The Evolution of Greater Winnipeg

To understand how the small village at the forks of the Red and Assimi-
boine Rivers evolved to form the complex of administrative units eventu-
ally to comprise Greater Winnipeg, one must commence with the
“parish”. Religious affiliation was the major reason for the parish, but
ethnic and language characteristics were also associated.

St. Boniface was the first parish started in 1818 to minister to the
need of the Catholic Métis and white settlers. St. John’s was formed
two years later to serve adherents of the Anglican Church and as time
went on various other parishes were formed, each centred on a church.
By 1870 when the Red River Colony entered Confederation there were
twenty such divisions. Their names and boundaries left an impress on
the system of rural municipalities which later emerged.

Since the river at this early period was the main street of communi-
cation, the homes and buildings of the settlers were arranged along it.
Parish boundaries, therefore, straddled the river, extending back for
approximately two miles. When the Hudson’s Bay Company undertook
its survey of river lots first established by the Selkirk settlers, it set up
base-lines parallel to the river and about two miles back from it. The
lots were then surveyed at right angles to the base-lines which later
became important roads such as McPhillips Street and Bird’s Hill Road.
The parish was superimposed on the river-lot system, and from the parish
unit, the county and then the municipality subsequently emerged.

When the Red River Colony was admitted to Confederation the
parish became the electoral district from which members were sent to
the Manitoba legislature, created in 1870, as well as the House of
Commons in Ottawa. From the twenty parishes extent in 1870, twenty-
four provincial electoral districts were created along with four federal
constituencies (Fig. 1). Of the latter, the District of Selkirk contained
eight parishes besides the town of Winnipeg. In 1880 the County of
Selkirk, as originally constituted, comprised, besides Winnipeg, six rural
municipalities: St. Paul and Kildonan to the north of Winnipeg, As-
siniboia to the west and south, St. Boniface to the east, and Cartier
and St. Norbert farther to the south (Fig. 2). By 1960, just before Metro
government was established, there had evolved seventeen administra~
tive units comprising in whole or in part the area of Greater Winnipeg
(Fig. l).

The stages by which various administrative structures finally evolved
to eventually make necessary a second tier of administrative authority
are outlined in the accompanying maps. Underlying the extensive

 

 

 

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