIF program ended and downtown residential growth has slowed, only about halfway to the 2014 goal. With the province recently suggesting it will consider new TIF programs, the opportunity is available to reignite the momentum of downtown population growth, with the ability to target desirable projects such as affordable or student housing.

Another downtown initiative that was announced by several candidates in 2014 was the idea of imposing a higher rate of taxation on surface parking lots to encourage the use of alternate transportation, promote new construction and make building redevelopment a more attractive economic solution than demolition.

This strategy has been very successful in Montreal, where surface lots are taxed based on their development potential, not on their value as vacant land, with revenues being used as construction incentives. Downtown Winnipeg has a staggering 185 surface parking lots that significantly degrade the pedestrian environment, urban character and local economy. To implement a forward-thinking taxation structure for this purpose, the province would again have to be a partner and it would require statutory changes.

Possibly the most optimistic campaign promise from 2014 was to build out all six of Winnipeg’s proposed rapid transit lines by 2030. This idea seems an even more distant goal today, with provincial funding for transit being frozen at 2016 levels. With significant federal funds recently being made available for green initiatives, there is opportunity to make long-term investments in transit that will help meet both civic and provincial goals.

Winnipeg is the only major city in Canada that has seen a decline in transit ridership over the past 20 years. Fares have increased, service reliability has decreased and user satisfaction is at an all-time low. A renewed commitment from all levels of government to not only restore previous funding agreements, but make significant new investments in public transit — as every other major Canadian city is doing — would help reverse declining ridership, while creating a more socially equitable city, increasing access to employment, education and recreation for people of all ages and income levels.

A rapid-transit system in Ottawa, similar to our six-line plan, has resulted in double the rates of transit ridership compared with Winnipeg, helping to improve traffic congestion, lower demand for surface parking and reduce spending on road maintenance and construction.

The largest source of Winnipeg’s greenhouse gas emissions come from privately owned vehicles, representing one-third of the city’s total. Transportation is Canada’s only sector in which emissions are growing, largely because there are 40 per cent more cars on the road today than there were in 2005. Establishing a modern, efficient and convenient urban public transportation system that increases ridership and reduces reliance on private vehicles, can be a key green investment that grows the economy and helps the province meet its carbon emissions targets.

With a strong provincial partnership, there are many big ideas that could be transformational for Winnipeg. Studying options for rail relocation or allowing year-round use of the floodway would revitalize neighbourhoods and open developable land across the city. Implementing a capital region development strategy, coupled with the use of growth fees as a planning tool to incentivize inward, higher-density suburban development, could guide Winnipeg’s long-term growth to a million people, in an environmentally and economically sustainable way.

The 2014 election campaign ignited a passion in city-building ideas and uncovered several progressive initiatives that could be revisited under a new progressive council. If a provincial partnership can be established, implementation of these visionary strategies could change the future of Winnipeg and Manitoba.

Brent Bellamy is a senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group.