Manitoba Hansard — Sitting 136 (30th Legislature, 2nd Session)

30-2-136

Manitoba — Debates (Hansard)

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba DEBATES and PROCEEDINGS Speaker The Honourable Peter Fox Vol. XXll No. 136 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, June 18th, 1975. Second Session, 30th Legislature. Printed by R. S. Evans - Queen's Printer for Province of Manitoba

Electoral Division Name Political Address Postal Affiliation Code ARTHUR J. Douglas Watt P.C. Reston, Man. ROM 1XO ASSINIBOIA Steve Patrick Lib. 10 Red Roblin Pl., Winnipeg R3.J 3La BIRTLE·RUSSELL Harry E. Graham P.C. Binscarth, Man. ROJ OGO BRANDON EAST Hon. Leonard S. Evans NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C ova BRANDON WEST Edward McGill P.C. 222a Princess Ave., Brandon R7B OH9 BURROWS Hon. Ben Hanuschak NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 CHARLESWOOD Arthur Moug P.C. 29 Willow Ridge Rd., Winnipeg R3R 1L5 CHURCHILL Les Osland NOP 66 Radisson Blvd., Churchill ROB OEO CRESCENTWOOD Vacant DAUPHIN Hon.

Peter Burtniak NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 ELMWOOD Hon. Russell J. Doern NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 EMERSON Steve Derewianchuk NDP Vita, Manitoba ROA 2KO FLIN FLON Thomas Barrow NOP Cranberry Portage, Man. ROB OHO FORT GARRY L.R. (Bud) Sherman P.C. 86 Niagara St., Winnipeg R3N OT9 FORT ROUGE Lloyd Axworthy Lib. 132 Osborne St. S., Winnipeg R3L 1Y5 GIMLI John C. Gottfried NOP 44 - 3rd Ave., Gimli, Man. ROC 1BO GLADSTONE James R. Ferguson P.C. Gladstone, Man. ROJ OTO INKSTER Hon. Sidney Green, 0.C. NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C ova KILDONAN Hon.

Peter Fox NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 LAC DU BONNET Hon. Sam Uskiw NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 LAKESIDE Harry J. Enns P.C. Woodlands, Man. ROC 3HO LA VERENDRYE Bob Banman P.C. Steinbach, Man. ROA 2AO LOGAN William Jenkins NOP 1294 Erin St., Winnipeg R3E 2S6 MINNEDOSA David Blake P.C. ! Minnedosa, Man. ROJ 1EO MORRIS Warner H. Jorgenson P.C. Morris, Man. ROG 1KO OSBORNE Hon. Ian Turnbull NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C ova PEMBINA George Henderson P.C. Manitou, Man. ROG 1GO POINT DOUGLAS Donald Malinowski NOP 23 Coralberry Ave., Winnipeg R2V 2P2 PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE Gordon E.

Johnston Lib. 26· 120 - 6th St., S.E., Portage la Prairie, Man. R1N 1Ea RADISSON Harry Shafransky NOP 4 Maplehurst Rd., Winnipeg R2J 1W8 RHINELAND Arnold Brown P.C. Winkler, Man. ROG 2XO RIEL Donald W. Craik P.C. 3 River Lane, Winnipeg R2M 3Y8 RIVER HEIGHTS Sidney Spivak, O.C. P.C. Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 ROBLIN J. Wally McKenzie P.C. Inglis, Man. ROJ OXO ROCK LAKE Henry J. Einarson P.C. Glenboro, Man. ROK OXO ROSSMERE Hon. Ed. Schreyer NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C ova RUPERTSLAND Hon. Harvey Bostrom NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 ST. BONIFACE Hon. L.L.

Desjardins NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 ST. GEORGE Hon. Bill Uruski NDP 10th fir., 330 Portage Ave., Wpg. R3C OC4 ST. JAMES George Minaker P.C. 318 Ronald St., Winnipeg R3.J 3.J8 ST. JOHNS Saul Cherniack, 0.C. NDP 333 St. Johns Ave., Winnipeg R2W 1H2 ST. MATTHEWS Wally Johannson NDP 418 Home St., Winnipeg R3G 1X4 ST. VITAL D.J. Walding NDP 26 Hemlock Place, Winnipeg R2H 1L7 STE. ROSE A.R. (Pete) Adam NOP Ste. Rose du Lac, Man. ROL 1SO SELKIRK Hon. Howard Pawley NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 SEVEN OAKS Hon. Saul A.

Miller NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 SOUR IS KILLARNEY Earl M cKellar P.C. Nesbitt, Man. ROK 1PO SPRINGFIELD Hon. Rene E. Toupin NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 STURGEON CREEK J. Frank Johnston P.C. 310 Overdale St., Winnipeg R3.J 2G3 SWAN RIVER James H. Bilton P.C. Swan River, Man. ROL 1ZO THE PAS Hon. Ron McBryde NOP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 THOMPSON Ken Dillen NOP 84 Pintail Cres., Thompson RaN 1A6 TRANSCONA Hon. Russell Paulley NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C ova VIRDEN Morris McGregor P.C. Kenton, Man. ROM OZO WELLINGTON Philip M.

Petursson NDP 681 Banning St., Winnipeg R3G 2G3 WINNIPEG CENTRE Hon. J.R. (Bud) Boyce NDP Legislative Bldg., Winnipeg R3C OV8 WOLSELEY Vacant

THE LEGISLATIV E ASSEMBLY OF MANITOBA 10 :00 o'clock, Wednesday, ,June 18, 1975 Opening Prayer by Mr. Speaker. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS 4185 MR. SPEAKER: Before we proceed I should like to direct the attention of the honourable members to the gallery where we have 16 students of the Berens River School of Grade 7 stand ing. These students are under the direction of Mr. Simmons and Mrs. Alix. This school is located in the constituency of the Honourable Member for Rupertsland, the Minister of Co operative Developments. On behalf of all the honourable members I welcome you here this morning.

Presenting Petitions; Reading and Receiving Petitions; Presenting Reports by Standing and Special Committees. The Hono urable Member for Gimli. PRESENTING REP ORTS BY STANDING COMMITTEE MR. JOHN C. GOTTFRIED (Gimli): Mr. Speaker, I beg to present the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Municipal Affairs. MR. CLERK: Your Committee met on Tuesday, June 1 7, 197 5, at 4:30 p. m. and 8:40 p. m. Your Committee has considered Bill: No. 54 -

An Act to amend The Municipal Board Act, and has agreed to report the same without amendment. Your Committee has also considered Bill: No. 44 - The Planning Act, and has agreed to report the same with certain amendments. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for Gimli. MR . GOTTFRIE D: Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Logan, that the report of the Committee be received. MOTION presented and carried. MR. SPEAKER: Ministerial Statements and Tabling of Reports. The Honourable Minister for Mines. HON. SIDNEY GREEN, Q.

C. (Minister of Mines, Resources and En vironmental Manage ment) (Inkster): Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I can use this heading to suggest the procedure for House activities this morning. r m suggesting, Mr. Speaker, that we move into Supply in the House to consider the esti mates of the Department of Urban Affairs, and I would.think that concurrently we could hold Law Amendments Committee. The Honourable Member for Morris is indicating that that would not be satisfactory, that he would not want to hold a concurrent committee.

Well then we would move into Supply in the House, and as soon as the estimates are finished on Supply we would move into Law Amendments Committee outside of the House. MR. SPEAKER: Agreed? (Agreed). Any other Ministerial Statements or Tabling of Reports? Notices of Motion; Introduction of Bills; Questions. The Honourable Member for Riel. ORAL QUESTIONS MR. DONALD W. CRAIB: (Riel): Mr. Speaker, I direct a question to the Attorney General.

It' s in relation to an Order for Return which I received back from his department yesterday, and the Order for Return was in regard to the legal costs for the CFI Commission and for the government portion of it. There has been no indication given in the Return of who the payments were made to in the case of the government's costs, and the Order is incomplete to that extent. I wonder if the Minister was aware of this before filing it. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Attorney-General. HON. HOWARD PAWLEY (Attorney-General) (Selkirk): Mr. Speaker, r m not quite sure I understand the member's question.

I thought that the Order does indicate the law firms that received the moneys. A MEMBER: It doesn' t.

4186 June 18 , 1975 ORAL QUESTIONS MR. PA WL EY: It doesn't? MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for Riel. MR. CRAIK: The Order for Return, Mr. Speaker, was the costs incurred to two parties. One, the Commission; two, to the government. In the case of the Commission the breakdown is given. In the case of the costs incurred by the government, only the total am ount is given, there's no breakdown as to who it was paid to. MR. SPEAKER: Orders of the Day. The Honourable Leader of the Opposition. MR. SIDNEY SIPVAK, Q.

C. (Leader of the Official Opposition) (River Heights): Mr. speaker, by way of another question on the Order of Return. Specifically the determination would be to determine under what appropriation the now Mr. Justice Scott Wright, and the then mem ber of the firm of Huband and Company, specifically under what appropriation was his representation of the government before the commission charged. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Attorney-General. MR. PAWLEY: Mr. Speaker, I don't think that was the nature of the question.

If the honourable members would relate to the question with regard to the enquiry. --( Interjection)- MR. SPEAKER: Order please. The Honourable Leader of the Opposition. MR. SPIVAK: Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Attorney-General could forward the Order for Return and then we can indicate that that was in the question itself. INTROD UCTION OF GUESTS MR. SPEAKER: Before we proceed I'd like to introduce up in the gallery 28 students of the Spring Valley School of Grade 7 standing under the direction of Mr. Havixbeck, from the constituency of the Honourable Member for As siniboia. We welcome you here this morning.

The Honourable Leader of the Opposition. ORAL QUESTIONS Cont'd MR. SPIVAK: Mr. Speaker, before the question' s put so that there'll be no misunder standing of the question that was put to the Attorney-General earlier. The Order for Return indicated and asked for a breakdown of all fees and expenses in curred by the Government of Manitoba for legal services in connection with the Commission of Inquiry on the Churchill Forest Industries project, and the person or firms to whom they were paid. Well, Mr.

Speaker, what has been shown to the answer of question one is an appropriation under the Department of Industry and Comm erce for som e $120, OOO. --(I nterjection)-- Well, but this person or firms . . . MR. SPEAKER: Order please. MR. PAW LEY: On a point of ... If the honourable mem ber would turn the page there is another page which lists the number of law firms , and the amounts beside each law firm. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Leader of the Opposition. MR. SPIVAK: I then ask the Attorney-General under what appropriation was Mr. Scott Wright, now Mr.

Justice Scott Wright, acting on behalf of either the New Demo cratic Party or the government, paid during his position as counsel for the governm ent during the inquiry. It's not listed here at all. MR. PAWLEY: Mr. Speaker, I don't think that the question could be interpreted in any way as asking for the appropriation. The question asked for the amount of money that was ex pended in regard to the Commissi on of Inquiry, and to which firms. And the answer provides that. MR. SPIVAK: Then I ask the Attorney-General why the firm of Huband and Company are not listed as receiving an amount when Mr.

Scott Wright of that firm represented the govern ment before the Commission of Inquiry. A MEMBER: No. No. MR. SPIVAK: No, not at all. MR. SPEAKER: Order please. The Honourable Member for Riel. MR. CRAIK: Mr. Speaker, is to clarify it if I can. The legal costs in the case of the Commission itself have been given and the firms listed. In the second case, which is the costs to the government, not to the Comm ission, but to the government, the costs are given but the firms are not.

June 18, 1975 ORAL QUESTIONS A MEMBER: They should be, but they're not. MR. SPEAKER: Order please. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS 4187 MR . SPEAKER: I have another group of students to introduce, from the Blumenort School, 26 in number, of Grade 6 standing under the direction of Mr. Dueck. This school is in the constituency of the Honourable Member for La Verendrye. We welcome you as well. Orders of the Day. The Honourable House Leader. The Honourable Attorney-General. ORAL QUESTIONS Cont'd MR . PAWLEY: Mr.

Speaker, I think the specific question relates to the firms that re ceived the moneys from the Department of Industry and Commerce. I see that the firms are broken down in connection with Question 2. I don't know why the firms are not broken down in connection with Question 1. I will obtain that for this afternoon. MR. SPEAKER: The Honourable Leader of the Opposition. MR.

SPIVAK: Will the Attorney-General at least acknowledge that the Order for Return is not complete, because Richardson and Company are not included in the list of firms, who in fact, were retai.ned at any point in connection with the Commission of Inquiry, by the govern ment. MR. GREEN: It was all Richardson and Company, I believe. MR. SPEAKER: Order please. MR . GREEN: Well, Mr. Speaker, the Minister said that he will get that this afternoon. He will get that for this afternoon. MR. SPEAKER: Order please. I wonder if I could ask the co-operation of the House Leader not to put his hand on the microphone.

It creates a terrible noise in my ear. MB. GREEN: Mr. Speaker, I move that Mr. Speaker do not leave the Chair and the House resolve itself into Committee to consider of the Supply to be granted to Her Majesty. MOTION presented and carried, and the House resolved itself into a Committee of Supply, with the Honourable Member for Logan in the Chair. COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY - URBAN AFFA IRS MR . CHAIRMAN: I refer honourable members to Page 47 of their Estimates book. The Department of Urban Affairs. Resolution 105(a), Minister's Compensation and salary - The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. HON. SAUL A.

MILLER (Minister for Urban Affairs) (Seven Oaks): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some of my colleagues have left with the admonition that they'll be back here within half an hour and have me out of the way. --(Interjection)-- I have more to say than that. Mr. Chairman, the Urban Affairs Ministry was created four years ago as some of you may recall, and its purpose was to provide for the co-ordination and for the development of Provincial Urban policies, and particularly with respect to the City of Winnipeg.

The general objectives of the Ministry are to administer the City of Winnipeg Act and to co-ordinate and seek to improve ... MR. CHAIRMAN: Order please. MR . MILLER: . . . the performance of the Provincial Government as a whole in its relationships with the urban areas of Manitoba. In keeping with this original intention, the urban staff complement has been kept relatively small. I believe it consists of 16 positions, and that includes the clerical staff as well. --(Interjection)-- Sixteen.

The approach has been to co-ordinate rather than to duplicate the work of other departments, and with very few excep tions the funds for urban programming as gentlemen opposite are aware - have been retained in the functional department's estimates. I believe this year there is a change in that in one item, which I will come to, where there is an amount indicated in the estimates to cover I believe the Convention Centre, provincial cost sharing of 50 percent deficit of the Convention Centre; it does appear in these estimates, but it's because it came in very late we just put it into these estimates.

But by and large, as I say, everything else appears in aligned departments. In order to facilitate close communication with the city, the Urban Affairs Committee of Cabinet have been meeting on a fairly regular basis - a monthly basis just about - with the City' s official delegation. The official delegation consists of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the

4188 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) . . . . . Chairman of the three standing comm ittees and som e of their staff. And I would say that the meetings have proven to be very useful. Not only are they use ful for the discussions of matters of imm ediate concern, but also for discussing the develop ment of long-range policies to consider long-range programs, to exchange views on matters which are of concern to the city and to the province and often to the Federal Government as well.

Discussions, for instance, are currently under way for federal and provincial cost shar ing and a major review of the Greater Winnipeg Development Plan.

This is the plan for Greater Winnipeg which as you know was conceived by Metro originally - and at a political tri-level meeting last February where the Minister of State for Urban Affairs was in Winnipeg - February 3, I believe it was - met with the Mayor and myself and there was agree ment in prin ciple that the need for all three levels of government, both municipal, provincial, and federal, to develop a comm on urban strategy, development strategy, through the participation by all of these three levels of government in the development plan review.

And it is our expectation that this review will provide the framework within which the decisions can be made on many critical issues, such as im proved public transit; airport expansion which, as you know, the Federal Gov ernment is looking at; railway relocation, which is still with us; residential land development, core area renewal, downtown development, all of these are areas which the city itself cannot be or should not be expected to deal with in isolation and can't, but rather require the input of both the Provincial and the Federal Government.

The Federal Government certainly has an important role to play in many of these. Now truly effective action, therefore, on any of these issues requires as I say, the co-operation of all three levels of government. Mr. Chairman and honourable members will recall in the Throne Speech, the government announced that in response to the city's request, the province was em barking upon a substantial program of renewal and revitalization of Winnipeg' s central core area.

In addition to partic ipating in the Neighbourhood Improve ment Program, which is a sm all part of that core area, the province will be constructing, as members know, some provincial buildings - and through MHEC, various types of housing accomm odation. Planning is now proceeding in close co operation with the City of Winnipeg and it is our hope that through this program we will achieve three objectives: one, a deteriorating

section of the city will be revitalized, housing needs will be met, and new public facilities would be provided. So hopefully, this action, this joint action together with the city will help to revitalize, as I said, and to renew that part of the city which is very old and which is deteriorating at a very rapid rate. And I think everyone agrees that deterioration has to be reversed, has to be prevented and then reversed if possible. A review of the City of Winnipeg Act itself is required under

Section 660, and it will be undertaken. We anticipate that the review procedure will provide an effective method for the gathering and for the evaluating and listening to constructive criticisms and suggestions for further improve ments in the City of Winnipeg Act. This is a requirement under the Act and as I indicated I believe a couple of months ago, it was our intention to launch such a study this year. Mr.

Chairman, I could continue with a number of other points here but perhaps I could deal with them when we come to line-by-lin e discussion of the items, and so I'll perhaps go directly to the other major item in my estim ates, which is Manitoba Housing Renewal Corpora tion, Appropriation 107. That resolution provides the operating funds for Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation. Members know that the corporation was set up in 1967, I believe, the intent was to provide housing for low-income famili es.

The corporation itself is under the direction of a Board of Directors who meet at least once a week, very often more than that, to run the affairs of the corporation. Now as members know, Mr. Chairman, 1974 was not a vintage year for housing starts across Canada, or in Manitoba. And 1975, unfortunately, may be even bleaker. This again does not apply just to Manitoba, it applies to the country as a whole, this is a national problem.

So whether one looks at figures for home construction starts or statistics on rental vacancies, the outlook is grim - and this as I say is not unique to Manitoba and we share this problem with all our sister provinces. The Federal Gov ernm ent - when it brought in its budget for this year for CMHC, the Federal Gov ernment gambled on the hope that by making moneys available at lower interest rates and subsidizing certain subsidies, they were hoping that they could perhaps attract into the market private mortgage money. And I recall during the January conference, the figure

June 18, 1975 4189 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) . . . . . that the Federal Government indicated they hoped to attract from the private sector was about a billion for housing. That gamble has not paid off and the Federal Government now knows this, and how they will react in the light of that, I don't know. However, it was a gamble and I don't fault the government.

I at that time indicated I did not think it would work, but nonetheless that's the direction they took, because by and large they held the CMHC budget generally at the 1974 figure, which meant in effect that because of rising costs the same dollars would of course realize less housing than in 1974. And indeed the most recent statistics that we have indicate that housing starts will fall far short of even the modest 210, OOO figure that they had projected for 1975.

I don't like to, you know, throw figures around, but I've read some guesstimates, Eastern newspapers and elsewhere, that right now it looks that they may not even get to 1 75, OOO housing starts. But again, those are estimates used by some economists, some people in the building trade who may or may not be right, but certainly the likelihood of reaching the target is very slim and I think the Federal Government and CMHC realize that. Originally, when we made our application to CMHC, we asked for $37 million.

At the end of February, we were notified that in fact the funds for elderly persons' housing and family personal housing would only be $11 million, which is quite a come-down. I took advantage of the presence in Winnipeg of the President of CMHC, I met with him - as a matter of fact the Premier joined me for dinner.

We discussed the matter, I posed the problem to him, and as a result a revision upward was made so that the amount for elderly persons' housing and family housing was adjusted upwards to $14. 8 million, which isn't a great amount considering that certain projects which really had been started, or all the advance work had been done in 1974; and so about $5 million out of that $14. 8 million was already committed and was as a matter of fact, some of it under construction.

Now last Tuesday on June 10, that's a week ago today - yes, a week ago today, I attended a conference in Ottawa which was convened by the Federal Minister responsible for CMHC, the Honourable Barney Danson. And frankly when we were called to this conference - we were first called in May, then there was a postponement, then another postponement, and finally last week the conference took place - and frankly I had hoped that the meeting was called in order to advise the provinces that the Federal Government was prepared to increase the funding through CMHC.

I don't mind going to Ottawa for a 6, 7-hour meeting, but frankly I thought that I would hear something very definitive at that meeting - unfortunately such was not the case. And I can tell you though, all provinces I think felt as I did, and they all indicated, I know that, each and every one of them indicated a need for more funds for social housing.

Every province tried to make known, and did make known to the Federal Government, the pressures within their own provinces, the fact that they felt that only if funds are flowing through CMHC could there even be a hope of meeting the need - and even at that, at this late stage in 1975, the effect for 1975 would be minimal, but we had to look ahead now to 1976. The Federal Minister unfortunately was unable to indicate what the new Federal Budget might do to stimulate new housing starts - and of course I can see his problem, budgets are always confidential, and he couldn't indicate anything.

On the other hand, I'm hoping that in fact one of the purposes of the conference was so that Mr. Danson could convey to the Minister of Finance the feeling of urgency on the part of the provinces to convey to the Finance Minister, and perhaps his Cabinet colleagues, that housing is a matter which must be faced up to; that the whole question of funding for housing simply can't be handled by turning off the flow of funds to housing, simply to deal with financial cyclical problems or monetary cyclical problems, but that there had to be a more realistic and long-range plan to deal with the problem.

Because you can't do it on a start-stop basis, you can't simply wind something up and then by cutting the budget down totally it winds down again, and hope that by pressing a button it can simply come to life again; it takes time for programs to develop, for new housing starts to take place.

We all - I know all provinces asked for a medium-term or a long-term plan whereby we knew what funds would flow from Ottawa, whether - at least a three-year program - funds that did not lapse at the end of any given year, because if in September or October suddenly more funds are made available, every province indicated that there's no way that that can be translated fnto housing starts and then come the end of December the funds lapse and the money is not available.

So I can only hope that the very strong representation for additional funds, coupled with the poor starts right across the country, the figures for starts, that this will have a

4190 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) . . . . . significant bearing on the Federal Budget when it's introduced next week. But of course, only time will tell and I will certainly not try to second-guess, and I' 11 certainly not try to guess what the federal direction might be, the kind of budget they' re going to opt for. The Housing Corporation is developing techniques, Mr. Chairman, by which housing can be properly priorized within the province.

For the first time now, they're developing data on demography, on incomes, on existing housing stock, etc. to be used to make preliminary as sessments. The corporation then conducts on-site demand in the designated communities to identify individuals willing, eligible, particularly eligible to reside in public housing. We know and members know - it's not a secret - that MHRC has had difficulty in constructing family public housing in the City of Winnipeg - and I'm not going to point my finger at anyone because I know this is not unique to Winnipeg, it's a problem elsewhere.

Service lands, properly zoned that is, properly zoned service lands are very difficult to acquire and also MHRC must build within the constraints and the guidelines, the dollar figures, and the ceilings established by CMHC.

So when you have the kind of extreme escalation of prices for service land which has developed in the last 18 to 24 months, the increases in material costs, construction costs, all of these coupled have created severe difficulties for the Corporation, because only by increas ing the density beyond that allowed by existing zoning could they all up costs - that is, the land and the housing units - could they be brought in within the approved guidelines. And in this re gard, Mr. Chairman, this is, I think, one of the problems facing all of us as Canadians, and particularly I think in Western Canada.

Looking in Western Canada, there's never any thought at all that perhaps there's no room, there's no space. You know, we've always felt in this vast country of ours that space and room and land is the last thing we need worry about. But, in fact, with the kind of costs of land servicing, highways, roadways, the infrastructure, the sewer, the water, the distances that are created by the subdivisions, the 50, 60 foot lots for single-family dwellings, the costs are so great today that the average citizen, the average person, and even perhaps the above-average income, cannot afford the house that's on the market.

And this is something that I think everyone is going to have to come to grips with. I know it's common in our society to dream of that home of your own on that 50 foot lot, but per haps that is the attitude that has to change and may have to change simply in the light of the realities, of the fiscal and financial realities that face the individual and face the community as a whole, because at prices today I cannot see how the homes that are being .made available can meet the needs of the vast majority of the public.

Now I'm hoping that with the co-operation of the City of Winnipeg more family housing will be built, and the province through MHRC, and, as I indicated earlier, the City, are jointly committed to the redevelopment of a portion of the core area by the construction of new housing. MHRC hopes to acquire about 50 lots for infill housing - that is, these lots are in some cases now vacant and owned by the City of Winnipeg, in other cases they are privately owned but they'll be acquired by the City of Winnipeg, and MHRC will take them over or buy them from the city and build infill housing.

Plans as well are being worked on now, proceeding, for the site development of the former Midland Railway property, which is just east of Isabel Street, and I'm advised that MHRC hopes to start with about 75 units in 1975. The land has not yet been made available to MHRC and, of course, until that land is available they can't start, but all the preparatory work is being done and I believe the Exec utive Policy Committee has dealt with it and it's on its way to the City Council now. As soon as the MHRC acquires this land, I am told they are prepared to start the moment they get acquisition.

So I would like certainly to see some starts in 1975. It's important, because if that area is going to be rejuvenated, if it's going to be rebuilt, then we have to have housing units for decanting purposes. We have to have housing units so that people can be moved into it, even on a temporary basis, while the home in which they are now residing is upgraded, is renovated, is put into shape, because the dilemma always is, where do you put people if the home in which they are now living is being rebuilt? Mr.

Chairman, because of the fact that family public housing in Winnipeg is badly needed and the needs are not being met, MHRC has started some leasings of units, some housing units, from the private sector. It's not the most desirable way of doing it but, faced with the growing demand and the backlog, MHRC moved in this direction. As well, MHRC is encouraging and has been working with the co-operative movement,

June 18, 1975 4191 SUPPLY - URBAN AFF AIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... and in the case of the Carpathia Co-op, which is now under construction and I believe should be opening within the next three months perhaps, 25 percent of the units will be available for family public housing to MHRC, and the same kind of program is going to be, or the same kind of approach will be taken with the new Co-op which is going to be built, starting to be built in 1975, where again 25 percent, or up to 25 percent of the units will be made available to MHRC. So you have another avenue whereby MHRC can acquire family public housing.

Of course, Mr. Chairm an, besides its role si mply as a developer of public housing, MHRC has the responsibility for the arrangements for the managements of these suites. This is part of their responsibility and I believe they have done a fairly good job considering that it grew very quickly, and their major imm ed iate concern was the construction of units back in 1970, 1971, 1972, and at the same tim e they couldn't lose sight of the fact that it was their responsibility to maintain and manage the units that had been built. Mr.

Chairman, one of the problems always in dealing with housing is the need and rec ognition that if one could somehow assure that homes are maintained and kept maintained, that perhaps the need to demolish them or the need to make such major im provements, if perhaps the am ount required for renovation and im provement didn't exceed the value of the house, that so mehow the home could be maintained and the life span of the home could be extended.

The Pensioner Home Improvement did give us a good experience, and last year, last fall when it came to an end because it pretty well had hit the market or filled the need as applica tions had dropped drastically, we at that time decided that we would come up with so mething that is broader than the Pensioner Home Im provement Program, we'd build on the experience we've gained there, and we came up with the Critical Home Repair Program which has been recently announced, and the purpose, as I say, is really twofold but its primary objective is to preserve the existing stock of housing for the future, to extend the life of existing stock itself.

In addition to this, Mr. Chairman, I was mentioning the other programs in which the Corporation's involved. We are of course involved with - the Corporation that is, when I said we - the Corporation is involved in the Rural and Native Housing Program, which is different again than public housing, and we are working very closely with the Federal Gov ernment on this. This year the CMHC has a target of 750 units in all for the Province of Manitoba. MHRC will be delivering 250 units of that - that's one-third; so this sort of takes the place of the Re mote Housing Program which had been operated before.

The balance of the units - 500 - will be delivered by the Northern Association of Comm unity Councils, that is the NACC, and the Rural and Native Housing Corporation of Manitoba, which is known as RANCOM, they will deliver the units for CMHC, and these will be sold and financed on a monthly payment geared to income basis. The total capital costs will be shared, as will the subsidies, by MHRC on a 75-25 basis, 75 CMHC, 25 percent MHRC, which is the same basis as the Rem ote Housing Program in the past. As well, the MHRC was engaged since the fall of 1973 in land asse mbly and will continue in this field.

At the request of the City of Winnipeg, we joined with them in their desire to participate in land acquisition and a joint land banking program, which has an initial target of areas of land in the comm unity commi ttee areas of St. Vital and Fort Garry. I believe the acreage is about 1, 800 acres in total. The City of Winnipeg is the one that identified the land where they thought it should be, and of course the Provincial Gov ernment is participating with them. The land which has been acquired by and large is not land which can be put to imm ediate use.

Serviced land has generally been acquired through the private sector and it will be some tim e before some of these lands can be made available, but it is a policy, an accepted policy right across the country, encouraged by the Federal Gov ernment, that the municipalities and the provinces and/or both should, in fact, acquire certain sites, certain lands, so that they can play a more effective role in the provision of housing and for the nature of the developments that take place in those areas.

In addition to that particular program, of course, the province through MHRC joined with CMHC and the City of Winnipeg in 1974-75 in designating two areas of the city as Ne ighbourhood Improve ment Program areas. This was North Point Douglas and a part of the Centennial Com munity area which I referred to before. The province shares through MHRC some of these costs with the City of Winnipeg and it's under the admin istration of the City of Winnipeg.

4192 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont' cl) • • • • . There are very definite guidelines under which the whole pro gram must be operated, and we work very closely,and MHRC works very closely with the local Neighbourhood Improvement co-ordinators and the public. We have, as well, a program which we introduced at the time that the Federal Govern ment came in with its Assisted Home Ownership Program, and MHRC is responsible for the administration of the provincial component of that program.

It's a program that complements the federal program simply by making funds available so that perhaps people of a lower in come could qualify for the program . - . . We make - as I say, I won't go into details n0w - certain grants, subsidies available, and a one-time grant as well for first-time home owners. So that the federal program, which has a cutoff point which we felt didn't reach quite enough people, this program could assist in making housing available under Assisted Home Ownership.

And although Assisted Home Ownership I don't feel is the real answer to housing needs, nonetheless it's another tool and, as far as I'm concerned and government's concerned, I feel very much that we need great flexibility in these things and we will participate and de velop whatever programs possible to assist people and make housing available.

We also are in the process of developing a mortgage lending program to provide mortgage funding for new and existing housing in smaller rural and remote communities which are un serviced, or partially serviced, and in which CMHC financing or conventional lending is un available, and this program is being developed. The criteria for the areas in which the program will function is twofold: One, that there be a stability of population or an economic base; and secondly, that there be reasonable property marketability.

So it will function in areas where, as I say, CMHC financing just hasn't been available or the private sector or con ventional lending under NHA has not been available. This program will be operated jointly with the Co-operative Credit Society of Manitoba, the CCSM. '.l'he applications will be through the local credit union offices and will be programmed through them and eventually through MHRC. Mr. Chairman, with these few comments I would want to make one other comment. Publicly, I want to extend my thanks to the staff of the Urban Affairs Department, the Deputy Minister and his staff, for the job they'n done.

They've had quite a number of ministers in the last number of years and it's very difficult for a new minister coming in, I know, to learn the department; I suspect it's even more difficult, perhaps equally as difficult, for staff to adapt to a new minister, and I want to thank them for their patience and for the way they have carried on the Urban Affairs Department even though ministers change fairly rapidly. In the case of MHRC, I now feel that there is a dedicated staff there that will really address itself to the problems before it. I know that they're not going to run out of ideas.

As a matter of fact, that's one thing they're not going to run out of. They have many of them.

A review was made of the entire structure of MHRC by an outside consultant and then by personnel services of the Management Committee staff and, as a result, MHRC I think is coming up with an administrative structure which will be able to cope with the various and sundry programs that we have, and will be able to do some forward planning; and if, in fact, as I hope and indi cated, we can get greater stability in the budgeting for MHRC, and if in fact the Federal Government responds to all provincial requests for at least a three year forward planning mechanism, then I believe, I now feel that MHRC staff will be able to respond to that in a very positive way and to develop program policies which in fact will go a long way to meet the needs of people for housing with low income.

I recognize that this doesn't resolve the housing problem. The housing problem really goes beyond MHRC' s capacities and even their terms of reference.

But nonetheless I do feel very strongly that if we could meet the demands and the pressures from those in the market place who don't have the clout, who don't have the funds to get funding, if we can make a dint, or a dent, in the pressures and in the vacancy rate, the low vacancy rate that exists today, then perhaps it will ease the problem generally for others with higher incomes who are also faced with a very severe problem - as I say, a problem that's shared across Canada.

So I would simply remind members that what they're basically dealing with at MHRC and what they have to contend with is a basic need of human beings, and that is shelter. And it's that which they are trying to cope with. I'm not for one moment suggesting that all the needs of Manitobans have been met. Far from it. And I don't know whether I'l l ever, or any Minister, will ever be able to get up and make that statement. But I do think that MHRC has

June 18, 197 5 4193 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... gone a long way in Manitoba to try to meet these needs, to meet some of the needs, and I know that they are anxious to continue on this course and will do everything possible to meet the needs of people as they perceive them and as they are develop ing. Thank you. MR. CHAIRMAN: Before we proceed I'd like to ... I see the me mber is not here, but I'd like to personally welcome back the Honourable Member for Rhineland and I hope that his health is well on the road to recovery.

I'd ask members of the Conservative caucus to express my best wishes to him. Resolution 10 5(b), Admin istrative Salaries. The Honourable Member for Sturgeon Creek. MR. J. FRANK JOHNSTON (Sturgeon Creek): Mr.

Chairman, in the remarks that the Minister made right at the beginning he said that there was more of a co-ordination of jobs being done in his department, and I compli ment him on that, that he is not expanding the de partment any greater than it need be, but I do notice that his admin istration costs are not up that high, and when I refer back to the other estimates, or the Public Accounts, I notice that in his admin istrative staff in 197 4 he had four people.

Now, I don't want the Minister to get the idea I want him to have 14 or anything like that, but the co-ordination you' re speaking of, is your department able to work with, as I see it, with the Minister of Tourism andRecreation? There is a lot of recreation in urban areas. There' s the Social; there' s Highways; there's the discussions in Municipal Affairs regarding per capita grants; there' s Land Acquisition branches. There' s all of these things.

Now I would hope that there is the co-ordination going on, but I would also like to know what input the Minister' s department has in these other departments for getting things done in the urban areas, which is - let' s say the campaign is headed by the Department of Urban Affairs. MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER: Well, Mr. Chairm an, I believe the honourable me mber said that in 197 4 we had four staff man years? MR. F. JOHNSTON: Mr. Chairman, I didn't say four staff man ...

I' m looking at the only ones, as you know, that we have ending in 197 4, your Public Ac counts, and under Urban Affairs I have adm inistration and there' s just four names there. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, what appears in Public Ac counts are salaries over a certain amount, so that would be the reason for the discrepancy. No, as a matter of fact there were, I think . . . the department has pretty well been static over the last number of years as far as staff is concerned.

The question, however, I think you ask is that you're not urging me to double staff - I suspect you're not, anyway - but on the other hand you are questioning whether in fact a staff of that size can do the co-ordination and liaison that's required. And I think it can. We work with other departments; that's one of the major jobs of the department, having to touch base with, whether it be Highways or Health and Social Development or Munic ipal Affairs, you know, whatever department, or the Finance Branch, to touch base with them.

As well, our officials work very closely with the City of Winnipeg officials and it's really a desk across which matters pertaining to the City of Winnipeg flow. And at the present time I think that the staff man years we have is adequate, but of course if I find that it isn't, I'll be the first to ask for more staff man years. But, as I say, right now I think it does the job and I' m satisfied that the liaison and the co-ordination that we' ve had up to now is fairly good.

Throughout the Estimates process these contacts are maintained interdepartmentally, and it is through this kind of interdepartmental co-ordination that the Urban Affairs knows what is taking place in order to get a better overview of what funds and what programs the province is making available to the city, what the nature of them are, how they affect other departments, and to try to rationalize some of these programs as between departments. MR . CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Member for Sturgeon Creek. MR. F. JOHNSTON: I thank the Minister for his explanation and the fact that they can handle this now.

The other thing that really concerns me is that if your department is in dis cussion with an urban area and you believe that that road should be built, or if the province is participating, does the Department of Highways, when you make the request, does it go in the budget? Do they say to the Minister of Urban Affairs, 11 Go jum p in the lake" ? I mean, what kind of whack or authority, that there is no budget within your estim ates that says we are putting so much money for 50 percent of the road miles in urban areas? You have to get it into the Department of Highways budget.

So does it become a bartering job, or does it become a

4194 June 18, 197 5 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. F. JOHNSTON cont'd) ..... lobbying job, or can they tell you to go jump in the lake? The same thing applies with recreation. If you feel that the recreation should be increased in that area and your department people and yourself agree to that, do you have to go and lobby to get them into the Recreation Department's estimates, or .. . ? You know, I can see the Minister doing a lot of swimming around here if he gets told to go jump in the lake quite often. Now what is the whack you have to try and get these things for urban areas in the other Minis ters' estimates?

MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER: Well, Mr. Chairman, the fact is that the - let's take the example of roads or highways. There is an Urban Affairs Committee. We meet monthly, as I said, with the City of Winnipeg. Discussions take place. The City makes known its requests, its thoughts on certain matters. The committee, the Urban Affairs Committee, discusses them. Within the estimates of the various departments allowances are made for this sort of thing.

If the mem ber is suggesting that it depends entirely upon me to have to fight with all my colleagues to spring a few dollars for certain projects, it simply doesn't work that way. As a matter of fact, the Highways Department, when it looks at a proposal from the City of Winnipeg, looks at it from the engineering aspect, and we don't want to duplicate and we have no desire to set up our own duplicative machinery. We don't want engineers second guessing other engineers, and I think it's a very costly procedure and I don't think it leads anywhere.

The Highways Depart ment would simply look at it from their engineering point of view. In the final analysis the province might decide, through my ministry, that we would participate at the regional fee and the extent of participation - that is, 50 percent of what is determined within our department and within the committee itself. The same applies on all of these matters. Now, on the other hand, I would say to the member this is not an open cheque, and within the totals voted for the government generally, there is that restraint.

In other words, if in fact the City had some program in which the Province was anxious to participate, and it came along at a point in time when the budgets had been finalized, then we might have to put through a Supplementary Supply, as has been done in the past, but by and large these are known in advance and they're simply incorporated in through the budgets of the various departments. This year through the appropriations you'll note the Convention Centre deficit.

It was not known what that figure was in time and so it was shown this year in my estimates - I think it's $450, OOO - but I believe next year it may simply end up in the estimates of the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and disappear from these estimates. And this has happened from time to time; certain items have appeared here and then have been transferred out in the next year's appropriation. MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Member from Sturgeon Creek. MR. F. JOHNSTON: Mr.

Chairman, this is going to be sort of in the form of a request to the Minister and I don't know whether it can be done or not. Really what I would like to see, if it's possible, in the Urban Affairs estimates, could there be on this page, say, Recreation for Urban Affairs, so much money? And if you want to put a note on the top of it, "These moneys are paid through other departments. " You see we have to, at the present time, ask the Minister of Highways, or Recreation, or Social Affairs, what part of this is going to the urban area or what

part is going to Winnipeg. Could there not be something of just an item that says Recreation so much money for Urban Affairs, which will be paid through the Recre ation Department? Is that not a practical thing to do, or could it be done? MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER: Well, as I indicated, Urban Affairs itself doesn't deliver programs; the line departments do.

And in the estimates of the various departments as they came forward, I imagine - I wasn't here but I imagine the Minister of Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Affairs probably made reference to the funds which might be flowing to the City of Winnipeg, to the city or to community committees through the City Council. As well, he might have made reference to the lottery funds that were being made available to the City, or to the program, the Centennial Program, Cent ennial Year funds that were committed by government for recre ation and other purposes. But they are in the line departments, and the same as Highways.

If the Minister of Highways Department comes up, then that information is available there. What the member is asking is that somehow it be broken out from those departments and shown here, but the money will not be paid from this department and it doesn't flow from this,

June 18, 19 75 4195 SUPPLY - URBAN AFF AIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) . . . . . and so the appropriation really has to be within the line depart ment unless the money is going to flow from Urban Affairs, which it doesn't. MR. F. JOHNSTON: Well, I'll just give one example and maybe the Minister could tell me. The Zoo in the Ass iniboine Park is probably - it is the largest provincial zoo we have, and it's within this urban area, you might say.

I know it would probably come under Recreation but is there any discussion in Urban Affairs as to how much money will be appropriated on that particular zoo for the growth of it or the benefit of it? MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, as a matter of fact it did show in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, and I could tell the honourable mem ber that the am ount is estim ated at $2 , 15 0, OOO for 19 75-76. MR. CHAIRMAN: Resolution 10 5(b). The Honourable Member for Sturgeon Creek. MR. F. JOHNSTON: Mr. Chairman, there is just one other point I'd like to bring up with the Minister on administration.

When he was introducing his estim ates - and I don't know whether he did it, I don't think he did it on purpose - but there was very little mention of other urban areas within the province, and I could refer to the Urban As sociation. We do have Brandon and we do have other urban areas that are classed as urban areas in the province. There doesn't seem to be too much mention of those particular areas when the Minister is pre senting his estimates. What basic input does his department have in those? MR. MILLER: Well, Mr.

Chairm an, the mem ber is right that Winnipeg does take up more of the time of the department. On the other hand, the other areas are not ignored and, as a matter of fact, we very recently - I think it was announced or, if not, it is known that we will be making grants available to the City of Brandon for a review and a study of its trans portation system. Funds are available to Brandon the same as any other city that has a public transit system. Flin Flon is also getting a subsidy for its transit system.

We have been re quested to make a study for a transit in Dauphin, in Portage la Prairie, and we have indicated to those communities that in fact the province is prepared to deal with these and to ass ist them in such studies, and picking up, I believe it's 75 percent of the cost of these studies, the feasi bility studies. So the department is involved. It's done, as I say, at the officials' level and in consultation with the departments which would have to perhaps carry the ball or become in volved in such a study. MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Member for Fort Garry. MR. L.

R. (BUD) SHERMAN (Fort Garry): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to ask the Minister where the Research and Planning

Section is in this department. We' ve got sub stantial numbers of dollars being spent on research and planning in other departments, some of it necessary, some of it in our view - as we pointed out in examinations of earlier departmental estimates - unjustified, Mr. Chairman. For example, in the Education Departm ent, there was $1. 7 million allocated for Research and Planning, and we raised the question at that time - what was that money being spent on and who were the people who were spending it?

The Exec utive Council appropriates or asks this Comm ittee of the Whole House to vote $1 million ap proximately for Research and Planning. Industry and Comm erce asked this commi ttee to vote a half a million dollars for economic planning, whatever that is. There are other departments in which Rese arch and Planning appropriations are certainly justified, but there are some, as I have mentioned, in which they can be questioned. Now here is one, Urban Affairs, where rese arch and planning is, in our view, highly necessary and highly justified within a reasonable budgetary limit.

Here is one where we' re dealing with the capital of the province and approx im ately 56 or 57 percent of the population of the Provin ce of Manitoba and I see in the breakout for the department' s operations and for the money we' re being asked to vote no specific appropriation, no specific allocation, no specific request to finance Resea rch and Planning. In this great governme nt of planners that sits opposite, Mr. Chairman, it seems rather an anomaly to me that there is no appropriation for Planning and Resea rch in the area of Urban Affairs.

The Department of Urban Affairs presu mably was set up to cope with the growth of the modern day contemporary problem of urban living, with the proliferation of urbanization and all the problems that come with it. So I would think that this would be one area in particular where there should be and where I would be prepared to vote for a reasonable appropriation for Re search and Planning. The overall budget .. . Mr. Chairm an, I must be doing something wrong, because the Honourable Member for Fort Ronge just said, "H ear hear, " so I may be entirely on the wrong track, Mr. Chairman.

I rather suspect I am, but since we' re down to the closing

4196 June 18, 197 5 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAffiS (MR. SHERMAN cont'd) ... .. strokes of the session, maybe that's permissible. Anyway, I didn't want the session to close on too quiet a note, Mr. Chairman. I am concerned, because I am prepared to vote this Minister some money for Research and Planning. MR. HARRY ENNS (Lakeside) : I'm not. I'm not. MR. SHERMAN: Well, my colleague from Lakeside is not, so we may have to hold a -- (Interjection) -- we may have to hold, not a caucus, but a free vote on the resolution, Mr. Chairman.

But the overall appropriation for the department is up by approximately $4 mill ion, which is substantial in relative terms, since we were dealing last year with $7. 7 mill ion; this year we're dealing with a request for $11. 8 million, and I would just like to bring that point to the Minister's attention.

Now it may be that in all these different divisions in the department that there is research and planning done, but if so it's a carefully guarded secret, because there seems to be no evidence of it in the traffic flow of the city at the present time and in the tax campaigns being waged on the city's problems; nor does there seem to be any evidence of it in the breakout of the departmental estimates in front of us. So I would hope, Mr. Chairman, that the Minister can reassure me on that point.

If not, I would ask him, invite him, in battling for his estimates' appropriations next year, to make sure that his colleagues allow him to have some money, some appropriation to spend on Research and Planning where I sug gest it would be much better spent and much better justified than has been the case in some of those other departments that I mentioned, notably Education and Industry and Commerce. MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER: Well, Mr.

Chairman, I find this a refreshing change from other years when in fact I was involved in departments that had fairly substantial research and planning, and I recall that I was questioned about the extent of the research and planning that I had built up in Ed ucation and Health and Social Services. But, Mr.

Chairman, as I indicated earlier, the Department of Urban Affairs or the Ministry of Urban Affairs is in fact a co-ordinative department - and although I welcome and I thank the honourable member for his suggestion that he will help me in the House to get more funds, I'm not asking for more funds now, because really the planning now exists in various departments. For example, the Winnipeg Regional Study which is going on, in which our department is of course involved, but the funds for that are within the Municipal Affairs Department, and the people who are working on it are on staff of Municipal Affairs.

And I don't just like to add staff for the sake of adding staff, and dupli cating it. As well, we should realize that the City of Winnipeg has a fairly good and sophis ticated and long-standing Planning Department - and again, in our efforts not to duplicate that and to create the sort of conflic ts which can develop - and I'v e seen it develop between planners - we tried not to introduce another planning level all over again.

Rather we review, we analyze, we look at it, the Urban Affairs Committee meets on it to discuss it; we have the input of the various departments in government, whether it be Education or Health or Municipal Affairs, and their resources are available to us so that we can make a fairly intelli gent assessment of whatever' s proposed.

So that basically, as I said earlier, there is in Executive Council, there is the Planning Secretariat, where there are people with certain capacities, certain expertise which again are used by the Department of Urban Affairs for their input when certain programs of the city are being looked at; whether it be urban transportation; whether it be a study of the downtown development; whatever the areas are.

So that although, as I say, I thank the member for his offer to double staff, I really don't think it would be wise at this time to simply develop our own Research and Planning Branch, which I don't think will add to, but as a matter of fact may create problems, because the research and planning people are distributed now throughout the provincial system, and I am one of those who believe that you use people where they are, you just don't necessarily go out and hire another set to duplicate what exists. MR. CHAffiMAN: The Honourable Member for Fort Rouge. MR. LLOYD AXWORTHY (Fort Rouge) : Mr.

Chairman, I'd like if I might, to pick up on a question that was raised by the Member for Fort Garry, who I was glad to applaud - it was one of the more statesman like gestures he's made during this session in terms of supporting increased funds for urban research. The fact that we haven't yet passed the conflict of interest law allows me to say that in this House, I suppose, without fear of retribution. The question I would like to really raise with the Minister goes to the description he gave

June 18, 1975 4197 SUPPLY - URBAN AFF AIRS (MR. AXWORTHY cont'd) ..... us this morning about the planning and development by the province of its proposals for inner core development, because he suggested that those plans were directly related to an objective of rejuvenation and renewal of the Inner City core. And what I would be interested in, Mr.

Chairm an, is to understand in part the rationale that the Department of Urban Affairs or the Minister, or the Urban Affairs Commi ttee of Cabinet, whoever is responsible for making those decisions, arrived at in choosing the particular meth ods that they did to solve the problems that they foresee. In other words, Pd like to understand from the Minister how he is able to demonstrate that the particular proposals in terms of the public works construction in the inner core area, plus an addition of, I think he said, perhaps a maximum of 200 public housing units, in itself will provide a rejuvenation. Because, Mr.

Chairman, I would start from perhaps the alternative way of looking at the problem, and that is by assessing that the difficulties in the inner city of Winnipeg are com posed of mainly economic problems; many people who don't have jobs; many people who don't have skills to get jobs; many people who are denied the ability to get those skills because of their racial back ground, because of their family background, because of their income background, that they suffer from very severe social handicaps; that there is a serious problem of alcoholism and ill health; there' s a very severe problem of the decline and deterioration of the smaller business sector in the Inner City so that there is really very little structure of stability of neighbourhood facilities and services; there is a breakdown in police servic ing and law and order to the point where the City of Winnipeg police are at last count sort of almost totally commi tted in term s of answering problems as opposed to doing any patrol work because of lack of services; there' s a serious problem with native people who are migrat ing from rural areas.

All these problems add up, Mr. Chairman, to the problem of the Inner City, when you take each facet of them, and they would call I would think for a series of responses that would attempt to provide for improve ment in income, im provement in manpower training, improvem ent in the economic opportunity in the area, better police and protection services, support for increased efforts in alcoholism. And yet, Mr.

Chairman, when we examine the estim ates of departments such as Colleges and Universities and Education, and Attorney-General, Health and Welfare, and ask them what and how did they gear or specify their efforts to become part of this Inner City renewal that the Provincial Governm ent announced, the answer came back with kind of a blank, that they concluded - I recall the Minister of Education saying that well, they were doing some things but they really weren't part of the process, they weren' t involved really in the planning of it to any degree; they have some program s at R. B.

Russell and they' re doing some Inner City work, but it's not part of a co-ordinated package. We asked the Attorney-General if he was prepared to look at the particular problems of police services in the Inner City; he said well, that's someone else' s responsibility. When we sort of asked the Minister of Labour about the kind of manpower on-the-job training, re-training programs, that would be geared specifi cally as part of this renewal project, the answer came back again that there wasn't anything particularly different being done than what had been done before. So all of a sudden, Mr.

Chairman, it appears that we've set up the objective of Inner City renewal and rejuvenation, which is a very laudable objective - and it would seem from that point on common sense would indicate that you take a look at the problems that exist in the Inner City area and tailor the solutions, tailor the responses to those problems. And that's why r m exceedingly curious, Mr.

Chairman, as to how the Provincial Governm ent concludes that the building of an Autopac Safety Building and an environmental laboratory and a Law Courts Building will provide for rejuvenation of the kind of deprivation and deterioration that exists in the Inner City, because certainly the history of urban renewal in this country and other coun tries shows that the placemen t of public works in a deteriorated area adds absolutely nothing.

It may be useful to have a new Autopac Building and a new Law Courts Building, but in terms of actually aiding and assisting the res idents and people who reside in those areas to gain better em ployment, to acquire new skills, to develop an economic dynamic in those areas, they do absolutely virtually zero. There' s just no im pact at all, that they become a place where civil servants go to work and go home after and it stops there, that the actual im pact of a building like that stops at where the building ends.

There is no im pact on the neighbourhood other than it becomes another sort of imposition, if you like, of the rest of the comm unity upon them. And it again strikes me - r m not objecting if the governm ent wants to build Autopac buildings and Law Courts buildings, that's perfectly within their right to decide that those are legitimate

4198 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFF AIRS (MR . AXWORTHY cont'd) ..... Pub lic Works' projects. But what I' m trying to suggest , Mr . Chairman, is that there is a tremendous leap in logic between the assessment of what is hap pening in the Inner City, the kinds of problems that are encountered in that area, and the sorts of solutions that are being proposed . Even, Mr .

Chairman , when you come to the housing com ponent, that again the kinds of housing conditions, I think the Minister is as aware as the other members of this House , are the kinds of assessments that were made by the Inner City Housing Commission; that the City of Winnipeg held hearings over the past two months; that the kinds of problems presented by a variety of groups in the Inner City and the range of solutions and pre scriptions that came forward from those organizations and groups had very little to do with the kind of program that we hear being issued by the government .

They were talking about a much different kind of approach to the problem of arresting deterioration. The third aspect that I find somewhat curious - and that's a very mild word - about the concept of Inner City renewal as announced by the governm ent, again is that it is concentrated in a very small core area, perhaps a six squ are block area, perhaps an eight square block area, it hasn ' t been totally defined - and yet, Mr . Chairman, the problem of decline , the deterioration, is one that sets in very early in many other areas, and I suppose the best kind of cure oftentimes is a preventative one.

And yet there's very little being offered in this program that we can see to provide responses to offset the decline that would be occurring in areas such as Elmwood and the west end of Winnipeg, Fort Rouge , Riverview , Crescentwood areas, the old areas of East Kildonan, the north end of Winnipeg - areas which in fact are now beginning, because of the age of those areas, because of the moveme nt of people from the Inner City in towards them , are again experiencing pretty severe pres sures for change, severe pres sures for decline - and again, other than the announcem ent just recently of a $2 million repair program , which is only one aspect and a small one at that, there seems to be no response to that particular problem of dealing with the problem of deterioration in older city neighbourhoods which I would suggest , Mr .

Chairman, would be far less expensive than going to the maj or reclamation kind of public works projects that we're now engaged in. So , Mr . Chairman , I would simply be interested to know on what grounds and on what kind of planning and what kind of assessme nt, what kind of rationale did the government arrive at its particular solution to the rejuvenation of the Inner City. There must be some rationale to ex plain why they are doing what they were doing because it doesn't seem to ji be with the kind of problems that exist therein . I would suggest , Mr .

Chairman, that in fact the solutions and proposals put forward for Inner City renewal by the Pro vincial Gover nment conform to their requireme nts, not to the requirem ents of the residents of the Inner City, that their requirements are to build public housing and to build certain public works for the Pro vincial Go vernment , and therefore they are taking those things which they want do do and now trying to suggest that they are what is necessary to rejuvenate the Inner City . And, Mr .

Chairman , that is not something that is a dodge or a kind of gimmick that is unique to this government , because governments, federal and provincial, in this city have been using that same kind of gaff for a long time, that they simply do what they want to do and then try to palm it off or rationalize it as being in the best interests of the poor people of Inner Cities .

And yet again the history of this country in urban renewal and downtown reclamat ion is one that suggests that it simply then becomes a waste of money ; that if you 're putting your dollars to try :md rejuvenate the Inner City, then you put them where they're going to really make some impact and do some good. You don't do them on the basis of what would suit the particular requireme nt for the Department of Public Works or the Automobile Insurance Corporation or the development of a new Law Courts Building. That is simply a deflection of objectives and, in part, Mr .

Chairman , slightly hypocritical because it really is holding out the expectation of major happenings in the Inner City. It's very similar , Mr . Chairman , to the thing that was held out to the Inner City about ten years ago when we built the new City of Winnipeg Hall and the Cultural Centre . That, if you look back in history , Mr . Chairman, was held out as being the great boon for renewal . At that point, the Roblin Governm ent and the City of Winnipeg said, "Boy , we go ahead with that Cul tural Centre and the City Hall , and Main Street will have a renaissance.

It will make Athens sort of look like Akron, Ohio , by comparis on but it will provide this magical sort of flowering and flourishing in the downtown." Well , Mr . Chairman, the only flowering and flourishing occurs inside the halls of that Cultural Centre. It has had absolutely , virtually no impact on its borders . It's done nothing for people or for the problems of the Inner City. In fact, the Main

June 18, 1975 4199 SUPPL Y - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. AXWORTHY cont 'd) . . . . . Street area has deteriorated even further than it was then and I would suggest that we 're doing the same thing. History has a curious habit of repeating itself, and whether it happens to be a Conservative administration or New Democratic admin istration , I would even go so far as to say perhaps even in the past Liberal administration , we keep repeating the same mistakes and keep kind of palming them off on the same kind of argu ment .

All of a sudden we 're being benefactors, when in fact the only people who are benefiting are those who have already got pretty much all they need . So, Mr.

Chairman , if I am wrong I am prepared to concede that , but I think the Minister owes an explanation to this House, and a fairly explicit one, as to how they properly , or how they went about assessing the conditions that are existing in the Inner City , how they went about then deciding what kinds of solutions should be brought to bear, how they recruited or didn 't recruit the involvement of other departments of the Provincial Department , and how they then arrived with a solution they were going to build an Autopac building and some public housin g units as being the maximum , optimum solution for rejuvenating the Inner City.

MR . CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR . MILLER: Mr. Ch airman, the Member for Fort Rouge has made these comments before and I have to say to him that he may have his particular views on what is needed in the Inner Core, and of course, you know, I' m not going to get in an argument on that . He indicated himself there apparently were some hearings recently by the city where they asked representa tion of various groups to come forward and, as he indicated , there was a range of prescriptions and there always are.

Various people have various ideas on what the solution s might be, and no one argues with the fact that the Inner City , like inner cities throughout North American and Canada, have in the post-war period undergone a sequence of events where the outflow to sub urbia has left the inner cities rotting and decaying, and it is to this we are trying to address ourselves. Now he may feel that housing is not essential . I happen to feel it is.

I happen to feel decent , adequate shelter is a prime requirement for any person , for any family, and I suggest that it goes a long way to meeting the needs of people if that housing is available.

He questions the other programs of the departments , and I can say to him that in fact the Department of Colleges and Universities, through the Community Colleges, has developed outreach programs to try to reach those people, because it was recognized even two, three years ago when I was in the department that people from that area, living in that area, wouldn 't of themselves go to the Community Colleges but rather we had to reverse it , and we had to reach out to them . And that is being done.

The Minister of Corrections and Rehabilitation has programs, is supporting programs in the area, programs of groups that have sprung up in the area, and are knowledgeable of the problems in the area . They're working with them , as is the Department of He alth and Social Development. The Manpower Committee is trying to come to grips with the problem of employ ment for people in the area , and I' m not denying that this problem exists. But to simply say these probems exist and don 't bother with anything else, is nonsense. And the matter of Public Works buildings is really a red herring.

If the member would be happier if the Autopac Building or the Law Courts Building was built on the grounds of Fort Osborne Barracks, yes, we could have done that , but I frankly felt and the government felt and the city felt that in fact the build ings should be in the city centre because it does help to rejuvenate an area to eliminate those buildings that are beyond recall , that are simply standing there decrepit and are useless. We were delighted to co -operate with the Federal Government on the Neighbourhood Improvement Prog ram , and I agree it ' s a very small area.

There are two now, North Po int Douglas and part of the Centennial Community area. There is a third one which the city is requesting in St. Bo niface, the older part of St . Bonifac e, and it ' s true these are quite small, but you've got to start somewhere and if we wait for some grandiose scheme, then what is going to happen is what 's happened elsewhere: nothing happens.

You know , people can all get together in criticism , people can all get to gether in opposition of something, but when you ask for what is the solution , then you encounter the phenomena where the solutions differ and there are as many solutions as there are people puttin g them forward . So I make no apology for the fact that we, this government in conjunction with the City of Winnipeg, are trying to come to grips with a problem which , if left, could create a situation in the city centre far worse than it is today .

I do not agree with the Member for Fort Rouge when he says that this is simply dissipating our efforts. Studies have been made and are being made. There' s the Neeginan project, which

420 0 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. MILLER cont 'd) .. .. . I think is just coming forward now; the Chinese Developme nt Corpora tion, which has been working en feasibility studies and plans for the area. As I say, the NIP, with whom we have a ve ry ve ry close relationship, the City of Winnipeg itself now is se ized of the problem and is becoming conce rned. We work ve ry clos ely with the City. We resp ond to their points, to their views, and I think it's important to recog nize that there is a council of the City of Winnipeg elected by the electors of the City of Winnipeg.

It is that group with whom we must work and through which we must work, and we cannot and should not take the position that som ehow we in this Chambe r know best and we are simply going to go ahead and introduce programs and do things in the City of Winnipeg without the City of Winnipeg's concurre nce. So we are responding to the city. We work, as I say, with others in the area. An example of that is St.

Andre w's Place, which the Me mber for Fort Rouge knows about and I believe he will admit and he'll recog nize that there was close liaiso n and ve ry supportive action by the government in the developme nt of St. Andrew 's Place. He talks about other areas of Winnipeg. Certainly there are other areas of Winnipeg that, as well, could benefit from rejuve nation. We've got to start som ewher e. If we don't start now, then what will happen, as I say, is that nothing will occur either in the city core or outside the city core. We want to bring more people back into the city core, and to do that you ne ed housing.

Every effort will be made to develop more and more housing within the city core. and with it recogn ition that people shoold be as close to the place of their employment as possible. So , as developme nt of housing takes place, the city I know is conce rned and intereste d . and :'.n fact industries and businesses that went out to the suburbs in ye ars past are attracted back in, be cause the manpower will be there that can work, as I say, within a reasonable distance from their residence.

And what we look forward to is a gradual but nonet heless ve ry de finite re developm ent and rejuv en ation of an area, rec ognizing that that is a particularly difficult area to cope with, that there are problems there that are ve ry se riou s; but I would �'lot agree with the member that in fact the other depa rtmen ts, the line d·=partments, the serv ice departments of gover nment, have ignored that area.

As a matter of fact, probably more money is flowing now through various agencies and through dire ct delivery systems by government into that area to try to come to grips with the social problems that do exist. But one of the problems is housing, and if there is inadequate housing. then the problems will persi st.

You know, I rec all the arguments as to why some students and children d·:> poorly in school, and I rec all also the suggesting and the statements made that if a student is living in a home where he has no privacy, where he or she has to live in a bedroom with two or three per room, where there is no privacy to study, where there is no opportunity to have some ability to sort of live in the home and yet not be overwhelmed by the size of a family living in inadequate housing that that too has as much effect on a person 's ability to function at sch ool in their educ ational process as any other factor in that family.

So I don't back away from the statement I made that housing, I feel, is an esse ntial part and an esse ntial need for people. and if we can start de ve lop ing housing, adequate housing for people, I think we will have made a giant step forward .:or the people in the area and .�ertainly to prevent a further deterioration and to reve rse the deterior a tion that has occ urred in the ce ntre of Winnipeg, the inner core, as it has in other jurisdictions.

I know the Membe r for Fort Rouge has ve ry little sympathy for the earlier efforts on the part of the Federal and Provincial Governments for urban renewal, and he feels that efforts such as Lord Selkirk Park were money down the drain. I dis agree with him. I have to say to him that I feel since rely that, for all its faults, I feel the people who arP. living in Lark Selkirk Park are much better served chan in the kind of accommo dation they had to live in befor e, and, as I say, I don 't apologize for that. For all its faults it's a vast improveme nt over what existe d . Now we're trying to refine that.

E"Xperience has shown that perhaps de ve lopments of the scope and size of Lord Selkirk Park should not be repeated ; it isn 't the best way of doing it.

But let him not simply knock public housing, or any kind of housing within the inner core, and when he simply zeros in on a few Public Works buildings and says, "What is that going to do for peop le? ' I say to you that if you improve the atmosphere within an area, if you improve the gener al tenor within an area by eliminating slum shacks or dilapidated buildings which are simply gone to se ed , and you place in there some new buildings, new structures , it enhances the entir e area, it takes on a ne w sparkle, a new life. and this I think in the final analysis is important to any area of the City of Winnipeg or any area anywhere.

So, Mr. Chairman, I know that the member feels that that is not the answer. He has some

June 18, 19 75 4201 SUPPLY - URBAN AF FAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... other ideas, and I can't quarrel. As I say, the social problems are severe and som ething has to be done, but I reject that the province has turned its back on these social problems.

I say that the various departments of the government are adjusting themselves to the problem, both directly and ·�hrough support of agencies, and together with the City of Winnipeg, who are concerned and who share our concern and who, in the final analysis as the Council of the City of Winnipeg are responsible, we work very clos ely with them to try to meet the needs as they perceive them and 3.S they would Uke us to aFisist them in resolving the problem s. MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honoura ble Member for Fort Rouge. MR . AXWORTHY: Mr.

Chairman, I'd like to ta'<:e issue with the Minister on some points, but I thi.n'.<: we should really begin on the analysis, not of saying that thi.s is simply a matter of one opinion versus another, I think it goes to a mu :::h more fundamental issue in this House, and that is how do we spend mone y ? Because I think one of the primary requiremerits that the pub lic would put on us is to try to get maximum use for the dollars that we spend. And the Minister himse lf made an interesting comment. He sa id, "Well, we're spending mor e mone y in the Inner City now than we've ever spent before.

" I would ask the question: to what effect ? And do you really solve problems just by throwing mor e and mor e money at it ? That is kind of the old, you know, shovelling dirt philosophy. If you just kind of keep shovelling long enough, you think you're doing some thing, and all you sometimes do is move one pile of dirt and make another pile of dirt out of it. And I don't think that you 're going to solve problems simpl y by spend:lng more and more and more money. You should ask the question how are you spendi.ng it and what's the results of that expend:.ture, what quality of difference it makes.

Because I would suggest again - and I agree, enormous increases of expenditures have gone into solving the problems of inner cities across Canada a_nd �n our own city - that you still look and the problems are still there. You spend mor e and more money and it just becomes eroded . There is virtu ally no impact.

If the real intention of this government, that it's stated ma ny times, is to re distribute income. to provide for greater equality, a chance. an opporttmity to place ... people in the world, then that's a principle that I also accept, but what I would question is, how do you d·) it 'i And '.t's just simpl y that I'm trying to say, "Well, look. We're going to put more money into it, " that's not a solution to our problem. So, Mr. Chairman, the question I would then raise with the Minister is, how are we spending the mone y in the Inner City? He says he personally believes in the requirement for adequate housing.

I agree, it's one impor tant ingredient in any strategy to try to rejuvenate an area; it's not solely one, but it is an important one. So the question is , are we spending the money that is presuma bly dedicated to Inner City renewal to get the most adequate housing for the most people ? Now I think the Minister said 'chat there are going to be 75 units started this year and perhaps a maximum of 200 public housing units built. Well, I would ;3ay to him, how ma ny more units of housing will be built for the capital that's being expended )n the Autop3.c build ing ?

How ma ny mor e units even of public housing could we build ? So if the objective is to provide ad9quate housing. then why in hell are we spending it on a Public Works building ? If you want to use your capital in an effective way - now I'm saying, if your objective is to pro vide more space for Autopac, then that's another objective, that has nothing to do with Inner City renewal - the argument we 've had with the government in this House continually is, how are you spending your ca;:iital ? How much bang for the buck are you getting and how many people are you helping with it ?

And I suggest that that is where the Minister is mislea ding what's going on, because he's trying to suggest that som ehow that he's committed to adequate housing - and I know he is - but then why get palmed ·)ff on these other kinds of things? If you really want to sort of build :i.d3quate housing, the $ 30 million that are going into Public Works buildings would get you an awful lot mor e housing and a lot mor e. . . Inner City, and would probably have a much healthier impact than we would have by Law Courts. I suspect, Mr.

Chairman, that the lawyers of the province could 5et abng another few years without another Law Courts building. Yes, I suppose if necessary we could give them Room 250 or 2o0 , I don't care, you 'mow, you don't have to cond..tct proceedings in an area where there is oa.l\:en tables and Gothic column s.

You can conduct justice, you know, in a 20 by 1.5 bare room with one light bulb if need be. because if the objective then is to really get serious adequate housing throughout the inner core, then that's where the capital should be going right now, not into a Law Courts building, not into an environmental laboratory, and not into an Autopac building, or

4202 June 18, 197 5 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFA IRS (MR. AXWORTHY cont'd) .... . whatever other kinds of things are being planned - that's where that capital should be expended. So even by the Minister's own criteria, if that's the objective. then let's live up to it fully and properly, beca use it does come back to the question I would also suggest, that simply utilizing and becoming obsessed with the public housing mod e is not again the ·most adequate way. And, Mr. Chairman, I won't provide alternatives because I think we have a full opportunity to discuss Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation later on.

There is not just one way of providing housing for low-income people. There's not only one sort of road to Damascus in this case and there are ma ny alternatives to it, and governm ent has never been able to understand that.

They have never been able to come to grips with the fact that there are many different kinds of ways of providing housing for low-income people, for poor people, for middle-income people, for senior citizens - and in ma ny cases those techniques can be more effective and more us eful in combi nation with public housing instead of it becoming kind of one-dimensional, one-track, down-the-road, let's get more public housing units. I don't have to lay the studies on the table - I'm not against public housing, I think it is also an impor tant ingredient in any housing strategy.

But I don't think we should limit ourselves just to one, because there are many other kinds of things that could be going on in that Inner City in terms of housing needs, an d when I said there was a range of prescrip tions put forward to the City of Winnipeg, strangely enough not ma ny of them included pre scriptions for public housing. They included very strong recomm endations in terms of alter native forms of housing. One of the advantages to that, Mr.

Chairman, is this, that one of the primary deficiencies in the Inner City area is really a lack of confidence, a lack of having the ability and opportunity to do things for oneself. The kinds of privileges that all of us in the House enjoy and which most of society enjoys of having some feeling of respect because you can order your life in. some way that you feel you still have some control over what you'r e trying to do, that you still have the ability to influence how you're going to live, is denied to ma ny people who live in the Inner City.

They d·Jn't have any opportunity to feel that they can own or manage or control som ething about themsel ves, they're always on the taking end of some thing. One of the major ways of renewing or rejuvenating an area is to enable people to acquire a sense of confidence and skill and feeling of self-respect, and that comes by the ability to do som ething for themsel ves , to get the capacity t•J feel that they have an opportunity for their own renewal. Mr.

Chairman, the Minister says, "Well, lookit, I'm not going to interfere with the City of Winnipeg" - but I would have thought that at least if the objective clearly was Inner City renewal, then perhaps one of the first requirements would have been to have gone in and worked very carefully and dosely with the people of the Inner City to find out what kind of thing they would have liked in order to give them a sense of power and confidence and self respect, the ability to do som ething for themsel ves ; to have a variety of different kinds of techniques , whether it's starting their own small business by getting a kind of loan that they can't elsewhere; whether it's being able to run their own housing project; whether it's being able to get a respectable sort of training program on an on-the-job site where they're doing som ething useful.

That's how he can use money mor e effectively , Mr. Chairman. Even last week, the Economic Development Advisory Board concluded that most of the manpower training programs run through institutions like Red River and R. B.

Russell don't work in those kind13 of areas, and they recommended that we get into an area where we provide incentives for on-job training in busin esses and firms, whether it's through a tax incentive or through a direct grant or by paying parts of salaries; again, there's a number of modalities of doing that, but that's how people acquire a sense that they can walk the street and say, you know, "I 'm an impor tant person".

You're not going to do it by allowing them on a Sunday afternoon to look at the glories and vistas of a new Public Insurance Corporation building and wallow in the magnificence of this new structure or share in the reflected glory of watching all the high-paid officials come in at 9: 00 and leave at 5: 00. That doesn't do an awful lot for their sense of self-respect. So when the Minister says, "W e're going to rejuvenate the area by putting those buildings there", I think that's a joke. It may be, you know, a good place to put them.

I'm not arguing that they shouldn't be there, but in a day and age when you have to select your priorities , when you have to calculate your use of capital according to the ma ximum amount of benefit and when you're asking who's going to benefit, I would suggest that this leaves an awful lot to be desired. Now I would .suggest, Mr. Chairman, the reason why it leaves a lot to be desired, I

June 18, 197 5 4203 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAI RS (MR. AXWORTHY cont'd) ..... don' t think an awful lot of planning went into it. I think it was a reactive policy, not a planning policy. I think it reacted to events - that som eone said, "G ee, we need some new buildings. Let' s package it together and let' s sell it as an Inner City renewal project. " And all I'm suggesting, Mr. Chairman, is that we have now been in the business of trying to renew cities for probably since the 1930 1 s. We've gon9 through different stages of them, and surely to God we should have learned something by that.

We should have learned from our mis takes. We should have learned how to have made the proper use of public intervention to develop public policy and approaches that will have a beneficial and salutary effect upon residents and people in the area. And that doesn' t me an doing things piecemeal, it doesn't mea n sponsoring a project here and a project there.

It means close working in those areas , it means being able to develop a pretty good overall strategy; it includes things like housing and manpower and jobs and economic developme nt and a variety of focuses that merge together ih some cohesion, that reflect sort of the interests of those who reside in the area - which transfers to many of the people in the area the control over those projects so they can acquire some sense of responsibility and some sense of con fidence about what they 're doing - not having government d·J it for them , coming in like, you know, Lady Bountiful, and sort of saying, "Here we are, doing things for you again.

" That dciesn 't do an awful lot. You 've got to break the cycle of taking and rebuild 1 cycle of being able to develop a se!lse of self-reliance. That's the kind of strategy that works. Mr. Chairman, I just was read:lng some thing the other day, an analysis that was done in Toronto. They point out that you can tell when an area is g;Jing to deteriorate by the people who begin to move out.

And the ones who move out first are the stro!lgest people, the people who :ire able to lead ·;he com munity of the neighborhood in it' s informal structures of voluntary association, who kept the commu nity club going and loo'rnd 1fter the Boy Scouts and the church groups. They're the first ones to leave in all the neighborhoods, and they leave for one reason, because at some point or other they become frustrated or d'..sillusioned that they're going to be able to do anything to maintain the calibre and quality of that area. And if they leave, then the area g•'.les down the drain.

Now the strategy should be d:·lrected at trying to give some assi stance to those groups of people. to give them an incentive to rem ain in the older areas of the city, acid riot to move out to the suburbs - not to escape the central city and leave it as one great big sandbox that we can all sort of, say, put a lot of things in for people to play with to keep them occupied :30 they won't bother the rest of us. Now that, Mr. Chairman, is what I talked about in terms of strategy. The Minister has still not shown me how they arrived at what they 're doing, and I suppose we won't resolve this.

But I am simply saying that if his concern as a tough-nosed, hard-fisted 3ort of administrator of public funds is to get maximum use for his dollars, then I say in this case he's failing misera bly. MR. CHAIRMAN : The Honourable Minister of Urba:i Affairs. MR. MILLER: Well Mr. Chairman, I ind:.cated ·.vhen I started my comme nts to reply to the Member for Fort Rouge that there was not going to be a resolution of the views on the sub ject and it's obvious that there' s not going to be any mee ting of minds.

He talks about self esteem and ·�onfid·3nce of people in the area and what has happened in other cities , the outflow into suburbia which was witnesse d in the 50's and :30's - we all know that, this is known everywhere. He talks about the need to improve as I say, the self esteem and Gonfidence of people. He talks about on-the-job training. You know, perhaps he should be in the Feder al House because the Manpower Immigr ation Department do have pro grams for on-job training.

They lauHched one a couple of years ago, where the intent was to bring people in who needed training, where they were encouraged to - firms were encouraged to hire unskilled people who were working at less than capacity, who had somehow dropped out of the job ma rket. And I know that that program is in operation, so those things are happening. I indicated earlier the Com munity College has developed an outreach program and .is reaching people much mor e so than ever before. He makes an issue of the Public Works buildings, and I sim ply say to him that the Public Works are peripheral to the program itself.

You know, the raison d'etre for redeveloping, rejuvenating the Inner City is housing, bringing people back into the inner cities across the country. The Federal Governme nt had m urban renewal scheme and ·'.hen discontinued it - I forget

420 4 June 18, 1975 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFA IRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... when it was, I think about 1968 or '69, som ething like that - and then went into d,3ep study and came out with the Federal Ne ighborhood Improveme nt Pr o gram, which has as its basis, total involvement on the part of the resid·ents within a given area, in a designated area; offices are set up in that area, personnel are assigned to the area under the aegis of the City of Winnipeg.

We contribute toward3 it, as does the Federal Govern me nt, but the Federal Governm ent has very definite criteria in developing a Neighborhood Improvement Program. It's a very slow process. I've heard criticisms across the country because of the slowness in which it moves.

And the fact that although people recognize by and large that problems exist, when it comes to finding solutions and what is the answer to the solutions, when you· get the myriad of alternatives being put forwardi'lnd very often the resi dents in the areas themselves become bogged down as between their own views of what should happen in the neighborhood. But the structure exists, whereby in the Neighborhood Improve me nt Programs there is an abs olute requireme nt by the Federal Governme nt that there be total participation of the commu nity.

Meetings are constantly being held, views are constantly being explored, surveys are constantly being taken. Pnd it is in that method, which the hon ourable member puts so much stock in, of getting feedback from the comm unity itself, that these developments will take place. And as I say, the plans in the federal Nei ghbor hood Improvement areas have to be approved through me etings. The city then takes those, puts them together, and working with the Provincial Government and through MHRC will come up with this kind of program.

An example of what is ;1appening in the Centennial Inner City area is the freight shed which was made available to the comm unity, to the residents, and by dint of their own efforts they have brought about som ething which did:·1't exist before, a central commw 1ity centre which is attracting the use of that area, which is attracting adults into various programs which are being developed by the people themsel ves.

Much of the work being done in that area is being done by people themsel ves, the sort of thing that I think the Member for Fort Rouge would encourage and [eels is the kind of thing that creates self esteem, creates confidence. And housing is part and parcel of that. Now the fact that there are som e Pu blic Works ' buildings going in, really is peripheral to the matter. These same Public Works' buildings are needed. The Motor Vehicle Branch and Autopac require a building. It could be, as I say, in the West end of the city , it could be in the south end, it could be some where out near the Mint I suppose.

But that really isn't the issue, because they would have to be built anyways. So would a court house, which has been about six years in the ma king. So to suggest that somehow they should .:10t go forward, but instead that we're dissipating our efforts, is incorrect. This is a slow process. It will take place as funds are made available. as federal pro grams are expanded - as the people in the area are ready to move, these developments will take place. And in time the fate of the comm unity will change.

People will be attracted back into the city centre, as they should be, so that the continuous extension of hous ing into the suburbs will perhaps slow down - that certainly is a desirable goal. The city centre will be come alive again with people living there, working there. and not simply leaving at five o' clock or six o' clock or whenever they stop working, which is one of the problems of the fleeing from the cities which has existed in the past. So there are problems to be dealt with, but what I'm saying is that this government is aware of them. We are trying to correct that.

We 're working very closely with the City of Winnipeg. It was the City of Winnipeg - a resolution last November - where the city sent to the province a resolution, which stated that "the area west of Main Street, between CP R and William Avenue contains sections which are in a deplorable state of disrepair.; and

whereas in some instances conditions constitute a health and safety hazard to many of our citiz ens; and

whereas City Council years ago recognized the need for urban redevelopment and has acquired considerable amounts of land and property in this area; Therefore Be It Re solved'' - that was the resolution they passed - "that council consider this a priority item and urge the Provincial Governm ent to assist in the urban redevelopment of this area, and make whatever contribution they can to overcome this unsightly situation which is not complime ntary to a city .

" This resolution was passed by the city last November and the province was more than eager to respond in the best way we could by working with the city, discussing with the city how they percei ved the problem, what could be done, and we've done just that. The city is working with us, and we with them, to redevelop the area and to try to change it from its present

June 18, 197 5 4205 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFA IRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... deplorable state into som ething that will enhance the city and which all citizens can be proud of as well as those who live within the Inner City core. MR. CHAIRMAN : The Ho'J.ourable Member fo:- As siniboia. MR. STEVE PATRICK (Assi niboia) : Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions to the Minister.

I would like to indicate to the Minister that in 1969 this government campaigned that they were really going to do som ething with the people that live in the Inner Core. that are disadvantaged, that are poor, that lack edu::ation, that lack housing; and that was the big pitch. These were the things that the government were going to correct if they came into power. Now what I'm trying to say - a'J.d ';he points of the Member for Fort Rouge are well taken. After six years, after some six years, let's take a look, let's take a look to that inner core, to a grou;:i of people, what has happe!!ed :o them .

Let's assess the situation Because some five years ago the Social Service Audit did a complete analysis of the situation and ·chey reported, quite accurately , to everybody what the situatio'J. was. We have an area where we h:we some 25, OOO, or in that group, of native and people in that area, and there were some serious problems, but they, the Social Ser-1ice Audit, analyzed some 1, 800 famili es - 1 1 800 families - and this is what, you know, they analyzed. Now, some five years later, we had another study by some body from the university that was prepared for the government - prepared for the governm e:rit.

And what did they say five years later ? The situation for those 1, 800 famili es, for the people in the inner core, they'r e still disadvantaged, they still lack ed lcatio'J., they still lack housing, and they still lack job opportunities. The only point was that their plight was more serious , their situation got mor e serious, and the problem was that th2re was more of them, because some of them are moving in. So , you 'm ow, when we talk, when the Member for Fort Rouge talks. you 'o;noN, it's great. Sure, I believe in urban renewal. I believe in new government buildings.

But what will happen, that crowd. that population, those people will just probably move four or five blocks one way or the other way, and .ve'll still have the problem just like -.ve had with the people on Main Street where the Centennial Concert Hall iso They moved Iurther north three or four bl::icks and ': hey 're still there. And what we have to do here, what we have to do here, and if the Minister ... You know, this is not my analysis; that's the analysis of the governme nt itself.

You :m ow, the Minister knows quite well that he campaigned - not him so much �ut the First Minister; that was his big pitch, that he was going to d·J som ething for the people in the inner core, for the disad·,antaged, the native, and '1e's going to really upgrade. And .vhen you look after we had :me report from the Social Service Audit, we had one from the university, they say, what's happened ·;heir plight is worse. So what we're saying to the Minister, when 11.e says manpower is not his responsibility, that's wrong. The other provinces do som ething about ma npower training. They are. They're involved in it.

So we have to do something. We have to do some thing. We have to provide better education, ma ke it available, because if we don't they'll only move three or four blo:::ks further some other way and they'll still be there. The question will o'J.ly be com pounded be caus e we'll have much much greater population of native people in the city, of people that are disad'!antaged.

And really what's happened .. and the Minister knows, because the car and ·;he high price of la'J.d :·.n the inner city core has sort of really accelerated the people moving out of the in"ler core in';o suburbs where they're able to buy cheaper land �or d·evelopment. and what happens really, you have the large ind1strial ce!ltre in St. James, you have now one in Gard,�n City where a lot of these people, the people who are able to afford to move to the suburbs, moved :mt. You know, the problem is quite serious .

I think that when we get on to transpor tation I'd like to talk about that problem very seriously, because I think that the government has to get involved. because now that we're developing the inner core we 'll need better trans por tatio!l. My other question is, the question isn't fully answered by just putting the buildings - and I think it's a good thing, but out of the forty or fifty million dollars that we're using for re d·evelopment, ma ybe we can use five million ::ir so.

Let's see how we ca'J. ma ybe get, or let' s use ten million or fifteen mil lion ; let's see how we can do som ething for those people and not find out that ten years again from now that there'l l be again mor e, and ':his situation is more, because in the six years' time that the governm ent's been in power - sure they've done a lot of things, but you ha ven't done for those that were really disadvantaged in the core. In fact, like the report indicated last year, their situation is much worse. So that's the thing that

4206 June 18, 197 5 SUPPLY - URBAN AFFAIRS (MR. PATRICK cont'd) . . would concern us and that's what the Minister has to come to grips with. And I say just by building new buildings, it doesn't come to grips, because those people just move four or five blocks further down one way or the other way. Now the other point is I wish, while we're on the Minister's administration item and policy, I would like to know what the Minister's policy and the government' s policy is in respect to tax relief to the people, to the residential homeowners in the City of Winnipeg.

I know he'l l say, "W ell, we just passed a bill that will increase their tax credit by $ 50. 00, a maximum of $ 300 and $ 175, " but again I think it's another area that the Minister has responsibility , he has to come to grips, because that isn't the total solution. It's a relief, I agree, it's a good relief, but really when you give some body $ 50. 00 more and his tax has gone up $ 200, it's gone up a net of $1 50, and with inflation I think it's just going out of line. So that's another area that, while we're under policy, perhaps the Minister can give us some indication. MR.

CHAIRMAN : The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, the me mber spoke of two things. He talked about the core area, the need ::>f people with certain low incomes, very low incomes, for adequate hous ing, and I thought I'd indicated that we are moving, that we cannot move in isolation, we have to move together with the city administration on these things, and the resolution which I just read out a few minutes ago was nassed in November , 197 4. He did me ntion some thing which I would like to share with the House. It's a phenomenon which I can't explain. I know it exists elsewhere.

In the 50' s and 60' s when the exodus to the suburbs took place, one would have thought the land values in the inner core would clrop. That would make market sense. The reverse is in fact the case. and the Member for As siniboia probably knows this very well. That land in the inner core, instead of dropping in value, has become so terribly expensive that it is impossi ble almost - well it actually really is impos sible - to put in a traditional single-family dwelling on that kind of land.

And that perhaps is one of the reasons why the Federal Government moved towards the Ne ighborhood Impr oveme nt Program type of ar;proach where funds would be flowing through the Federal Government and. in Manitoba' s case, as well through the Provincial Gov ernment. I might indicate that in one other province I know of where the NIP programs were accepted, the Provincial Gov erntnent there simply acted as a vehicle in the sense of approving an agreem ent between the city and the Fed·eral Government, but did not contribute any funds at all.

It was left to the munic ipality to pick up the portion beyond which the Federal Gov ernm ent would not contribute. So, in essence. the fact is we are moving now. We hope to accelerate that pace as quickly as we can as lands become available, as sites are P.cquired and we are able to turn them over, or the city's able to turn them over to MHRC, but within, as I said earlier, within the constraints placed on MHRC to bring in housing at a certain cost. And I know, and I can say unequivocally, that it cannot be done by simpl y placing a home on every 30 or 40 or 50 foot lot.

There are going to have to be new housing designs and new innovative me thods of building housing which can utilize on a pre acre basis a greater density and yet at the same time have the green space. the recreational space, that is required for any com munity or any neighbor hood where there are people living and where they require the amenities which make living enjc.1yable. The member raised a question about residential tax relief, and this I think has been debated at some length in the First Minister 's estima tes, and the suggestion that in fact we haven't done enough.

As has been indicated in this House in debates, the Provincial Govern- ment, through its Prop erty Tax Credit Plan, .has had a very great impact - a very great im - pact - on the taxes paid within the City of Winnipeg.

In the cost of living tax credit as well, which flows to those people in the lower income, in the lowest of all incomes, they benefit to a considerable degree, so that there are funds flowing to them ; the increase this year to a maximum of � 300 - and I would suspect that the majority of people living in the inner core owning their own homes probably would qualify for not only the $ 175 which is paid direct to the city, but as well for the $ 300 which is made available when they file income tax.

In addition to that, the province has made funds available to the City of Winnipeg in far greater amounts than ever before. It has been done through usually direct payment on cond', - tional grants or through the taking over of certain services which were paid '.'or in the past by the City of Winnipeg and which now are picked up by the province. And I would point out that in the 1968 -69 budget the funds flowing to the City of Winnipeg and its resid·ents was $40 million ;

June 18, 19 75 4207 SUPPL Y - URBAN AF FAIRS (MR. MILLER cont'd) ..... this year, 1975 -76 , the figure is $1 43 million, which is a vast - you know it's four times as much; it's a vast increase since 1969. This flow of funds makes it possible for the city to acquire moneys from the province for which it does not have to levy. If the programs we had launched ':iada't been undertaken - and I can tell the honourable me mber that the mill rates in the City of Winnipeg would have been much higher than they are today and would have skyrocketed as they have in other cities in Canada.

So that we have, as I say, over the last few years, both oy direct grant and by taking over certain services - an example is the Assi niboine Park Zoo. By entering into a lease arrangement with the City of Winnipeg, and this year, as I indicated earlier , $ 2, 100, OOO is being paid by the province - which is a direct relief to the City of Winnipeg and it d)esn 't have to levy for that. The 50 percent cost-sharing on urban transportation which, without that, the city would simply not be able to maintain the kind of urban transportation system that exists.

The grants to the Inner City He alth Department - well, to any number of programs which we have undertaken: The cost-sh aring in deficit of the Convention Centre. The 50 percent cost sharing on the purchase of buses. The regional street maintenance on which we pay on a lane mile basis. The contribution towards the construction of new regional streets. All those represent moneys which flow to the city and which relieves the city from having to levy for them.

So when I say that I feel that the province has acted very effectively in this matter, I would indi.cate, as I said earlier, that we've gone from $4 0 million in 1969 to $1 43 million in 1975, and that does not include the amount which individuals will still be getting when they fib their income tax. That would be over and above that, that is the cost of living tax credit and :he property tax credit, the resid·ial amount of tax credi.ts which they might be entitled to. MR . CHAIRMAN : The Honourable Member for St. James MR. GEORGE MINAKER (St. James) : Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have a few questions for the Honourable Minister. It relates to the Student Employme nt Program, and I believe that it could ·oe discussed ·mder this particular

section because I d·)n 't see anywhere else in the estimates where it's detailed. and I believe that it is still w1der the '.)O-ordination of the De partment of Urban Affairs. At least it was as of March 21, 1975. I wonder if the Minister could ad17ise if it is still under his co-ordination. MR. CHAIRMAN : The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER : Well, Mr. Chairman, STEP is a program in the Department of Colleges and Universities Affairs. It's not in Urban Affairs at all.

We've made funds available for the hiring of students under STEP and they're assigned to comm unity committees rather, and the RAG groups in the community committ ees. But STEP is not a program under Urban Affairs. MR. MINAKER: Well, Mr. Chairman, I believe the Minister indfoated that they hire the students under this program, his department does, and I have certain questions with regard to restriction that I'd like to place at this time because I believe that, in a way, it restricts the program, in our belief, and in particular what has happened in St.

Jam es is that, as you ma y or may not be awar e, there was a youth compa ny set up by the students of St. James during the past two years that operated .mder the STEP program and received grants in the two previous years, but when they applied this year they were ad'!ised through the Res ident Advisory Gr oup that the Departme nt of Urban Affairs who co-ordinated it - and I have a letterhead here of the doepartment answering the Chairman of the Resid·ent Adv·isory Group, of the restrictions and the outline of how one could ta1<e

part in the program, and it would appear that the only way a stu dent can qualify for this program is if they'r e doing some kind ·)f research work. I hope the Minister will correct me if I'm wrong in this, but it ind.icates that the Resid·ent Ad·risory Gr oup should design a project and, further, that the intent of it would be they would get the most for the commu nity and also for the students ta\ing park in it. The program the students have run in the last two years in st.

James, I thought was one that was beneficial to the students involved, and for the information of the mem be rs here I'l l just briefly outline what the students were doing. The three students who qualified for the program were the administrator s of the company, which was a non-profit organization, and how it worked was that if there were senior citizens in the commu nity that needed ·either a fence painted or lawns cut or work done around their homes - and it's difficult to get this type of work nowadays - the students would go out and they'd give a fair estimate of what it would ::ost.

And sometimes it was below the minimum wa ge, but they felt they were contributing som ething if they did ).n in this manner. And they would ::lo

4208 June 18, 197 5 SUPPLY - URBAN AFF AIRS (MR. MINAKER cont'd) ..... the work. In other cases , where somebody 'd phone and needed work done and could afford to pay for it, they'd charge them a reas.onable rate, and they in turn subsiclized the students ' salaries for the work that was done below the normal rate. At the end of the year there was no moneys left over because the students were being paid.

Now what was happening was that the three students in the STEP program. were the administrators, but as a result of this program there were some 50 to 100 students that were getting work - not always full time work but part-time work - in this particular project. Now we find, because of the restrictions that have been placed on this year's program, that they didn't qualify. There was a sample of last year's projects includad in the letter to the Chairman of the RAG group, and when one looks at the programs that were approved last year - I can read .some of them: "St. Johns.

It was to interview residents in businesses regarding their opinion on com munity pro jects and problem s. To inform residents and organizations about the existence and services fo RAG and commu nity committ ee . " MR. CHAIRMAN: The Honourable Minister of Urban Affairs. MR. MILLER : I indicated to the me mber that the STEP program is a program under the Department of Colleges and Universities Affairs. It has nothing to do with Urban Affairs whatsoever. Now if last year, if he 's quoting a letter of a program last year, it

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Collection	Manitoba — Debates (Hansard)
Citation	30-2-136
Type	hansard
Volume / chapter	30th 2nd hansardpdf 136.pdf
Language	en
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