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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
CANADA
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A 25
1917
Urban and Rural Development
in Canada
Report of Conference
Held at
Winnipeg, May 28-30, 1917
OTTAWA, 1917
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Constituted under "The Conservation Act," 8-9 Edward VII, Chap. 27, 1909, and
amending Acts, 9-10 Edward VII, Chap. 42, 1910, and 8-4
George V, Chap. 12, 1013.
Chairman:
SIR CLIFFORD SIFTON, K.C.M.G.
Members:
DR. HOWARD MURRAY, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.
DR. CECIL C. JONES, Chanceilor, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B.
MR. WILLIAM B. SNOWBALL, Chatham, N.B.
HON. HENRI S. BELAND, M.D., M.P., St. Joseph de-Beauce, Que.
DR. FRANK D. ADAMS, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science, McGill University,
Montreal, Que.
MGR. CHARLES P. CHOQUETTE, St. Hyacinthe, Que., Professor, Seminary of St.
Hyacinthe and Member of Faculty, Laval University.
MR. EDWARD GOHIER, St. Laurent, Que.
DR. JAMES W. ROBERTSON, C.M.G., Ottawa, Ont.
HON. SENATOR WILLIAM CAMERON EDWARDS, Ottawa, Ont.
MR. CHARLES A. McCool, Pembroke, Ont.
SIR EDMUND B. OSLER, M.P., Toronto, Ont.
MR. JOHN F. MACKAY, Business Manager, The Globe, Toronto, Ont.
DR. B. E. FERNOW, Dean, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Toronto,
Ont.
DR. GEORGE BRYCE, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man.
DR. WILLIAM J. RUTHERFORD, Member of Faculty, University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Sask.
DR. HENRY M. TORY, President, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.
MR. JOHN PEASE BABCOCK, Victoria, B.C.
Members ex-officio:
HON. MARTIN BURRELL, Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa.
HON. WILLIAM J. ROCHE, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa.
....Minister of Mines, Ottawa.
HON. AUBIN E. ARSENAULT, Premier, Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown
P.E.I.
HON. ORLANDO T. DANIELS, Attorney-General, Nova Scotia.
HON. E. A. SMITH, Minister of Lands and Mines, New Brunswick.
HON. JULES ALLARD, Minister of Lands and Forests, Quebec.
HON. G. H. FERGUSON, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, Ontario.
HON. A. B. HUDSON, Attorney-General, Manitoba.
HON. GEORGE W. BROWN, Regina, Saskatchewan.
HON. ARTHUR L. SIFTON, Premier, Minister of Railways and Telephones, Alberta.
HON. T. D. PATTULLO, Minister of Lands, British Columbia.
Assistant to Chairman, Deputy Head:
MR. JAMES WHITE.
1
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, VICTOR CHRISTIAN WILLIAM, DUKE OF DEVON-
SHIRE, MARQUIS OF HARTINGTON, EARL OF DEVONSHIRE, EARL OF
BURLINGTON, BARON CAVENDISH OF HARDWICKE, BARON CAVEN-
DISH OF KEIGHLEY, K.G., P.C., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., ETC., ETC.,
GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA.
May it please Your Excellency :
The undersigned has the honour to lay before Your Excellency a
report of a Conference on Urban and Rural Development in Canada,
held at Winnipeg, Man., on May 28–30, 1917, under the auspices of the
Civic Improvement League of Canada and the Commission of Conserva-
tion.
Respectfully submitted
CLIFFORD SIFTON
Chairman
Ottawa, Sept. 29, 1917
barch
2.44
OTTAWA, CANADA,
Sept. 28, 1917
1-2
norre
SIR:
I beg to transmit herewith a report of a Conference on Urban and Rural
Development, held at Winnipeg, Man., on May 28–30, 1917, under the
joint auspices of the Civic Improvement League of Canada and the Com-
mission of Conservation, associated with many local organizations working
in the interest of better housing and living conditions in Canada.
Cerinnen
Respectfully submitted
JAMES WHITE
Deputy Head and Assistant to Chairman
SIR CLIFFORD SIFTON, K.C.M.G.
Chairman
Commission of Conservation
nada.com
Introductory Note
A
peg on May 28–30, in conjunction with the second annual meeting of
the Civic Improvement League of Canada, and under the auspices of the
Civic Improvement League of Winnipeg and the Commission of Conserv-
ation of Canada, associated with the Citizens' Research League, Winnipeg
Board of Trade, Retail Merchants' Association, Rotary Club, Manitoba
Association of Architects, Winnipeg Printers' Board of Trade, Industrial
Bureau, and allied organizations of Winnipeg.
The annual meeting of the National Council of Women was held in
Winnipeg at the same time and co-operated in a joint session.
Through the courtesy of the Greater Winnipeg Waterworks Commission
a visit was made to the construction works on the new waterworks system
for Greater Winnipeg, which was much appreciated by the delegates.
Reports of the preliminary meeting, held on November 15, 1915,
and of the first annual meeting, held on January 20, 1916, have been pub-
lished by the Commission of Conservation. These, with the present re-
port, form a complete record of the formation and objects of the League
and give an outline of the aims and progress of civic improvement in
Canada.
1
Urban and Rural Development
in Canada
Report of Conference
HELD AT
Winnipeg, May 28-30, 1917
THE
HE first session of the Conference was called to order at 10.30 a.m.,
on Monday, May 28. Mr. G. W. Markle, president of the Winnipeg
Civic Improvement League, occupied the chair, and there were present
to welcome the delegates, His Honour Sir James A. M. Aikins, Lieutenant-
Governor of Manitoba; Hon. T. H. Johnson, Acting Premier of Manitoba,
and Controller Cockburn, Acting Mayor of Winnipeg.
Before officially opening the conference, the chairman called upon
Mr. James White, Deputy Head and Assistant to Chairman of the Com-
mission of Conservation, to make an announcement.
MR. JAMES WHITE: Your Honour, Mr. Chairman, ladies and
gentlemen, I have to transmit to you Sir Clifford Sifton's regrets that he
will not be able to be present at this meeting. In his absence he requests
me to read the following letter:
“It is with extreme regret that I find myself obliged to relinquish
the idea of being at the Winnipeg meeting. I only arrived home two days
ago, and there are matters pending which require my presence here during
the next week and which I am entirely unable to postpone or neglect.
I had hoped to be here some weeks earlier, but the serious exigencies of
ocean travel at the present time prevented it.
"I feel confident that civic improvement in Canada has been under-
taken under promising auspices. There is no doubt a spirit of social
awakening abroad and a civic consciousness which has up to recent times
been noticeably absent. We have always had public spirit in abundance,
but it has not always been wisely directed. The conviction that it is the
duty of the country to remove the blots and eye-sores and sources of dis-
ease and crime known as slums is of recent origin, but it is now without
doubt a deep and abiding conviction in the minds of our best citizens.
With it comes the belief that it is the duty of the country to so order its
affairs that there can be no recurrence of these evils, and that the average
worker, no matter in how humble a sphere, shall be assured of the possi-
bility of having a home at once healthful and stimulating to his higher
faculties.
:
2
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
"This, in my judgment, is the sum of the aim of town planning and
civic improvement. The elaboration of the superstructure will follow
without difficulty after the foundation is well laid.
“The city of Winnipeg has begun its work of municipal improvement
under great and almost unique difficulties. Its original plan of survey
forced upon it by the necessities of the case was almost the worst possible.
It had some few redeeming features but, speaking generally, the foundation
for the work was of a most unfavourable character. Nevertheless, the
progressive spirit of the people of Winnipeg has manifested itself, and those
who, like myself, have of late years only visited the city at considerable
intervals, have observed very great improvement from time to time.
"Departures have been made, I understand, which are new to the
municipal experience of Canadian cities. There is no reason why these
departures should not go much further, providing they all contribute
directly to making the life of the average citizen more healthful and happy.
The housing question is more imperative in its demand for attention in
the western city than anywhere else in Canada, and it would be an in-
spiring example for the remainder of the country if an attempt were made
to deal with it on broad and comprehensive lines. Winnipeg abounds in
wealthy, energetic and public-spirited citizens, and there is surely no
worthier subject for the employment of their energies than those civic
problems upon the solution of which the well-being of the country depends.
"Let it be well understood that town planning and civic improvement
is not a fad, looking to the extravagant expenditure of public money for
the gratification of the wealthy few. Rather is it a work for the econom-
izing of the civic resources and the employment of civic capital and credit
in works whose benefit will accrue most directly and most largely to those
who are most in need of it.
"I trust that you will have a successful and profitable meeting."
Mr. Thomas Adams intimated that he had received telegrams from
Sir John Willison and Mr. Geo. F. Benson (Montreal) expressing their
great regret at inability to attend the conference.
The Chairman then introduced His Honour Lieut-Gov. J. A. M.
Aikins.
SIR J. A. M. AIKINS: On behalf of Manitoba and the City of Winni-
peg, I most cordially welcome the members of this conference. Your
meeting in Winnipeg has a significance which extends beyond the objects
for which you are met, for it suggests one means by which we can draw
into closer relations the scattered peoples and provinces of Canada. The
people from the east will realize that there lies beyond an important west
which belongs to them, and those from the west that there are people of
the east whose friendship is worth having. We need such sentiment for,
in the consolidation of Canada, so necessary to national strength, we are
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
3
lacking in some of those bonds which create national solidarity, such as
common language, common race, common religion and geographical
þarriers to separate us from peoples under other sovereign jurisdictions.
For this, however, we may be truly thankful that the foundations of our
system of government, of our laws and institutions are built from stones
hewn out of the quarry of a splendid British past; British struggles for
liberty and British sacrifices have laid that foundation.
You are here to assist in building a superstructure suited to Canadian
conditions worthy of the foundation and the founders and this very purpose
will make also for greater unity. As I understand it, that purpose is,
first, to evolve the best thought and principles for urban and rural develop-
ment; second, to mould those thoughts and principles into a system easy
to be understood and applied by the people in all provinces; and, third, the
creation of such a strong public opinion that such system will be adopted
throughout Canada and so produce uniformity in method.
To illustrate: One of your purposes is to improve municipal govern-
ment. I use the word municipal in its broad sense. Improve it, not by
the imposition on the people of perfect machinery, to be operated by a
centralized few, but improve it in such a way that the people will take an
interest in it and realize that its success or failure rests upon that interest.
The people must be trained to self-government. In such training lies
the strength and safety of democracy. The only school in which the peo-
ple can get that fundamental training is in the management of municipal
affairs, which so closely concern their daily lives. Can you devise a scheme
which will be efficient and at the same time democratic, and have it adopted
throughout Canada?
We heartily welcome you, because this conference and the Civic
Improvement League, under the auspices of which you meet, are voluntary
organizations. All voluntary organizations having for their object the
public good give opportunity for the expansion of public spirit in
individuals; they keep the people interested in the people and are promot-
ers of democracy. They discourage machine rule and the hireling.
We need in civil life to listen to the words of Demosthenes, and in
recent times, of Salisbury, spoken in reference to war, “I will tell you how
to succeed. Cease to hire your soldiers, cease to fill your ranks with the
discards of creation. Go stand in the ranks yourselves, then, dying, you
shall die gloriously or, victorious, yours shall be such a victory as nothing
in the past can excel or rival."
So let us in civic life cease to hire men to do the work which represen-
tative citizens with public spirit should undertake, cease to vote into office
men who are lacking in character or capacity. Go stand in those ranks
yourselves; then, if you do not always win, you will have the satisfaction
of having done your duty, but if you are successful, we will have a civic
government unequalled by any heretofore.
4
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
What our 400,000 men, the pride of Canada, have done at Ypres and
Vimy Ridge, our unselfish men at home can strive to equal in the fight
for better things in urban and rural development in Canada.
THE CHAIRMAN: It is now my pleasure to introduce to you Hon.
Thomas H. Johnson, Acting Premier of Manitoba.
HON. T. H. JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: His
Honour has welcomed you properly and cordially on behalf of the province
of Manitoba, and it is scarcely fitting that I take up any considerable
portion of your time, but, in the absence of the Premier, there is a word or
two I would like to say.
There are a great many things to be done for the improvement of
not only our city governments but our provincial governments and our
national government, and your league is organized for that purpose. It
is a symptom of the changed conditions in our public affairs, and an ac-
knowledgment that it is improper, unjust, and unrighteous that our soldiers
should offer up their lives and everything that they have in the world
for our common country, while those who are entrusted with the govern-
ment of our country should be neglectful of the duties that devolve upon
them. There should be consecration to public service in the one as in
the other.
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you here. There are numberless
questions which we, as Canadians, need to study, in which we, as Canadians,
must improve. It is inconceivable that we should learn nothing from
these serious times through which we are passing. It is inconceivable that
we should let pass all these opportunities for public service and for learning
and improving our governments whether in city, province or in the nation.
I was struck with the saying of His Honour that the foundations
upon which we are building are British foundations. Nothing can be
dearer than that, but even if the foundations are wholly British, good
government, good citizenship and good planning, will, I am sure, not
prevent a monument or a statue being added here and there to the national
edifice, even if it is contributed by those who come here from other lands.
The people of Manitoba welcome your discussions, and the improve-
ment that will result from your work.
THE CHAIRMAN: You will all, undoubtedly, from time to time,
receive words of welcome from various citizens and it would be indeed
inappropriate, if you had not an opportunity of receiving a word of welcome
from our chief citizen. I have very much pleasure in introducing to you
Mr. Controller Cockburn, Acting Mayor.
CONTROLLER COCKBURN: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:
I regret exceedingly this morning the unavoidable absence of His Worship
the Mayor. I have had little opportunity of even making a very deep
study of the purpose of your convention here to-day but I wish to congratu-
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
5
late you on securing such able men to represent the Leagues of the Do-
minion on civic matters. A few years ago it would have been very diffi-
cult to get an assemblage like this together.
The city officials of Winnipeg are fully alive to civic improvement.
While I should not single out any one department, I cannot refrain from
mentioning the excellent work done by our Health Department. I do
not know what other cities have done in this connection, but I know the
many developments that have taken place in the Health Department in
Winnipeg in the past few years are very creditable to it.
A few years ago, we started a power plant on the Winnipeg river,
and we are giving the people a three-cent lighting rate and a one-cent
cooking rate. When I say that we have to-day something like $1,200,000
standing to the credit of depreciation and reserve, the figures will speak
for themselves. There is also a surplus of more than $200,000 over and
above that. Before the plant began operations we were paying 20 cents
a kilowatt-hour for lighting, so we had good reason to go into that business.
That but goes to show what can be accomplished in one branch of public
service.
We are pleased to have you come here with suggestions, so far as our
civic governments are concerned. We are glad to have them, because
we believe in this way many things may be developed which otherwise
would be neglected.
From the bottom of our hearts we welcome you to the city of Win-
nipeg.
THE CHAIRMAN: We shall now hear Dr. Robertson, C.M.G.,
representing the Dominion Civic Improvement League and the Commis-
sion of Conservation, who will reply to the addresses that you have just
listened to.
DR. ROBERTSON: Mr. Chairman, Your Honour, Mr. Minister, Mr.
Controller, ladies and gentlemen: We are happy in the welcome that has
been extended to us by His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, speaking
not merely for Manitoba but for all the West, which he is entitled to re-
present from his long public service and from that of his father before him.
And we are happy in having such earnest words of welcome from the re-
presentative of the Government of this province, who speaks of units of
value that go to make up our civilization and who have come to us from
other lands and other races and other nations. One of our promising
assets in Canada is made up of contributions of population from Europe,
providing a blend for the finest form of civilization that humanity has
yet experienced.
If we learn to value these at their best, if we learn to tolerate differ-
ences which may appear to us only as deficiencies because of our ignorance
and narrowness, if we learn to make the best uses of the contributions of
6
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
knowledge, of tradition, of energy, of skill and of public service, if we are
willing to use what these men from foreign nations bring to us, then we will
be stronger, happier, and greater than if we were entirely of British stock.
Then the Controller, speaking of the city of Winnipeg, could very
properly, I think, congratulate the city in having men of public spirit.
I know Winnipeg very well in many of its interests. I think of Winnipeg
as having as large a measure of unofficial service from its leading citizens
as any city that I know of on the whole continent and I do not speak
without knowledge. I could cite for you departments of civic activity
where men have contributed their best in thinking and in labouring for
the weal of this city to the immense advantage of the whole community.
The last time I was in this hall I spoke to the Manitoba School
Trustees' Association. I think that is one of the great bodies in Canada.
It is made up of school trustees—the men and women whom we charge
with official responsibility for the development of the capacity and charac-
ter of the people through managing the schools of this province. That
body met here to consider how it could help to bring about the very best
and highest forms of development for this province. This conference
is more immediately and directly concerned with the problems belonging
to the improvement of the physical setting of life. The development and
improvement of the physical setting of life cannot but react on the quality
of life itself.
I am glad to believe that this conference will have a place in the de-
velopment of Canada. All municipal official bodies need the support of
unofficial bodies to enable them to do their work in the very best way.
We must guard against being considered meddlers and critics. · We
must give the impression, because it is true, that we seek to arouse
public interest, to co-operate in forming public opinion, to guide public
activity, to help official bodies who administer our municipal affairs to
do their work better than they otherwise would be able to do.
If the opinion gets abroad that this body of volunteers is a body of
troublesome meddlers, who do nothing but criticize and find fault, that
will shear our head of its locks of strength; but, if we give the true impres-
sion that we are willing and anxious to do the work that the official bodies
cannot do, that we have a far vision—not the immediately practical
politics that are concerned with taxation only, but the far vision that
seeks to make the city, the town, the village, the country, the best possible
place on earth for homes, for homes for children, women and men-if we
get that opinion abroad, then our suggestions will be welcomed on all
hands.
I am very glad to hear that in many cases the municipal adminis-
trations have done good work, in assuring health to the people, so far as
public administration could effect that great quality, that great oppor-
tunity, of life. The meaning of being part of a Civic League is to help
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
7
in developing a place where people may be healthy, where life is reasonably
safe, and, after you have assured those two things, to get all the public
utilities to increase comfort, to add to convenience, and to enable you to
pursue happiness. It is a large and worthy undertaking which has to do
with your health, your safety, your convenience, your comfort, and your
chances for happiness.
There are some men who are happy in rendering public service,
whose services cannot be paid for in money, who are not available for
salaries. They are like the women I saw in a munitions plant in Paris,
whose devotion you could see in their way of working, from their eyes to
their finger tips, and of whom the superintendent said “They do not work
for wages, but they labour for France". We do not want to work merely
for salaries but we want to labour for Canada. In making this a labour of
love, it will be a fine reward when the time comes for us to pass on our
civic and our rural inheritance, not merely undiminished and unimpaired,
but enriched and improved because it was in our hands as trustees for
the brief span of our lives.
In helping to bring about that as the fruit of this conference, I am sure
we each will get more than satisfaction for the time and labour we give.
May I say further that, after you have obtained information contributed
at this conference by addresses and by discussion, each man should seek
to interpret the spirit and meaning of the information as it may be appli-
cable to the conditions of his own municipality. Let each be an inter-
preter and missionary in his own community.
We in Canada have plenty of units of ability, we have good things
everywhere. We have some houses in Canada, some homes as good as
any in any part of the world. We have some men of great natural abilities,
whose abilities have been improved by training--perhaps the equals of
men in any other part of the world; but we are in many respects an ag-
gregation of units without the integration of organization to help each
other and to help the community as much as we could and should. That
is where we are far behind some of the older civilizations of the world.
We need to organize ourselves further for common action for the common
weal. If every man will go from this convention as an interpreter of
that, he will become a real trustee and grow in real ability to cause people
to do what he wants. He will serve through his unofficial supervision.
By that I mean the super-vision, the upper vision, that sees from the moun-
tain tops. Everybody that labours in the valley is helped by the man who
proclaims his vision from the higher level. Thus shall our land become a
land of happy, safe, wholesome homes, with municipalities developing the
best possible setting for lives, and we ourselves will pass on to our succes-
sors this great inheritance enriched and improved by the developments
carried on while it was in our keeping.
8
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Municipal Problems of the Western Provinces
BY
HON. W. J. ARMSTRONG
Municipal Commissioner of Manitoba
THE subject assigned to me is so broad that I cannot be expected to
>
deal with every phase of it, and I shall therefore take up only its
application to rural districts.
The Canadian municipality is the civic unit into which the provinces
are sub-divided and, in common with the provincial and Dominion re-
presentative bodies, enjoys the legislative, executive and administrative
authority, and performs an important part in determining the character
of our national life.
While the municipality is a creation of the provincial government,
and its authority may be limited by that body at will, there is a fixed,
unwritten understanding that the municipality shall be given, as its sphere
of action, control of all matters of such a local nature that they can be
successfully dealt with by its own organization. It is essentially the peo-
ple's government; in its modern form it was born with democracy, and its
authority has been extended with the enlargement of the privileges of
the people to participate more and more in matters of government.
We recognize two phases of municipal authority.
Municipal
In one, it acts independently, enacting and admin-
Authority
istering its own by-laws, guided only by the dictates
of its own judgment, and fully managing a large portion of its receipts
and expenditures, amounting in the Prairie Provinces to $27,000,000
annually, while the expenditure by the provincial governments of these
provinces is little more than half that sum. In the other, the
municipality is dependent on a department of the provincial govern-
ment in a large and growing number of questions in which the control and
supervision is retained by the department, while the council is given juris-
diction in the local administration of the Act.
This delegation of executive and administrative authority to the muni-
cipality is a most satisfactory way of suiting legislation to the varied con-
ditions that exist in any province, and provides a happy solution of many
vexed questions, that are viewed from as many different angles. A large
field is covered by this class of provincial statutes, which includes laws on
education, public improvements, public health, social welfare, those re-
lating to hospitals, administration of justice, town planning and hotel
accommodation, and public utilities.
It is only when we contemplate the great range of subjects covered
by municipal administration, all of which intimately touch the home life
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
9
of the people, and require to be moulded to meet successfully the diversi-
fied conditions that exist in the western provinces, that we fully realize
to what extent the physical, moral and intellectual well-being of our
populations, especially in the rural districts, depends upon the character
of the government these organizations are able to provide.
Every one of these subjects presents its own problems. We meet
them in their normal form in the well populated areas of the west, and
we meet them in their abnormal and purely western shape in the districts
that are not yet well enough settled to admit of efficient management by
ordinary municipal machinery.
The former districts offer examples of efficient and up-to-date ad-
ministration. Fired with youthful enterprise and ambition, they adopt
the latest methods of procedure and take advantage of every opportunity
to improve conditions in every department. They readily receive sug-
gestions from eminent authorities on municipal matters who meet them
at annual conventions, and from other available sources, and keep the laws
up-to-date. Care is exercised in placing well qualified officials in charge
of the executive portion of the work, and their administration compares
favourably with that of the most advanced rural municipalities in the older
provinces of Canada.
In the latter class, a different situation is met with. Here the lack
of continuity of settlement interferes with the efficient work of the machin-
ery. With true western spirit, these new municipalities are bravely,
and with a degree of success, dealing with their local problems, which hap-
pily, however, grow less and less as population increases.
Unoccupied Lands
Over a large part of the Prairie Provinces, much un-
Held by
occupied and nonproducing good land is interspersed
Speculators
in the settled districts. It is not unoccupied because
it is not fit for settlement, but because its productive possibilities have
made it a most attractive field for investment. The settlement of these
vacant lands is the greatest material blessing that could be bestowed
upon Canada, and Western Canada in particular.
Populate these lands and every institution of government will, in
large measure, become effective. The full benefit of our elementary edu-
cational system will reach every home. The Board of Health will be able
to extend its assistance and instruction on sanitation to every locality.
Hospital treatment and the service of trained nurses will be available
wherever required. An opportunity to develop the higher faculties of the
mind will be afforded through an elevating community life. Good roads
and easy transportation for farm produce will be easily obtained. No
district will be without modern telephone communication and hydro-
electric energy will be available for the rural districts.
10
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Already the minds of all loyal citizens are en-
Adjustment
deavouring to shape a modus operandi that will
After the War
reduce to a minimum the unbalanced state of
things that, economically speaking, must follow the disbanding of large
armies of soldiers, and the setting free of as many more munition workers.
To pass from the high-strung equilibrium of all the forces at the nations
disposal, attained as a result of these years of earnest application, to a
balanced condition of society will be an enormous task. The transition,
however, must be made, and the preparation for and the execution of the
work requires the active co-operation of all governments, municipal and
otherwise.
Whatever character the adjustment may assume, the expansion of
agriculture will enter in as a large factor. In Canada, the replacement of
the losses sustained by the war must come from this industry as our prin-
cipal source of wealth. The unoccupied territory already referred to
offers almost unlimited opportunities for disbanded soldiers to step into
productive employment at once. This is not so of other industries.
Settlement of the land increases the consuming population and widens
the market for manufactured goods. The first economic effect, therefore,
will be a balance between supply and demand in foodstuffs, a most desir-
able condition to create. A second effect will be seen in the increased
activity on the part of manufacturing industries to meet the increased
demand of the larger consuming population.
Since our market for manufactured goods is confined
Agricultural
Expansion
to our own country, whilst that for farm products
Necessary
is world wide, it is self-evident that agricultural
expansion must precede the establishment of other industries. I mention
this for the reason that some enthusiastic advocates of 'after-the-war
settlement sincerely, no doubt, advise the establishment of new
manufacturing industries as a supreme remedy. It is to the develop-
ment of agriculture, however, that most energy must primarily be directed.
The solution of this problem is a work of some magnitude, and will
require a carefully arranged co-operative scheme on the part of all interest-
ed and responsible bodies. A completed plan includes:
(1) Procuring the lands available for settlement
(2) Preparation of the districts for settlement
(3) Selection, classification and location of settlers
(4) The extension of municipal administration to the districts.
The lands available have the phenomenal production characteristics
of the middle west and many of them are already supplied with railway
accommodation. Some are owned by railway and land corporations
and some by private individuals, and they are all for sale. To make a
sufficiently large area permanently available, on advantageous terms, to
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
11
intending settlers, it will be necessary, as a part of an organized plan,
to renationalize them as far as practicable. This would require radical
measures on the part of our highest authority. I have, however, reason
to believe that, without any variation of trade customs, sufficient of these
lands can, on terms embodying settlement duties, be made available for
occupation to carry out successfully a comprehensive plan of western
settlement and development.
Homesteading
It is not suggested that the policy of inviting immi-
Should be
grants to settle on the homestead lands still available
Continued
should be abandoned, but that it be enlarged to
include an invitation to the intending settler to occupy, on reason-
able terms, the vacant land along the railways and in the other dis-
tricts, much of which is already partially occupied. We must be prepared,
however, to deal with the homesteaders who are lured by the offer of free
land to go beyond settlement, beyond railway accommodation and beyond
all community comforts, and wait for a longer or shorter period for the
conveniences municipal organization will eventually furnish. If such
persons were permit ted to exchange their unpatented homesteads for land
which enjoys all the advantages of a settled community, receiving credit
for the settlement duties already performed, I have no doubt many would
be diverted from what is often, for several years, a life of comparative
uselessness to themselves, their families and their country, to one of
immediate prosperity, contentment and useful citizenship.
When the best located lands are all occupied, railway extension,
civic improvements and colonization could profitably travel hand in hand
to the adjoining new territory, each contributing its part in converting it
into a productive and organized community.
It is no longer considered sufficient, in order to
Assistance
to Settlers
secure a desirable citizen, to accept his homestead
" entry only. Some preparation of the district is
surely desirable, and reasonable municipal conveniences should be pro-
vided on his arrival. This field may be considered beyond the juris-
diction of a town-planning body, but I would point out that there is here
an important work not yet assigned to any authority. While it is certain-
ly true that the greater productive capacity of our grain-growing districts
has generally soon changed a pioneer settlement of homesteaders into a
community of well-to-do farmers, preparation for their arrival and wise
direction in locating them would eliminate some of the early inconveni-
ences of the pioneer.
Our policy of colonization will not be complete until a measure of
care is exercised in classifying those who come to these provinces as their
adopted country. Sound and sympathetic advice will very materially
assist prospective settlers in selecting proper locations. Failure to succeed
12
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
in the west cannot, in justice, be ascribed to the country, and with a
moderate degree of community preparation and unprejudiced direction,
the number of settlers who fail will be reduced to a negligible quantity.
The elimination of the pioneer feature of settlement after this manner
is, perhaps, too utopian, and embodies too great a departure from the lines
of policy pursued in the past to hope for its full adoption at once. And
yet the problem will not brook delay. A large population will be seeking
residence. The most productive soil in large quantities on the globe in-
vites occupation and tillage and all public bodies recognize the problem.
The solution, therefore, depends upon a sympathetic and active co-
operation of all those in authority, and, if they receive the assistance of
such capable societies as those represented at this convention, a full
measure of the several practical benefits indicated may confidently be
predicted.
DISCUSSION
MR. J. N. BAYNE: Mr. Armstrong has mentioned a large number
of the problems which confront our municipal institutions. Perhaps
the one nearest our hearts at the present time is that of the returned soldier.
Some time within the next few years we will have returning to our shores
thousands of young men, most of them seeing life from a new view point.
Many will not wish to continue in the occupations they left, and our
municipalities will be forced to consider the problem of their employment.
It has been suggested that we should settle them on our farms.
That is, no doubt, a splendid plan; we hope that it may be worked out,
but when we think of their lives at the front, some of us cannot help but
doubt whether the isolation of the homesteader and the seclusion on our
prairies, will be altogether welcome to the returned soldier. It is quite
possible he may wish to live in our centres of population where he will
have that companionship to which he has been accustomed at the front.
It will be not only the Canadian soldiers who will come to us. After
a great war in any country there is an inclination on the part of the resi-
dents of that country to emigrate. This was true in the case of the Boer
war. Sir Rider Haggard stated not long ago that the majority of the
soldiers engaged in that war emigrated, but the British colonies, unfor-
tunately, did not get the benefit of the emigration, the great proportion
going to countries which were not British. Let me repeat then, that I
think one of our problems will be to make our municipal institutions at-
tractive to the soldier, whether he comes originally from Canada or from
some other portion of the British Empire.
In Saskatchewan, throughout our rural areas, we
Taxing
Speculation
have a particular tax which appeals to the settler.
It does not appeal to the speculator. I refer to
the surtax, a tax of 614 cents per acre on uncultivated land. The
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
13
1
object of the surtax is to discourage speculation and to encourage
settlement and production. No matter what may be said against it,
this can be said for it: that no man who cultivates his land will have a
cent of surtax to pay. It thus discourages speculation. Too long has the
speculator taken advantage of the settlement labours of the pioneer and
the homesteader.
Another difficulty which I might mention is the
Assessment
question of arriving at a proper assessment valu-
Valuations
ation. It is not a question which affects our rural
municipalities so much. There the assessment is based on the actual
value of the land and the land bears all the taxes, but in cities, towns and
villages the fixing of a proper assessment valuation is undoubtedly a
problem. Anyone who has been engaged in municipal work generally,
finds himself confronted with this at every turn, and, let me say, that one
great reason why these difficulties in valuation now arise is that so many
of our urban centres lacked a proper town-planning system in the early
stages of their development. Town planning will not do away with the
difficulties which confront the assessor, but it will undoubtedly minimize
them. To a board of appeal, a man who owns a house near the centre of
the city says: “I am living in this house, it has been my home for some
years, and my taxes are so high that they amount to more than a good
rental.” The house is within a few hundred yards, perhaps, of a business
portion of the city, and it has all the advantages, if advantages they may
be called, of being near the centre of the city. His property is semi-
business property, and naturally, if he persists in residing in such a district,
his taxes will be high.
Then the subdivision problem is a worry to the
The Sub-division
municipal institutions surrounding Winnipeg, as
Problem
well as elsewhere in the west. You are all
acquainted with the conditions that existed in 1910, 1911 and 1912-
a land boom that inflated values.
The boom prices of some lands were, let us say, from $200 to $500
an acre. At what are they to be assessed now? Naturally the owner
objects to assessment at the old valuation. The assessment is reduced
perhaps one-third. “No”; the owner says, "one-third is not enough.
This is really acreage property". Some will go so far as to say it is farm
property. It is hard to call lots and blocks farm property. The survey
stakes are there and the streets are laid out. The Saskatchewan ordinance
provides that the survey shall be on the lot and block system. Some
companies owning these subdivisions meet an assessor with the statement,
"We have reduced the prices of our lots in a certain town.” Just before
coming here I received a letter like this: "In the matter of the assessment
we beg to say that we have been advised by the agents that they have cut
14
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
the price of their lots within the municipality in half. Consequently,
in fairness to the people within the village, it will be necessary to lower
their assessment accordingly. This would mean that our assessment
would be so low that the rate would have to be increased to such an ex-
tent that it would be almost impossible for the business men in the muni-
cipality to continue their respective businesses. When our debentures
were sold they were based on the assessment at that date and we wish
you to advise us whether or not we can legally assess the said company
at the old assessment.” Now an effort to get away from taxation like
that does not meet with very much encouragement on the part of the
department with which I am connected, so I sent the following response:
"The reducing by 50 per cent of the price of certain lands held by a com-
pany in your municipality does not necessarily fix the coming assessment
value in harmony with the reduction. It is not uncommon to have assess-
ed parties reduce the price of the land to ridiculously low figures when they
are of the opinion that there is no likelihood of anyone purchasing at such a
figure. The sacrifice price is not always the value of the land concerned.
I therefore suggest that you assess the property of the company concerned
at what you think is a correct valuation."
Another problem which prairie municipalities have to deal with is
the lack of developed power. We have fields of lignite coal in Southern
Saskatchewan the possibilities of which are unknown, but we know that
they are ample. We have water powers which, when developed, will be
capable of, I believe, reducing the cost of living materially to not only
the residents of our cities and towns, but also of our rural communities
A few of our urban centres established public utilities
Over-borrowing of
Municipalities
which, perhaps, were a little in advance of their
time, failing to foresee the curtailment of develop-
ment as a result of the war. Most of our 680 municipalities, includ-
ing the seven cities, did not over-reach themselves financially in
the 'good old boom days, but a few towns and villages did, generally
through the establishment of waterworks systems where population was
too small to bear the expense. Do not let me convey a wrong impression.
Our rural municipalities are flourishing financially, many of them having
handsome cash surpluses. Our villages are also prosperous and none of
the cities are in difficulties due to over-borrowing. A few of our towns,
however, only three to be exact-are financially embarrassed, largely
through borrowing for waterworks, desirable as these may be.
Another problem which confronts municipal institu-
Problems of
tions of cities and towns is that of the incidence of
Taxation
taxation. In our Prairie Provinces we have large
numbers who are or were firm advocates of the single tax, and while
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
15
perhaps a few have changed their minds, yet a good many still believe
in the principles propounded by Henry George.
However, it may be safe to say that the single tax is more popular
in good times than when real estate is not in demand.
There is a desire on the part of many residents of cities in Saskatche-
wan to have a general survey taken of taxation matters, and many citizens
are also in favour of an income tax. They argue that men come into our
cities with money to invest in mortgages, stocks and bonds and the like,
and
pay little or no taxes on the revenues they derive. It is not unreason-
able, they contend, to expect that those so placed should help to bear the
burden of the upkeep of the city or town.
I have endeavoured to deal with problems that I hope will be elaborat-
ed on by other speakers. While these subjects lend themselves to a cer-
tain amount of pessimism, yet none of the difficulties which confront our
municipal institutions in the west are insurmountable. They can all be
met.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
A DELEGATE (Municipality of Richot): I would like to ask the last
speaker how the surtax he spoke of is collected, and whether it is imposed
by by-law or act of parliament?
MR. BAYNE: It is a tax provided for by provincial statute, is payable
entirely to the municipalities and is not optional with the rural munici-
palities. It is put on like any other assessment and collected with ordinary
municipal taxes. No portion of it goes to the Provincial Government.
MR. THOMAS ADAMS: Is there any practical means of stopping
homesteading on new land, and would that be desirable with a view to
the settlement of land which is undeveloped in organised territory; that is,
to stop for a time the development of new areas in the interest of filling
up the land which is already surveyed and is unoccupied near the railway?
HON. MR. ARMSTRONG: I do not know that there could be any
objection to the proposal but, offhand, I may say that I have my doubts
as to its necessity. The settler will get as near the railway as possible,
and first come is first served. Then, although the Federal Government
should discourage settlement back from the frontiers of our provinces at
present, I doubt whether it would hasten further development near the
railway, as the latter is progressing as rapidly as might be expected at
the present time.
MRS. ADAM SHORTT: I would like to ask Mr. Bayne, if the surtax
has been in force long enough to produce the results expected of it?
MR. BAYNE: Yes. It has been in existence now during 1914, 1915
and 1916. It would have been still more effective had emigration not
16
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
been practically cut off as a result of the war; but I think that we can
rightly say that its benefits are real.
DR. ROBERTSON: Why is the surtax so small, 674c. per acre, $10
per quarter section, or $40 per section ?
MR. BAYNE: That is held to be a pretty fair tax, in addition to the
municipal and school taxes which are levied.
DR. ROBERTSON: What is the average market value of the land
unoccupied within five miles of the station ?
MR. BAYNE: Possibly $15, $20, $25 an acre.
DR. ROBERTSON: So that is a six cent tax on land worth $15 that is
being kept out of public use?
MR. BAYNE: Yes, it is, but while some think it is small and might
be increased, our municipal bodies think it is fairly equitable and there
seems to be no desire to make it greater.
DR. ROBERTSON: How much did the State get an acre for that land
when it was alienated from the Crown?
MR. BAYNE: I think some areas were bought for less than $10 an
acre from the government. I think that some of those areas are largely
Dominion lands. When I say from the government, let me qualify my
statement; probably it was from land companies or railway companies,
that is to say, land which was gotten originally from the government.
That is one commendable thing in connection with the surtax. The land
is the nation's birthright, and those who have the privilege of enjoying
it in large quantities must naturally help in the upkeep of the state.
A DELEGATE: Might I ask the speaker whether a graded surtax.
which would take into account the distance from the railway and the
suitability for the settlement of the land, would not be more fair, and did
not Alberta make some provision in that way.
MR. BAYNE: Possibly; the graded surtax has been suggested.
I doubt very much if it is graded in the Wild Land Tax in Alberta, which
is almost the same as our surtax. I think it is a flat rate regardless of
value. I understand that in the state of Oklahoma an attempt was made
at a graduated surtax, but, if my memory serves me right, it was abandoned.
MR. G. FRANK BEER (Toronto): I am not a single taxer, but I con-
sider that no system of taxation can be equitable which does not take into
account community values and community expenditures; and I think an
important thing for a conference like ours is to realize and spread the truth
as we see it in regard to matters of that kind. Land values, as a result of
community life and community expenditure, ultimately benefit only the
capitalist class, and the whole burden is borne by the wage-earner. I
I.
think we realize things like that and give due credit to our single tax
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
17
friends for a large measure of truth in the reforms they advocate. I
believe the support of a body like this would be of great benefit to them.
MR. FINCH: Is a man who owns a section, of which he cultivates only
a quarter, liable to the surtax on the remaining three-quarters ?
MR. BAYNE: Yes, under conditions like that there must be culti-
vated a certain portion of the total area held. If a man holds two or
three square miles of land, and cultivates only a small part of it, he is not
exempt from the surtax, but if he cultivates most of it or cultivates half of
it, he is exempt.
MRS. ADAM SHORTT: What about pasture; would there not be some
land exempt for pasture?
MR. BAYNE: Yes; pasture land or land in growing crops is all exempt
from the surtax.
COMMISSIONER C. J. YORATH (Saskatoon): Has the Provincial
Government in Saskatchewan imposed the surtax where the farmer is on
active service? I ask that question because a particular case came to
my notice in Alberta where the Wild Land Tax is imposed on land the
owner of which is at the front.
MR. BAYNE: The man who is on active service has his residence
on the land counted just the same as if he were there. His presence at
the front or in the fighting forces has the same effect in exempting him from
taxation as it would were he living on the land, and there is the same
principle, I believe, in homestead residence qualifications throughout our
Prairie Provinces generally. In Saskatchewan the soldier who has left
his home for the front does not have to pay taxes on his farm.
MR. W. F. BURDITT (St. John): I would like to inquire what effect
the surtax has had in throwing the land held by railways and other large
companies into settlement. It seems to me that the tax is not sufficient
to have an effect in that direction.
MR. BAYNE: The companies holding lands in these areas, I assure
you, think it is more than sufficient, and those who hold large tracts of
land are undoubtedly trying to sell their property as a result of the surtax.
MR. N. T. MCMILLAN (Winnipeg): There have been some important
questions touched on with regard to the settlement of our lands, and
mention has been made of methods adopted in Saskatchewan to bring
these lands into cultivation. One of the first things our Government
should do is to tell us more about this vacant land. We all speak of
vacant lands, unoccupied lands, to-day in our province, but only in a
general way. The first duty of the government to-day is to use the machin-
ery at its disposal to take an inventory of the vacant lands. Let us know
the character of the lands, the facilities in the district-schools, churches,
water, fuel and all other conveniences entering into farming life that can
18
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
A
an acre.
be ascertained by municipalities through their assessors and tax collectors,
and also by the land titles offices.
An inventory would be of great benefit to every person in the province,
to the loan companies, and to anyone who wanted to pledge a piece of
land.
The question of assessment has been touched on. I can cite cases
in Manitoba where land worth $40 an acre is assessed at $3, and in the city,
where values are higher, it is assessed at full value. There should be
government supervision of assessors in all provinces. It would be beneficial
to everybody to know the value of property. I have property not 25
miles from this city assessed at $3 an acre which I would not sell at $40
You can see how that is reacting on the province.
When the war started everybody said we should contribute to the
wives and dependents of our soldiers at the front through the Patriotic
Fund, and so we should, and contribute to the last dollar if necessary,
but it should be done equitably. In Winnipeg, the fund began as a volun-
tary contribution. After that it was suggested to the municipal authori-
ties and to our Government to put a patriotic tax on the land; conse-
quently, a mill and a half was imposed on the land in Manitoba. At the
last session it was increased to 2 mills on the dollar. After the necessary
amount was all secured by taxes on the land, the voluntary contributors
were advised that they did not need to contribute any further. How is
that working out? It means that the man who has his investments in
land is contributing it all. I venture to say that 25 per cent of the soldiers
who left Manitoba owned their own homes and lands and will be paying
their own patriotic tax when they return from the war.
The only way assessment values can be equalized is to have regular
tions governing all our assessors in all municipalities, and have a depart-
ment to supervise and to bring our assessments up to full value all over
the province.
HON. J. W. ARMSTRONG: There is one question about which no
doubt exists, that is the desirability of settling our vacant land. The
western provinces recognized this desirability and placed a surtax on the
land. While that may be beneficial to some extent, it does not get at the
root of the matter. The last speaker made a valuable suggestion when he
said the first thing is to obtain full particulars of all these vacant lands.
The field notes of the early surveyors will contribute in that direction,
but even then we have only gone part way. It would hardly be fair to
impart information and, in some way or other, induce partial settlement
of a certain tract of land, and then have the owners of the remainder
increase prices to the settler.
I do not think vested interests should be sacrificed in any way, and,
when the information is obtained, I think it ought to be placed in the hands
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
19
of some organization that will, in a systematic way, take up the matter
and deal out the lands to the settler. Let us have that before you crowd
the men out. I have not gone into the question thoroughly, but I have
in mind one idea that might be a basis for some fair arrangement; that is,
to permit the homesteader to take up a homestead, after which the govern-
ment would buy it back from him and give in exchange some inside land
(which, of course, would be worth more) and allow him to complete his
duties on that. If the matter was made a public question and those in
authority took hold of it, a very satisfactory solution could be found for
the west.
An informal luncheon session was held in the Fort Garry hotel, under
the presidency of Dr. J. W. Robertson. Dr. Robertson introduced the
discussion on the subject of the problem of the returned soldiers, and drew
attention to the importance of vocational education and the urgent need
of further extending the good work which was already being done in this
direction. Lady Aberdeen and other speakers took part in the discussion.
AFTERNOON SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 28
At the afternoon session the chair was taken by Mr. R. D. Waugh,
Chairman of the Greater Winnipeg Waterworks Commission, and ex-
Mayor of Winnipeg.
MR. WAUGH: I am glad the Winnipeg Civic Improvement League
has brought about this conference and that the Dominion Commission of
Conservation has joined in this meeting. There is no doubt that what is
lacking in the people of this country, so far as municipal matters are
concerned, is a real interest in their own affairs. We have had that ex-
perience in Winnipeg. We have had occasions where very large expendi-
tures have been authorized by a very small vote of the people. In
elections every year a comparatively few people take any interest in the
affairs of the city; comparatively few of them vote at the election. You
would not do that with your own business. You would not do it with any
corporation that you are interested in, outside of the city corporation,
and I am therefore glad that the Citizens Research League of Winnipeg
and the Civic Improvement League of Winnipeg have come into existence,
if for nothing else than to try and stimulate the interest of the people of
Winnipeg in their business affairs.
Having been in the City Council for quite a while I can say that it
welcomes the Research League's inquiries into the city's affairs. The
League needs the cordial, active and informed co-operation of the citizens,
no matter what their walk in life. It is not only the business of the
councillors, it is everybody's business, to look after the affairs of the city,
1
20
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
and we are always glad to have the advice and assistance of the citizens;
but that advice and assistance should come from men who have given
some study to civic questions and who come with a spirit of co-operation
and not of mere fault-finding.
I have pleasure in introducing Dr. Brittain, of the Toronto Bureau
of Municipal Research, and Commissioner Yorath, of Saskatoon. They
are going to talk on two subjects that should be of interest to us all,
namely, municipal finance and municipal administration.
In regard to municipal finance, there are some people who think that
the bottom of the municipal chest is a very long way from the top, but that
is not the fact. Every municipality has its financial limitations, just the
same as an individual has. One would think in good times that all the
citizens wanted to do was to spend money. I can remember, in the palmy
days in Winnipeg, that every delegation to the City Hall used to come to
ask us to spend money. I cannot remember any delegation that did not.
We have been doing some joy-riding and we have got to get back to earth,
and I am glad that we have a man like Dr. Brittain to speak to us this
afternoon to tell us how to do it.
Municipal Finance and Administration
BY
DR. H. L. BRITTAIN
Director, Bureau of Municipal Research, Toronto
INFOLE
NFORMATION is the foundation stone of administration. Views on
municipal government are even more in a state of flux than those on
the government of states. In national government we have long accepted
democratic ideals and have worked out more or less successfully methods
of popular control. In municipal government, which comes into much
closer and more conscious touch with the individual citizen, the democratic
or non-democratic nature of governmental procedure has rarely been
raised. Methods of popular control through some form of responsible
government have been developed but crudely, and numbers of intelligent
but impatient people have been willing to throw overboard the notion of
democratic local government and accept frankly some form of benevolent
despotism. Many others have thought by some governmental device to
exorcise the forces working for inefficiency and the exploitation of the pub
lic, as if good government could be attained by some method of leger-
demain. The cure for the failure of democracy is more democracy,
through the development of new means to meet the new conditions.
A city administration in reality consists of three parts: (1) The
electors and taxpayers, (2) the city legislature, and (3) the heads of
executive departments.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
21
Lack of
Taxpayers may have a legislative function in passing on money by-
laws; city councils and their committees may, legally or illegally, exercise
certain executive functions, but the voters, the legislature and the city
executive heads constitute the municipal body politic, and exercise, or
should exercise, distinct functions of government.
My experience is that the chief factor at present
Information
operating against the efficient exercise of these
functions is the lack of the right information
at the right time. Insufficient information, misinformation, undigested
information, and information so presented as to be meaningless to the one
using it, are fertile causes of inaction, incomplete action, or mistaken
action on the part of all factors in the civic government.
This statement cannot function'to use a much overworked but
expressive word—until it is analyzed and defined. The right kind of
information depends entirely on who is to use it and for what purposes
it is to be used.
The elector needs information to enable him effectively to elect
representatives, pass on money by-laws, and determine large community
policies.
His chief function is to elect legislative representatives, and thus
he needs to know the public record of all council members and the position
of all candidates on public questions. The only way to get the complete
and actual facts is by organizing what might be called a voters' league and
employing a permanent secretary for the purpose, whose sole duty
would be to encourage intelligent voting. It is dangerous to wait until
election day to begin to discharge one's duty as a voter. The first duty is
to select candidates for whom one can vote conscientiously.
Public Policies
Municipal elections should turn mainly on public
Should Govern policies rather than on personalities; a knowledge of
Municipal Elections
current city expenditures and the services render-
ed therefor is essential. Such information should compare year with
year and, when possible, city with city. The preparation of it as dealing
with the city itself is primarily the duty of the heads of executive depart-
ments, and its publication, in easily understood form, is one of the greatest
duties of the city council. In practice, however, this information is rarely
made available to the average city electorate.
May I raise these questions for the consideration of the individual
members of this conference:
1. When is the city treasurer's annual report issued ?
2. Does this report have a summary of its main facts ?
3. Is it indexed ?
4. Is it simply a statement of cash receipts and payments, or does it
22
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
contain a statement of the actual cost of running the city for the year?
5. Does it distinguish between capital and current receipts and pay-
ments ?
6. Does it contain a complete balance sheet distinguishing between
capital assets and liabilities, trust fund assets and liabilities, and current
assets and liabilities?
7. Are all financial summaries on a comparative basis, year with year?
8. Is the treasurer's annual report for one year issued after or before
the adoption of the estimates for the next year? If after, are its main
facts available before the adoption of the estimates ?
9. Have you ever studied the treasurer's report?
10. If so, did you understand it?
11. In your judgment, did the members of the city council study
it and understand it before the adoption of the budget ?
12. When does your city begin to prepare its annual budget ?
13. When are the tentative estimates ready ?
14. Are these a feature in the municipal elections ?
15. Do they contain an estimated balance sheet and operating
account for the year just closing or closed ?
16. In what ways in your city could the salient features of every
financial document, which is or should be issued for the use of citizens and
council, be made more available and more understandable to the layman?
These questions every citizen should be able to answer satisfactorily,
at least to himself. Experience has shown, however, that the individual
citizen can neither secure for himself the financial information necessary
for the intelligent election of representatives, nor insure that the city
authorities shall supply such information, in clear and unbiassed form
and with adequate promptness. The pooling of individual resources is
the only way to insure the establishment and continuity of adequate
municipal reporting. The league or bureau of municipal research or
public service can best perform the functions of supplying unbiassed
statements of facts and the publication of satisfactory public reports.
The second great function of the taxpayer is the
Passing of
Money By-laws
passing of money by-laws. For this he must
have at least the following information: The
present capital balance sheet of the city, an intelligible estimate of the
amount and cost of the work to be done, and a statement of how the funds
are to be obtained and when and how repaid. Here again the first duty
of supplying information rests with council; but the citizens themselves,
if they are to insure the continuance of unbiassed, prompt and adequate
information, must support their own privately supported and controlled
committee.
The third function of the citizen is to decide on proposed general ad-
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
23
ministrative changes. To do this he must know how the present system
works, what provisions have been advanced to remedy existing defects,
and how these provisions have worked elsewhere. For this he must de-
pend largely on his own initiative. Two citizen agencies have been devised
which have been of great assistance in this field, namely, the bureau or
league of research, and the city club. The first to impersonally study
and publish the facts, the other to conduct an open forum for untram-
melled public discussion.
The second element in a city's government is the legislative body,
the city council, with its various committees, and the mayor. Its main
functions are:
1. To pass by-laws for the guidance of permanent officials in carry-
ing out policies determined on.
2. To decide on general departmental organization
3. To select heads for the various administrative departments
4. To control current expenditures through detailed reports from
permanent department heads
5. To control capital expenditures through detailed reports from
permanent department heads.
To perform these functions, members of council need all the informa-
tion outlined above, but in more detailed form. They need, in addition,
special reports from temporary special committees of council, special re-
ports from department heads, monthly operating accounts, monthly
appropriation accounts, monthly fund statements, quarterly comparative
balance sheets, monthly and quarterly progress reports, and detailed
departmental estimates as a basis for the tentative budget.
The following questions suggest themselves here:
1. How much of this information is available in your city?
2. Is it presented in form which councillors can understand ?
3. Is the information actually used as a basis for action ?
There then remains that department of govern-
Importance of
Permanent Officials
ment which insures the necessary continuity of com-
munity policy and devlopment, namely, the executive
department, made up of permanent administrative heads, the backbone
of every municipal government in Canada. The future of municipal
government depends largely on the development, on the part of democracy,
of the ability to use men of special training and attainments to perform
special work, and the establishment of ways and means by which such
officials can be effectively controlled, without so curtailing their initiative
and independence of action as to destroy, more or less completely, the value
of their services. Democracy does not consist in the practise of the belief
that one manſis as good as another for'any job, but in the practise of the
faith that every man owes a duty to society and that he should be placed
where he can render the most valuable service.
24
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Civic department heads have among others the following functions:
1. To prepare annual work programmes with estimated costs
2. To carry out the work programmes decided on by council within
the appropriations allowed by council
3. To purchase supplies and materials
4. To let contracts
5. To appoint subordinates
6. To avoid duplication of work among departments or the undoing
of the work of one department by another.
All these functions demand certain definite information and, as in
the case of citizens and councillors, the greatest mistakes in the work of
permanent officials are always due to insufficient, inaccurate or delayed
information.
Two departments tear up the same streets at an interval of two weeks
or so, or purchase coal at different prices or of unequal grades, because of
the absence of the proper information or of the co-operative machinery
which would automatically produce the information.
The functions of department heads are such as to
Joint Action by
demand joint action. The annual work programme
Department Heads
cannot be prepared properly except by co-opera-
tion. Neither can the purchase of supplies, the control of the civil
service, the installation of standard contract procedure, nor the avoidance
of duplication between departments be done properly without it. A
city is often not one city but as many cities as there are civic departments.
Civic departments are too often water-tight compartments. The city's
programme is unitary and should be under unified administrative control.
The remedy for the existing maladjustment of departments is so simple
that it is a wonder that it has not received general adoption. It lies in
the administrative board, made up of the permanent heads of civic de-
partments, and responsible, as a unit, to the council for:
1. The formulation of the annual budget and programme of work
2. The carrying out of this programme as a unified project
3. The making of monthly, quarterly and annual reports, containing
all the necessary financial and operative facts
4. The control of the civil service
5. The recommending of policies for the legislative action of council.
The information required by such an administrative board would
be even more detailed than that required by council. From divisional
heads it would require daily or weekly progress reports; from the accounts,
weekly statements of operating costs; from the city treasurer, weekly
statements from the appropriation accounts. It would need a committee
or bureau on civil service, another on purchasing and contracts, and still
another on civic reports both to council and citizens.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
25
Any system of effective democratic municipal government must be
based on an informed electorate. It must proceed from the people, not
reach down to the people. The city exists for the people. They are its
masters. Its masters must be educated by participation in actual govern-
mental processes. Actual participation is the only method which has
ever been found effective in any field, but actual participation demands
adequate information and adequate information must proceed from official
and unofficial sources.
To secure the best results for our cities there must be effected the
standardization, as far as possible, of municipal statistics and accounting.
This also demands the co-operation of official and unofficial citizen agencies.
It is hoped that in the near future a nation-wide bureau of public service
will be formed to co-operate with the Dominion Census Bureau and Sta-
tistics Office and the various provincial municipal departments and bureaus.
This paper, which has grown out of a profound conviction that the
first step in municipal reform is the development of a citizen information
service, both official and unofficial, is, of course, offered simply as the basis
for further discussion.
Municipal Finance and Administration
BY
C. J. YORATH, A.M.I.C.E., A.M.CAN.S.C.E.
City Commissioner, Saskatoon
DU URING the last few years, more particularly those of the financial
depression prior to and immediately following the outbreak of war,
a new civic interest has been awakened amongst taxpayers throughout
the Dominion, with the result, that expenditures, both current and capital,
have been greatly curtailed.
As a result of good crops, the high prices obtained for them and an
enormous increase in trade, the financial condition of many of our muni-
cipalities has greatly improved. This has revived, or is reviving, the optim-
istic feelings of the past, and may result in the renewal of extravagant
municipal expenditures. It is well, therefore, to remind those responsible
for civic government that for some time to come only expenditures ab-
solutely necessary to maintain public services in an efficient condition
should be undertaken.
For a population of eight millions we are a very
Canada Much
Overgoverned
much overgoverned people. In addition to Domin-
ion and local taxation, heavy taxes must be paid
for the upkeep of provincial governments. It is, therefore, all the more
necessary to have efficient local government.
•
26
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Before the war, the debts of municipalities exceeded the combined
debt of the Dominion and the provinces, so that, to effect true economical
development of the Dominion, it is first necessary to give attention to the
individual units responsible, for a very great part, if not the greater
part, of the country's taxation, i.e., the local authorities.
Debts of municipalities have been increasing at
Municipal Debts
Excessive
an alarming rate, the increase being chiefly due to
1. Lack of foresight in planning public works
2. Haphazard development in the interests of ward politics
3. Lack of municipal experience of those responsible for local
government
4. Lack of experienced supervision and control by the Dominion
or provincial governments.
5. Increase in municipal ownership of public utilities
6. Lack of a proper plan and scheme for the development of the town
or city
7 Creation of a debt to pay the cost of local improvements.
To the following additional reasons should also be attributed the very
large increase in the debts of western Canadian cities:
8. Lack of proper control, both by the local authorities and the pro-
vincial government, in the subdivision of land into lots and blocks
9. After allowing the indiscriminate subdivision of land, the adop-
tion of a system of taxation by local authorities which encouraged
or almost compelled owners to develop their property regardless
of the normal demand for improvements
10. Extension of public utilities to serve outside subdivisions when
the prospective revenue would not be sufficient to meet the fixed
charges upon the expenditure involved.
It will be realized from the following statement of the per capita
debt of some of the principal Canadian cities, compared with cities of the
United States and Great Britain, how important it is, in the best interests
of the Dominion, that the municipal system be immediately overhauled
and controlled or guided.
Name of city
General debenture debt per capita, after deducting sinking
fund and property owners' share of local improvements,
but including debt of public utilities.
Per capita debt, less
public utilities debt.
$ 71
11
Halifax..
St. John.
Montreal.
Toronto...
Ottawa..
Winnipeg
Regina.
Saskatoon..
Calgary.
Edmonton.
Vancouver.
Victoria....
$108
71
160
150
96
129
313
290
242
359
265
245
84
57
40
130
150
100
170
218
145
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
27
The average debt of the larger cities in the United States is slightly
over $40 and of the larger cities in Great Britain $120 per capita. The
principal reasons why, in the majority of cases, the per capita debt of
Canadian cities, more particularly those in western Canada, is so much
greater than that of cities in the United States and Great Britain are
the public ownership of electric light and power plants, street railways,
waterworks, etc., and the creation of debt to pay for public improvements,
such as street paving, sidewalks, sewers and drainage.
Municipal
The advisability of cities owning and operating
Ownership Largely their own utilities is a debatable question. Public
Responsible
ownership increases a local authority's debt and
liabilities to a considerable extent. A municipally-owned utility is
liable to be exploited for local political reasons, and its policy is, in
many cases, guided by inexperienced administrators. Another objection
to municipal ownership is that, once a debt is incurred it has to be carried
to maturity, no matter if the particular plant in connection with such a
utility be rendered obsolete by subsequent inventions or improved meth-
ods and practice. The London County Council (England) incurred
a capital debt of over $50,000,000 in the purchase and construction of
electric street railways when shortly afterwards it had to meet the com-
petition of improved motor buses. One of the risks a private company
takes is that of improved up-to-date competition, in which event the com-
pany may be wound up and a fresh start made.
Some time before the war, according to the
Results of Public
Ownership
Municipal Year Book, out of 184 principal mun-
icipally-owned undertakings in Great Britain, with
a capital investment of $140,000,000, a profit of $5,635,000 was
realized. Of this profit, five millions was made by twenty concerns and
the remaining $635,000 was credited to 164 undertakings with $75,000,000
capital; thus showing a return of less than one per cent. Of these, however
69 undertakings, representing $15,000,000 capital outlay, showed a net
annual loss of $350,000. Compared with this showing, 60 private com-
panies in Great Britain with a capital of $85,000,000, yielded a profit of
$10,000,000, or at the rate of 1134 per cent.
If public ownership be necessary in the best interests of the general
public, it must be conceded also that, in the best interests of the muni-
cipalities and the country, such utilities must be conducted and adminis-
tered upon proper business principles. This can only be done by experi-
enced employees and management. It is submitted, however, that the
best public service would be obtained from private ownership, if operated
upon a co-partnership basis; that is, by allowing the employees to partici-
pate in a share of the profits.
28
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Debts
Much of the debt of Canadian cities is represented
Local Improvement by local improvements, such as paving, sidewalks,
drainage, etc. The proportion to be charged to
the general taxpayers and the owners of the property immediately
benefited varies considerably throughout the Dominion. The total
expenditure is usually considered part of the city debt, although the sink-
ing fund and interest on the amount expended as the share of the pro-
perty is specially levied against the particular properties benefited.
In making debt comparisons of cities in Canada, Great Britain and
the United States, regard must be given to this fact. In the two latter
countries such local improvements are made by the local authorities at
the cost of the adjoining property owners, i.e., the total cost of paving a
street, laying sidewalks, constructing drainage, etc., when completed is
immediately charged against the property owners fronting upon the street
so improved, thereby making the cost of street improvements part of
the capital expenditure of the individual property owner instead of the
local authority. The local improvement procedure adopted in the
United States and Great Britain is much to be preferred to that adopted
in Canada, as the cost of such improvements spread over the individual
owners of lots is comparatively small and does not add materially to the
cost of the improvements erected on their own property.
Another advantage in charging the total cost of local improvement
against the property owner immediately after it has been completed is
that it deters an owner from clamouring for improvements until he has
improved his own property; whereas, under our system the speculative
holder of land clamours for improvements. He has no objection to paying
the small annual charge of sinking fund and interest for a year or two, if
the improvements increase the value of his property and his chances of
selling.
The practice of charging expenditures to a debenture loan is carried
to such extremes by some cities that even the cost of sewer and water
connections is spread over a period of thirty years. It is therefore little
wonder that the debts of Canadian cities compare so unfavourably with
those of cities in other countries.
Municipal finance is divided into two distinct
Municipal
phases, namely, capital account, including (1) rev-
enue and (2) expenditure, and current account,
including (1) revenue and (2) expenditure. Hazy ideas as to the
relationship between these are perhaps responsible for the many serious
problems which arise in connection with the financing of municipal under-
takings. It was at one time, and is now, a common practice with many
local authorities, to undertake works requiring the expenditure of large
sums of capital monies before making the necessary financial arrange-
Finance
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
29
ments, only to find later that the market was not satisfactory for the sale
of debentures. Temporary financial arrangements must then be made,
with the attendant disadvantages and loss. The experience of the last
few years may be sufficient to deter a repetition of the same mistakes,
but it is more than likely, with the continual change in the personnel of
local government, that they will be repeated unless the fundamental
principles of sound municipal finance are inculcated by experienced
management.
What is, and what is not, capital expenditure
Revenue and
Expenditure
must be distinctly defined by the lifetime of the
work proposed to be carried out, and it should
be recognized as a general principle that no work with a lifetime of
less than five years should be paid for out of capital monies. One re-
sult of capital expenditure the public cannot be too often reminded of is,
that every cent thus spent means added taxes each year to pay principal
and interest..
The method adopted by some local authorities in making an issue of
debentures is sometimes open to criticism. Issues are placed upon the
market when there is no demand, and sometimes a local authority will
make two, three or even more issues in one year. Whether the sinking
fund or serial debenture should be adopted is largely governed by the mar-
ket in which the securities are to be sold. The serial method has advan-
tages to commend it in preference to the sinking fund debenture, the prin-
cipal of which is that no sinking fund is created, thereby removing the
necessity of reinvestment and the risk of loss by making bad investments.
Capital expenditures can be controlled and the necessary financial
arrangements properly made in only one way-by forecasting and planning
all the works to be carried out during the year at the beginning of the finan-
cial year. But even this system will not be entirely satisfactory and prevent
the waste of public money, if the programme bears no relation to a scheme
which should have been previously prepared for the ultimate develop-
ment of the town or city.
Expenditure upon drainage, sewerage, waterworks, electric light
and power or rapid transit systems, or upon the construction and paving
of streets, if not made in relation to the future development of the com-
munity, will eventually be, partly or wholly, wasted. It is impossible to
develop a town or city economically unless the principles of town planning
have been properly understood and applied.
Since the outbreak of war the principal market for municipal deben-
tures has changed from Great Britain to the United States. During the
year before the outbreak of war Canadian municipal bond sales on the
London market amounted to $32,347,435 compared with $12,303,200 sold
in the United States. Last year no Canadian municipal bond sales were
30
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
made in Great Britain but $32,336,764 were sold in the United States.
During the remaining period of the war and for some time afterwards
the market for municipal securities will be very much curtailed, and any
capital financing necessary will be at a very high rate of interest.
greater confidence and co-operation were established between local
authorities they could, with their sinking funds, finance each other to
better advantage than by going upon the open market at the present
time.
Uniform System
The second phase of municipal finance is that of
of Taxation
providing revenue to meet current expenses and
Required
the control of current expenditures. The methods
of raising current revenues throughout the Dominion are as diverse
as other methods of municipal legislation and administration, and
there is great need for the crystallization of ideas in this regard and
the recognition of some established principles and methods of assessment
and taxation.
During the boom days a system of taxation was largely adopted in
Western Canada which provided for raising the greater part of local taxa-
tion by a tax on land alone. In some cities, the assessment on improve-
ments was reduced to a minimum and, in a few instances, was entirely
eliminated. The arguments in favour of its adoption were
1. That it was the simplest method of raising revenue
2. That it would induce owners of land to develop their property
3. That it would prevent speculation in land
4. That it was the only fair and just method of taxation, because
the value of the land is entirely due to the presence and expen-
diture of the people.
The actual results are that
1. It has proven to be the most difficult method of raising revenue,
and is largely responsible for enormous arrears of taxes
2. It did induce owners to develop their property, so much so that
property was developed beyond the normal demand, with the
result that increased taxation has been incurred, rents have been
reduced and the supposed benefits of the tax have acted like a
boomerang against the owner.
Some owners, with the idea of getting as much as possible out of their
land, erected large six- to ten-storey blocks, with the result that store and
office accommodation is centred upon a small parcel of land and the un-
fortunate owner of the balance is prevented, even if he would, from de
veloping his property.
3. It did not prevent the speculation in land, as, while it was in
operation, Western Canada was passing through the greatest
period of land speculation in its history. In fact, it stimulated
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
31
5.
speculation, as, through the supposed advantage of inducing
the owner to develop his property, an unhealthy prosperity was
created
4. No system of taxation can be just which makes it impossible for
an owner to earn a fair interest on his investment and results in
confiscation of his property
It did not spread the burden of taxation over the community,
i.e., through the payment of rents, etc. Owing to the unhealthy
development which it partly created the supply was far greater
than the demand, and owners, for the last three years at least,
have been compelled to take by way of rent whatever they were
offered, which, in the majority of cases, was not sufficient to
pay three per cent on the money invested.
For a system of taxation to be successful, just and fair it must (a)
enable the local authority to raise revenue for its current expenditure
expeditiously, leaving as small a percentage of arrears at the end of the
financial year as possible; (b) be based upon benefits received and ability
to pay; (C) be distributed so that the cost of the maintenance of streets,
sewers, etc., be charged against the property which is specially benefited,
and the cost of regulating public health, education, police protection,
etc., be assessed according to the ability of the resident to pay; (d) pre-
vent an owner, by the imposition of an unearned increment tax, from
making an undue profit out of the enhanced value of his land created by
the presence and expenditure of the people.
Adam Smith in his book on the Wealth of Nations lays down sound
economic principles of taxation which have been tried out in Europe and
have proven just, fair and equitable and should be the basis for a uniform
system of local assessment and taxation throughout Canada.
One of the chief causes for a local authority's
Appropriations
financial difficulties is its neglect to plan out and
or Budget
estimate its current expenditures, so that the
amounts allotted to each department will be known within the first month
of its financial year. Detailed estimates, appropriations or a budget,
or whatever they may be called, should be prepared each year in collabor-
ation with the heads of departments, setting out in detail the estimated
expenditures of each department for the current year. These estimates
should be approved by the council at the earliest possible date, so that
each department may know exactly how much money it has at its disposal
and how to plan out its work.
Some local authorities have adopted this system but do not follow
it up; monthly estimates and accounts of expenditures in relation to
appropriations are not prepared. In consequence, it is found, when too
late to remedy the mistake, that some of the appropriations have been
32
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
exceeded and, at the end of the year, instead of a surplus, a deficit, or an
excess expenditure over revenue, is the result.
Municipal work is most extremely diverse and
Experienced
Management technical, and to be successfully administered the
Required
present system of municipal government requires
to be radically changed.
It is impossible, in a short paper, to discuss the systems of local
government at present in vogue. That they are usually a failure is gener-
ally admitted, chiefly for the reason that administrative functions are
nearly always controlled by inexperienced men.
Until the legislative and administrative functions of our local author-
ities are strictly defined and separated, the mayor and aldermen being
responsible for the former and municipal experts for the latter, economic
and efficient civic development cannot be obtained.
To properly control the various departments of a civic authority;
to co-ordinate their efforts and to obtain co-operation; to prepare the an-
nual estimates or budget, to afterwards control expenditures in relation
to revenues and appropriations, and to guide the civic activities in accord-
ance with a preconceived plan, administrative authority must be con-
centrated in one person, who should be a municipal expert, acting in the
same relationship to the city council as a manager does to the directors
of a business undertaking. Until a Dominion commission, department of
municipal affairs, or local government board, whichever it may be termed,
is appointed to guide and direct municipal activities throughout the coun-
try, uniformity in municipal law, assessment and taxation, accountancy,
statistics, town planning and other matters of vital importance to proper
civic development will not be obtained. Much has been heard of the na-
tionalization of our railway system, but what is more essential to reduce
the cost of living and the burden of taxation is the nationalization of a
municipal system of administration which will provide an efficient form
of local government.
DISCUSSION
ALDERMAN OWEN (Vancouver): Statistics have been given here to-day
of different cities throughout Canada. Had we time to study the papers
we might dispute some of the figures. I am not disputing them because
I have not the official figures here, but it seems rather unfair to those
cities that figures go abroad in regard to their indebtedness. There is
practically only one side given. It gives the debt of some cities at so much
per capita, yet does not show what assets those cities may own for that
debt, whether they own their waterworks, their schools, their hospitals,
or their sewerage and such like. I believe that, speaking of my own
city, I would be prepared to make considerable correction of the figures
that are given.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
33
MR. THOMAS ADAMS: I have a letter of apology from Mr. William
Pearce, of the Department of Colonization and Development of the Ca-
nadian Pacific Railway, regretting his inability to be present. Mr.
Pearce's letter relates to this subject of municipal finance. He has taken
a very deep interest in the subject of land development and finance, so
much so that he was appointed by the Economic and Development Com-
mission to enquire into that matter on the occasion of a Dominion in-
vestigation. Mr. Pearce says, in part:
"I have been striving for considerably more than two years to get
the municipal authorities and the financial men of Canada to realize the
serious condition which the majority of our municipalities are in regarding
indebtedness, but so far my efforts seem to have been in vain, as I find
that all the municipal governments seem to care about is striving to borrow
more money to spend on capital account. There will be a final day of
reckoning, however, and when it comes it will astonish many.
Mr. Pearce writes, not as a municipal representative himself, but as
one who has studied this question from the outside and appears to feel
that there is some ground for criticism. That is a matter on which, of
course, no comment can be made by me, as it is merely an expression of
his opinion.
I will now read Mr. Coats' paper, and I want to say that in these
three papers is presented a combination which would probably be invalu-
able to any city or town wanting professional advice of the standing that
has been presented from this platform by Dr. Brittain, by Commissioner
Yorath and by Mr. Coats. It would represent a considerable investment
of money, and I want you to be impressed with the fact that in these three
papers we have representation of the east, of the west and of the Dominion,
and they are of very great value.
Municipal and Vital Statistics
BY
R. H. COATS
Dominion Statistician and Controller of Census
THE following remarks on municipal
and vital statistics are shop-talk,
pure and simple. Shop-talk, according to Bernard Shaw, is the most
interesting kind of talk, but whether that be so or not, the question of our
municipal and vital statistics is so important and has hung fire so long
that anything that is not a statement of action would not now be worth
while. And the Census Office is able to make such a statement, though
the action is still in its initial stages. It is for the purpose of placing our
plans before you and of asking your discussion of them, and support of
them if you find them worthy, that I am glad of the opportunity of sub-
mitting this paper.
34
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
1.-VITAL STATISTICS
Vital statistics, or statistics of births, deaths and
Accuracy
Essential
marriages, are a part of the scheme of population
statistics. To keep proper account of population
two kinds of records are necessary, just as two kinds of records are
necessary in an ordinary business, first, a daily record of transactions,
and second, a periodical stock-taking. Vital statistics, in conjunction
with statistics of immigration and emigration, are the day-to-day contin-
uous 'book-keeping' of the population; the census is the periodical stock-
taking. Vital statistics are the part of our population book-keeping that
shows us our natural increase or decrease. They do much more than
that incidentally, but it would be carrying coals to Newcastle to enlarge
upon their uses and importance to the present audience.
Accordingly, the Census and Statistics Office comes to the problem
of vital statistics by two rather distinct approaches. In the first place,
we are the authority delegated by Parliament to take, every ten years
(every five years in the western provinces), the comprehensive survey of
the people known as a census. Now the merchant who takes stock relates
that process very carefully to his day-books and ledgers, and so ought the
census to relate this broad decennial inquiry to the needs and objects of
vital statistics. Second, though the day-to-day recording of vital statis-
tics is done by the provinces (civil rights, the protection of which is an
important object of vital statistics, being assigned to the provinces by the
British North America Act) the Census Office is also instructed to compile
vital statistics on an annual basis, to meet the need for a nation-wide
record of the kind, using, it is implied, the raw materials furnished by the
provinces.
Up to the present, the Census Office has found it
Variation in
Methods
quite impossible to fulfil either of these functions
satisfactorily. The reason, of course, lies in the
provincial records. One province has no vital statistics at all. In
the others legislation and methods differ in the widest degree. The
statistical year is not uniform; only six of the provinces use a common
year. The Bertillon, or international, classification of deaths is wholly
or partially adopted by seven provinces, but not by the eighth. Still
more unsettling, each province has its own separate scheme for the collec-
tion, compilation and presentation of these statistics. Take the highly
important matter of the form of the death certificate-one of several
that could be cited: Of the twenty-four items which such a certificate
should cover two of the provinces omit sixteen, another fifteen, and another
thirteen, whilst the lowest number of omissions is three, and this does not
include other items of the twenty-four which are incomplete in what they
call for. Administration is all-important in vital statistics. The best
+
1
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
35
legislation in the world will yield statistics that are worse than useless if
it is not administered efficiently. One of our western provinces sho's an
increase of three or four hundred per cent in the birth rate during the
past three years. The explanation lies, not in any such remarkable gain
in reproductive force among the people, but in the marked success with
which the province in question has addressed itself during those years to
securing better registration. The gain is, accordingly, in official efficiency,
and it is a very fine thing, but it is disconcerting to have the news of it
given out in the form of a rise in the birth-rate. It will easily be seen
that unless methods as well as legislation are standardized there can be
no combination of statistics. In the Canada Year Book we usually bring
together a few of the more recent provincial birth and death rates, but
we preface them with the remark that they are not to be made the basis
of any calculation of mean annual birth or death rates,—which, being
interpreted, signifies that the Year Book rather washes its hands of them.
The Census and Statistics Office, therefore, has a reason for abstaining
from any attempt to co-ordinate existing provincial vital statistics.
The same factor has also militated against careful delimitation of questions
in the decennial census. Under a proper scheme, whilst the local authori-
ties keep track of the births and deaths from day to day, there are certain
data of first-rate interest to vital statistics which the census can obtain
more readily. For instance, the number of children born to existing
marriages can be obtained in a census by a single question to each married
woman (and it is a very important matter to ascertain) but would be ex-
tremely difficult to work out from a record of vital statistics. The
census has not always asked that and other questions, but we can plead
in extenuation that it is hard to relate a census inquiry to a comprehensive
system of vital statistics when the latter does not exist.
Two somewhat interesting attempts to improve
Suggestions for
matters may be briefly mentioned. Thirty-five years
Improvement
ago the Dominion Government instituted a plan
for compiling the annual mortuary statistics of our cities of 25,000
population and over, local Boards of Health being subsidized to
supply the records under specified rules and regulations. A beginning
was made with the five cities of Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Halifax
and St. John, but by 1891 the list had grown to twenty-five. This was
when the only records of births and deaths were those of the municipalities.
With the organization of the provincial bureaus of vital statistics the Do-
minion work was abandoned. Its demise, however, was soon after
marked by a significant incident, namely, a conference of Dominion and
Provincial officials, summoned by the Hon. A. R. Anger in 1893, which
passed a resolution calling upon the Federal and Provincial authorities
to “co-operate in the work of collecting, compiling and publishing the vital
36
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
statistics of the Dominion.” That resolution has lain dormant a long time
quite a quarter of a century—but we may hope that its sleep is at length
to be disturbed.
The other attempt was made through the medium of the census.
It was thought that the census might meet the lack of mortality statistics,
for the census year at least, by ascertaining the number and causes of the
deaths occurring in each household during the year preceding the date of
the census.
But the results were not happy.
In actual experience it was found, by careful comparison of the census
of mortality with local registrations, that fully 20 per cent of the deaths
had been missed. (Incidentally we found that the local records also missed
a good many, though not so many. In Ontario, for example, in 1901,
the census missed 6,243 deaths recorded by the province, but on the other
hand secured 3,244 deaths which the province had missed.) The cause
may be set down to migration of population, lapse of memory or know-
ledge on the part of persons supplying the information, the difficulty of
guarding against carelessness in enumeration, etc. Moreover, even the
information we did obtain was unsatisfactory, especially on the all-import-
ant point of the cause of death. How could it be expected that either
the people or the enumerators should master such a matter as the scien-
tific description of the cause of death according to the Bertillon classifi-
cation. The number of 'heart failures' and 'colds' that occurred in the
census of mortality returns of 1901 and 1911 was particularly distressing.
Even had the result been otherwise, mortality statistics at ten-year inter-
vals are not of much use. Moreover, we need birth-rates and marriage-
rates only less insistently than death rates. The inability to get adequate
or accurate vital statistics through the decennial census has been recognized
in Great Britain, France, the United States and Germany for many years,
and it is high time we should cease so abortive an undertaking here.
Now as to the remedy. It lies in taking up the
Co-operation of
Dominion and matter where it was left by the conference of 1893,
Provinces
and in framing a plan for permanent Dominion
and Provincial co-operation. In this it is the part of the Dominion
Government and of the Census and Statistics Office to take the lead.
We have no right, as we have no inclination, to say to any province
how it shall conduct its business. But the matter is scarcely on that foot-
ing. Vital statistics cannot be compiled in a corner. Their value lies
almost wholly in the breadth of the basis upon which they are built.
The question of standards is not so very controversial, and, with public
opinion awakening, action of some kind must follow. As between Do
minion and province it is a case where there is everything to gain and
nothing to lose by a partnership. The law not only requires the Census
and Statistics Office to take up the work, but it specifically points to
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
37
co-operation with the provinces as the method. “Wherever in any
province or territory” says the Census Act, "any system is established or
any plan exists for collecting . . vital statistics the minister may, under au-
thority of the governor in council, arrange with the lieutenant governor in
council .. for the collection and transmission" of schedules, information, etc.
What we have done, therefore, and are doing, is this: We have
made, during the past year, a thorough examination of vital statistical
legislation and administration, not only in our own provinces but in other
countries, and we have drawn up a compendium of the results in a memo-
randum, to which is attached a model bill, model forms of registration,
and model regulations for procedure in detail. These we have laid in an
informal way before the provincial departments, and we are now engaged
in discussing them with the provinces seriatim in order that we may be-
come thoroughly seized of every possible local viewpoint on the subject.
When this process is finished-and it is now proceeding very satisfactorily
-we shall open formal negotiations, possibly in the form of a conference
of Dominion and Provincial officials—in the hope of securing ratification.
The plan involves that each province shall bring its legislation and adminis-
tration up to a standard-a standard, incidentally, that will enable inter-
national comparisons as well as meet our own needs—the Census Office
engaging to act as an inspecting agency, and to furnish machinery for
the centralization and compilation of the resulting statistics on a national
basis. The Census Office will also, of course, ensure that the supple-
mentary decennial data which it can most readily obtain will be secured in
the most competent manner. By the above it is not meant that each
province must cast its system in an iron mould or surrender individuality;
the standard mentioned is a minimum standard pure and simple. It is
the plan, to all practical intents, which has been adopted in Australia
and the United States, the two countries whose federal form of govern-
ment and whose social institutions approximate most closely to our own.
In the United States, for example, each state, on the adoption of the re-
quisite legislation and the passing of a test as to completeness of registra-
tion (90 per cent complete being required) is admitted to what is termed
the 'regristration area of the United States, and its figures are compiled
and united by the Census Office with those of other conforming states.
No Record for
When we have accomplished as much for Canada-
Conservation of and we have already made a fair beginning-we
Man-power
shall, I hope, have placed this work on a good
and lasting basis, from which, in a few years' time, we may expect to
reap fruitful results. At present the reaping is meagre indeed. Public
health problems cannot be studied because we have not the data. What
the immigration movement means to Canada must remain a sealed book
in perhaps its most important aspect, namely, the effect on our vital stock.
38
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
:
We are at present engaged in the greatest war of all time, and we are with-
out the rudiments of accurate knowledge of our man-power and how it is
to be conserved and built up, though we are fighting an adversary who meas-
ures such matters to a turn. In short, we know little or nothing of our-
selves as a nation from a biological standpoint, the standpoint which is the
beginning of everything.
II.—MUNICIPAL STATISTICS
With regard to municipal statistics, in which perhaps this meeting
is still more interested, the situation is in principle the same and may be
treated still more briefly. Only three provinces publish municipal sta-
tistics in any fulness of detail, and that without common plan of presen-
tation. Indeed, within the provinces themselves, the municipalities
sometimes have radically different standards. A story was whispered
lately of an enterprising western town which secured the ready cash for a
water system out of its sinking fund, reimbursing the latter by placing to
its credit all outstanding arrears of taxes in one good round sum.
What is needed first is uniformity and compara-
Uniformity
Necessary
bility in municipal statistics of finance, including
assessments, debenture debts, and sinking funds.
Next might follow details as to the management of public services.
The first 12 years of this century were years of unparalleled municipal
expansion over a large portion of Canada, and it is of the utmost import-
ance to our future public credit that we should know definitely and com-
prehensively where our municipalities stand. Fortunately, the question
of municipal government as a whole is receiving a degree of attention
unknown before, and we have now three provinces possessed of full-
fledged departments of municipal affairs. If these departments, and our
municipal statistical departments generally, would make a study of the
work being done in, say, Massachusetts and Ohio, two state communities
near at hand, which offer perhaps as good models as can be found of well
thought out and carefully developed systems, it would have a steadying
and unifying influence. The root of the matter, of course, lies in munici-
pal accounting. We must have uniformity here before progress is possible.
As you know, the Union of Canadian Municipalities has done considerable
spade-work in this field, and it might be suggested that the League unite
with them in the practical consideration of this problem.
A year ago this meeting appointed a committee of
Assistance of
three to enlist the co-operation of the Census
Office in municipal statistics. That our office
should assist to its utmost in such a matter goes without saying.
What we have done since your appeal is to assemble all the data possible
for the careful study of the situation and of the lines along which the dif-
Census Office
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
39
ferent authorities may co-operate. It must be said frankly that the gen-
eral co-ordination of municipal statistics has nowhere reached any degree
of final perfection and, in fact, has not proceeded beyond initial stages of
development anywhere. It is the magnitude of the fundamental
difficulty of accountancy that hampers. Nevertheless we see no reason
why even on so complicated and highly'localized a problem a central office
like ours might not do good work in bringing the provinces together, in
propagandizing, and in actually collecting and compiling data. We
have, of course, no authority to instruct municipalities in the matter of
their accounting systems. What we might do, however, as a start, is to
institute a federal system of municipal statistics for, say, every munici-
pality of 10,000 and over. I do not think there would be any practical
difficulties in the way of securing the co-operation of city officials, and such
work, launched after fullest consultation, not only with provincial de-
partments, but with municipal bureaus (including bureaus regularly
constituted and those under private management), could be made to help
materially in setting standards, and, in a general way, creating a nucleus
around which the provinces might build, on a basis that would have
national as well as local ends in view. We have all the plans for such
action drawn up, but have been hampered and, indeed, halted by the in-
roads made upon our staff by the war.
As said at the outset, the Census Office will appreciate your discus-
sion of these plans, which have been placed before you only in the broadest
way, and I can assure you, on behalf of the Minister, that any represen-
tations you will be good enough to make will receive the fullest and most
sympathetic attention. The matters concerned are highly technical,
and the stage has long passed when other than technical and detailed
consideration of them is of much value. It is work of a kind that must
rest for support upon bodies like the Civic Improvement League; it cannot
rely on any wave of popular enthusiasm to carry it forward. Neverthe-
less, I believe there are no two gaps of the several that exist in the statis-
tical system of this country that are more worthy of being filled at the
earliest moment than those of municipal and vital statistics.
DISCUSSION
.
MR. S. R. TARR (Winnipeg): Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.
One matter particularly emphasized in the paper by Mr. Coats is the seri-
ous dearth of comparative information regarding municipal adminis-
tration throughout Canada. If there had been such information compiled
and available in our palmy days, it is hard to conceive that we would,
in so many cases, at any rate, have run quite so wildly on our financial
joy rides as we did.
Ald. Owen's reference to the comparative statistics presented by
40
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Commissioner Yorath illustrates the need for such statistics being author-
itative. No matter how carefully compiled, they are always, and very
naturally, open to objection, and until we have some comprehensive and
authoritative statistical information of this sort we will always meet such
difficulties and objections.
Commissioner Yorath emphasized certain tendencies which have led
to an unfortunate financial condition in some western municipalities,
namely, the extension of public utilities, and I take it that he concerned
himself not so much with their establishment as with their extension to
sections far in advance of settlement, and which, with a proper town-
planning scheme, would not have been provided with them for years to
come. And the same may be said of local improvements. Local improve-
ments are paid for by the property owners and not by the city, as a whole,
but that is only a partial answer. The community is considered as a unit,
and the per capita debt, which concerns the investing market of the out-
side world, includes not merely the general debt but also the debt for local
improvements which is distributed over the particular ratepayers con-
cerned. If we add this local improvement per capita debt to the figures I
have already given, we would have some still more sky-high figures.
For instance, the per capita debt in St. John is $11.25, including even the
local improvements of individual property owners. Compare that with
Edmonton, which has a per capita debt of $245, including the school
district; adding the ratepayers' share of local improvements brings it up
to $309. Naturally and rightly Edmonton's debt should be higher,
as it is a new and rapidly developing city, but I think we will all admit
this large difference should not exist.
One way in which the creation of these local improvement debts has
militated against sound finance and Commissioner Yorath, I think,
voiced the general sentiment when he pointed out the alternative method of
financing which should have obtained-is in the matter of arrears of taxes.
These arrears of taxes were very largely arrears on local improvements
on outer subdivisions which have not come into real use and upon which the
nominal owners have, in many cases, grown tired of paying taxes.
Commissioner Yorath spoke of the very great difference between
cities in the method of assessing local improvement debts. From the hand-
book on Canadian municipal statistics issued by Wood, Gundy & Co., I
find that in Winnipeg about 8 per cent of the total local improvement debt
now outstanding rests upon the city, the other 92 per cent resting upon the
individual property owners directly benefited or concerned. I found that
in Vancouver the city bears the responsibility for practically 35 per cent
of the total local improvement debt. The exact figures are: City's share
$3,466,000; property owners' share, $6,325,000; roughly altogether
$10,000,000. Vancouver, like Edmonton and Winnipeg, has very large
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
41
arrears of taxes at the present time. The auditor's report on the fin-
ances of Edmonton points out that the arrears of taxes are now over
$5,000,000, or practically five times what they were three years ago.
Drastic means have to be considered in dealing with the immediate
financial problems that face some of our Western cities. Those in
charge of the financial administration of Edmonton, at any rate, are
clearly pointing that out to the citizens, and are strongly urging that the
matter of these arrears be definitely faced, that the task be spread over
five or more years, and that an effort be made each year to wipe out a
portion of those arrears. To accomplish what is desired necessitates
revision of existing methods of taxation.
Reference has been made to the broadening of the basis of taxation,
the apparent necessity for changing from merely a tax upon real estate,
which, in hard times, has been found difficult to collect, to a tax which,
in a considerable measure, will be based upon ability to pay as measured
by the income. Upon this matter, however, I shall not take time to
touch, all important as it is.
Dr. Brittain's paper was particularly interesting to those of us who
are members of the Winnipeg Citizens' Research League. The methods
and principles laid down by him so clearly are the methods and principles
which we, somewhat hazily at this distance from centres of municipal
research, have been trying to follow. Dr. Brittain spoke of the advisa-
bility of some form of city club or civic club, which would be an open forum
for discussion on matters of importance to the city. That is what the
Civic Improvement League of Winnipeg is. A largely attended meeting
was held under its auspices a year ago and certain information was laid
before the citizens; this was followed up by an open discussion.
Dr. Brittain referred particularly, and so did Commissioner Yorath,
to the necessity of compiling a yearly civic budget for the guidance of
the administration. For the information of those present I have asked
the secretary of the Citizens' Research League to pass around this bird's-
eye view of the city budget. I want to say this, following up what Com-
missioner Waugh and Controller Cockburn said this morning, that our
city administration has shown the utmost readiness to consider and to act
on suggestions brought forward by our League. Controller Wallace
advises that the City Council will make some announcement with regard
to a public hearing for considering the estimates which have been drawn
up for the year entered upon. General principles laid down in the report
of our Research League are being followed in the preparation of these
estimates, and I am sure the announcement and publication of them will be
awaited with very considerable interest. I think, possibly, that Winnipeg
will be the first city in Canada which will have definitely adopted the plan
of holding a public hearing to discuss a preliminary systematized budget.
42
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
I feel very, very strongly, with Dr. Brittain, that a basic thing in
improvement of city administration is that more information should be
available. That information can only be obtained as the result of some
effort. The research league or civic improvement league cannot of itself
attempt to do the thinking of the community. It can and does try to
present information in an understandable form, but it is incumbent on
the citizens as individuals to study it carefully and to make use of it.
Commissioner Yorath evidently favors the city management form of
government. I was very much interested a few months ago at a municipal
conference at Springfield, Mass., to hear City Manager Waite, of Day-
ton, Ohio, the largest city which has adopted that plan, make a remark
to this effect: "Frankly, as a city manager, I want to say that the success
of the city manager plan up to date is largely due to the fact of the newness
of the plan, of the breaking away from old political traditions. The intro-
duction of a new instrument arouses for the time being such interest that
civic co-operation has been secured. But, I want to utter this word of
warning, that if citizens generally become indifferent, the city manager
plan as a system will be no more effective than the old council plan.”
DR. BRITTAIN: With regard to my remarks on the administration
board, my idea was not that it should meet each week to receive the weekly
reports from the divisional heads, but that each individual should receive
weekly reports from his head, that is, the head of every department
would be responsible for the management of his department. The ad-
ministration board was simply intended to take the place of the general
manager to which Mr. Yorath referred. The only difference between
Mr. Yorath's suggestion and my suggestion is that, instead of having a
general manager to put over the administration board or to take the place
of the administration board, the various responsible heads of departments
should themselves meet as a committee, as often as was necessary, in order
to prevent overlapping, to discuss subjects of common interest, and to
compile the annual budget. I do not believe any one man in a large
city has any right to attempt to make the budget for the city, even if it
is only to suggest it to the city council. You need many points of view
on a big city's affairs. It is a well-known fact, as Mr. Yorath says, that
we have not a properly trained public service. If we cannot get well-
trained heads of our departments, where are we going to get business
managers capable of co-ordinating a work of this kind ? We need in
Canada a school for the development of such men, for the training of ad-
ministrators; such a school should not take men just out of college, but
men who have had some experience in administration, and develop them
along technical lines. Another difficulty is this, that many of the men
really able to conduct municipal affairs receive much larger returns from
private employments, so that it is almost impossible to keep them in the
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
43
service of the city. Until all cities learn to do what Toronto did last
year, namely, to pay a decent salary to a man who has to perform an im-
portant function, just so long will it be hard to get proper men to conduct
such affairs. That is one reason why municipal ownership has so often
failed, or partially failed.
The administration board is simply a device to allow the people to
go as far as they are willing. It is not practical at the present time to get
the people to consent in many cities to the business manager plan, but it
might be possible to get them to consent to the administration board.
With regard to the budget, this is not the same as the estimate.
It means not only estimates of large amounts but a workable plan, and that
is one of the things where we fail. We make up our estimates without a
proper plan as to what the estimated amounts of money have really to do.
I trust that when the members of this conference go home they will con-
sider ways and means by which some citizens organization can be formed
in every community, whether it be large or small, to give real information
to the citizens.
MR. MACKIE (Moose Jaw): Regarding Dr. Brittain's and Mr.
Yorath's papers, I think the difference is a mere question of words. If
the heads of the various departments meet, as they meet in our city, they
naturally want a head, and the natural head is the manager or the com-
missioner. He simply unifies and keeps all their ideas together, and so
works them out that, as Dr. Brittain says, there will be no overlapping
whatever.
Before we can get a proper system of co-operation as between cities
it is essential that they compile their annual financial statements on a
uniform basis. Not long ago, when investigating the question of the
finances of our water-works department in Moose Jaw, I found that in all
the financial statements published in the Province of Saskatchewan, no
two could be correlated. For instance, in one city the water-works de-
partment showed a profit, but only a certain amount of the capital expen-
diture on the department was charged against it. Another city showed a
profit which included frontage tax on the water. Much has been said
as to the high cost of operating our western cities. In my opinion, apart,
perhaps, from inefficient administration and from the lack of adminis-
tration during the boom times, a great deal of the high cost of running our
western cities has been due, if I might use the expression, to'growing pains'.
We have grown far too quickly. Comparing the city of Moose Jaw with
the city of Hamilton, Moose Jaw has within its area fully 2,000 acres more
than Hamilton. The latter has a population of about 120,000 and Moose
Jaw something like 18,000. As a result of these large areas and what I
say in regard to large areas in Moose Jaw applies to every other western
city-all the utilities have had to stretch through blocks of vacant pro-
1
44
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
perty to reach a few consumers on the outskirts of the city. Bearing out
this, in Moose Jaw we have 2412 feet of water main per capita, in Hamilton
they have only 9 feet; we have 14 feet of sewer per capita, Hamilton has
7 feet, and the same thing applies to sidewalks and every other utility.
I was disappointed at Mr. Yorath's attitude regarding cities owning their
own utilities. I think there is no more splendid example of the advan-
tages of the city owning its utilities than in Winnipeg, where, I understand,
before the City Light and Power Department went into operation you
were paying something like 13 cents a kilowatt hour for light; you are
now furnishing power to the citizens at 1 cent per kilowatt hour.
It may be that in the old country privately-owned utilities have shown
a higher profit than publicly-owned utilities, but that was not due, and I
am speaking from knowledge, to inefficiency in operating those utilities,
but that in many instances in the old country, service was supplied at net
cost to the citizens. No more striking example could be found than in
Glasgow, which not only pays its citizens a handsome surplus but, as I
understand it, nets over £500,000 for the reduction of taxes on the general
city expenditure.
We can never get efficient municipal administration, no matter what
form of government we may have, until we have the whole body of the
citizens enlisted in active and hearty sympathy, until we get, what is very
often wanting in our western cities, a proper civic pride and an enthusiastic
interest in all the works in which a city has to engage.
MR. RATTENBURY (Charlottetown, P.E.I.): We have none of those
difficulties complained about as to civic management. Mr. Yorath omit-
ted Charlottetown when he was speaking of per capita indebtedness. I
suppose the reason is, we really have no per capita indebtedness in our
city. I am not sure of that; at any rate, if we have been borrowing, we have
assets equal to our borrowing. We had trouble some years ago, and we
employed an expert accountant. He opened the city accounts. All the
questions that Dr. Brittain said should be answered by financial state-
ments are answered by the city accounts. They are audited annually by
chartered accountants, so that they show plainly the financial condition
of the city. I would like to hear from Mr. Yorath what sort of accounting
is usual in the cities here.
MR. MACKIE (Moose Jaw): In Saskatchewan it is the law that all
financial statements of the city are prepared and certified to by chartered
accountants, but chartered accountants, like doctors, engineers and all
other creatures, differ in their way of doing things and are prone to present
the same information in various forms.
· MR. BAYNE: The rural municipalities of Saskatchewan have derived
great benefit from a uniform accounting system, prescribed by the De-
partment of Municipal Affairs. Commissioners Yorath of Saskatoon and
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
45
Mackie of Moose Jaw, in speaking of the lack of a uniform accounting
system, referred only to the seven cities of Saskatchewan, for which the
Department of Municipal Affairs has not yet prescribed uniform records
of accounting. In over 298 rural municipalities there is one system of
bookkeeping and one form of financial statement. The same is true of
our 310 villages and 75 towns. If the seven cities will also issue similar
statements we will have a condition for all of Canada for which this con-
ference seems to be striving. Some of our Prairie Provinces could easily
fall into line with a uniform system of municipal statistics for all Canada.
MR. F. M. BLACK (Alberta): I beg to move the following resolution:
"WHEREAS, there is at present no uniform system of municipal
accounting in Canada; and whereas the benefits of such for public health
information and guidance are incalculable;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this convention places itself on
record as favouring such uniformity and lends its moral support to the com-
munities which are already engaged in advancing the efforts of the Union
of Canadian Municipalities toward that end."
THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Adams will introduce a resolution asking you
to sanction a resolution committee. The committee will be in session
to-night and to-morrow will present to you various resolutions. If Mr.
Black is willing I would like him to have his resolution brought in through
the resolutions committee.
MR. BLACK (Alberta): That is quite satisfactory.
MR. BLACK (Selkirk); The papers presented here this afternoon are
particularly adaptable to cities. There are many towns of importance in
this western country, and I come to you with a concrete problem. At
Selkirk, we have committed quite a sin, but the problem now is to correct
it in so far as it is reasonably possible to do so. A few weeks ago, being
of the opinion that we were paying too high rates for water, I started to
investigate and to figure out some basis that would be equitable. I was
surprised to learn, after writing to various municipalities, that not one
had made any scientific study of water rates. I am going to ask Dr.
Brittain, of Toronto, if he can help me out on some scientifically consti-
tuted basis of water rates. We have the problem now facing us and we
have water-works which cost a great deal to build, but they are not paying
us revenue. I was interested in the study of the Winnipeg water-works
report. The last report shows they made a profit, but part of that profit
was made up of frontage tax. I do not consider that profit. That is a
problem for which I would be glad to have some tangible solution to take
back to my municipality.
MR. BURDITT (St. John): St. John has been referred to as the city
that has the least per capita debt; really it is not a debt at all, because
46
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
our assets far exceed our liabilities. We have a budget which is published
every year, and our tax bill states exactly what our tax is for, namely,
so much for this service, so much for that, so much for streets, so much
for interest on debentures, so much for water rates, so much for schools,
and so on.
The water rate is based on the actual cost of administering
the system. No extensions into new districts are made until the residents
in those districts petition for the extension and guarantee to pay a rate
that will liquidate the debt in 20 years and provide interest and sinking
fund requirements. As soon, however, as the regular rates assessed on the
whole city provide what is necessary for the sinking fund, they pay merely
the regular rates. I cannot say exactly what our rates are, but I know
that we have a surplus every year.
MR. THOMAS ADAMS: I would like to emphasize that one of the trou-
bles in connection with water rates is the fact that we consume far too
much water and waste a great deal. It seems as if we thought, because
there is plenty of water in the country it did not matter how much we used;
but it does matter. I took the trouble, in a discussion which we had in
our Civic Improvement League in Ottawa recently, to compare two cities.
They happened to be on different sides of the Atlantic, but that does not
matter, because on this question of water supply the one city was as well
served as the other. In the European city they perhaps did not have so
many baths in the small houses, and they perhaps did not turn on the tap
so much in the winter; perhaps, too, they conserved the water a good deal
more, but the difference was this, that a workingman's family in Ottawa
pays about $30 a year for water supply, whereas in this other city the work-
ingman and his family paid $7.85 per annum. In one case the cost to
the workingman was one-fourth of the other. There were about 900
meters in the city having this cheap supply, as against 48 meters in Ottawa.
The meter is the proper means of correcting abuses in the use of water,
and, in the case of large factories and large homes, there ought to be meters
to conserve the water and keep down the rates. Consumption in one city
was about five times as much as the other. In Ottawa we consumed over
200 gallons as against 30 gallons consumed per day in the other case.
Now the question of water-works statistics is very important, but we must
not forget that there are also engineering problems in connection with the
elimination of waste and that the metering of large services undoubtedly
makes for economy. These are points of fact towns like Selkirk ought to
consider so that any present waste can be disclosed and eliminated.
MR. BLACK (Selkirk): I think it is only just to say to the gentlemen
who have furnished papers this afternoon that if more discussion has not
taken place it is because of the impossibility of discussing such exhaustive
papers in the time at our disposal. I for one would like to go on record
as expressing very deep appreciation of the efforts which have been ex-
tended in their preparation.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
47
Regarding the difference of opinion between myself and Dr. Brittain
ALD. OWEN (Vancouver): I quite agree with the last speaker and
that is perhaps the reason I have not entered into the discussion at all.
The papers have been exhaustive and we have had little time in which to
digest them. I cannot agree with all that has been said in some of the
papers, especially that of my friend from Saskatoon. Different conditions
prevail in different provinces. Credit might be due in some cases where
perhaps it is not given. For instance, some cities may not own their own
hospitals and therefore do not have to pay for their up-keep. We have
a very low tax rate in British Columbia, whereas in the Prairie Provinces
it is very high. Our bond issues may extend over twenty to forty years
where those of other cities may only extend ten to twenty years.
THE CHAIRMAN: It is quite impossible to hold a convention of this
kind for longer than a couple of days. These papers and the greater part
of the discussion will be published and distributed throughout Canada;
after all, what takes place here is merely the beginning of the educational
work these papers will do.
MR. THOS. ADAMS: I move that the following resolutions committee
be appointed: Mr. G. Frank Beer, Ontario; Dr. Brittain, Ontario; Com-
missioner Yorath, Saskatchewan; Messrs. G. W. Markle, J. H. Curle and
S. R. Tarr, Manitoba; Commissioner Black, Alberta; Alderman Owen,
British Columbia; Alderman Kelly, Maritime Provinces, and Mr. Covert,
Quebec. We have had to combine the Maritime Provinces so as to keep
the resolution committee comparatively small, but Mr. Burditt and Mr.
Rattenbury would be welcome on the committee if they desire to serve.
Resolution carried.
COMMISSIONER YORATH: Regarding the remarks as to the figures
quoted in my paper respecting the per capita debt of the cities throughout
the Dominion, they were used to emphasize the very large increase in the
debt of Canadian municipalities. The figures were compiled from the
Dominion census returns of last year and from the statement of general
debenture debts quoted in Messrs. Wood, Gundy & Co's handbook. The
citizens' co-operation in municipal government is essential, no matter
what system of municipal government be adopted; this I wish to emphasize.
In Saskatchewan it is our practice to prepare a report giving the expendi-
tures for the first ten months of the year and all particulars of the depark
mental work, and that report, together with an estimate of the proposed
expenditures for the following years is presented to the ratepayers at a
public meeting before the annual election. In that way we endeavor to
get the citizens' co-operation and support in the civic government; but,
unfortunately, I think it is found, invariably, that in all the cities in the
West, very few citizens attend these annual meetings to discuss eivie
matters.
48
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
as to the concentration of management, Dr. Brittain advocates that the
management should be under the control of heads of departments and I
submit that the better form is by concentrating the management in one
person. I think if there is one thing which has been emphasized more than
any other during this war, it is the effect of the concentration of manage-
ment or control in one person. Dr. Brittain has said it is impossible
with municipal work to concentrate management in one person. I submit
it is not impossible. The chartered banks throughout the Dominion,
concentrate their management in the general manager, and surely the
work of the larger banks must be as great, if not greater, than any munici-
pality.
Mr. Mackie, of Moose Jaw, I think, has misread my remarks re-
garding the operation of public utilities. I think, perhaps, when he has
an opportunity to read my paper he will find, I stated, that if it is found
necessary, in the public interest, to have municipal ownership, then it must
also be necessary, in the interest of the public, to see that you get ex-
perienced management and experienced employees, and thus remove the
disadvantage of bringing the public utilities under objectionable ward
politics.
Regarding the question of water supply, there is undoubtedly a very
large waste of water in connection with our public utilities. In some
instances, in Canada, the water consumption per capita is five and six
times, in many instances more, than that in European cities. That is
largely accounted for by waste, because it has been proved, particularly
in cities where the meter system has been adopted, that the water con-
sumption can be considerably reduced. The result of the waste is
that, if the water is pumped, say, from a river, it has to be filtered and
then pumped again to the consumer. Thus, if your consumption is six
times as much as it should be, you have to pump from the river six times
more water than is necessary. Your power is six times greater than it
need be, your plant is very much larger than it need be and you have very
much higher plant expense on that account. Your filters have to be
unnecessarily large, expenditure in filtration is unnecessarily large and
when you have filtered the water it is ready for distribution and you
have to pump that water again to the consumer. You can thus see
the very vital necessity for cutting out waste.
DR. BRITTAIN: The difference between Commissioner Yorath and
myself is a difference of opinion as to the stages of development we have
reached. He mentioned the managers of chartered banks. The banks
will pay men to manage their business and the cities will not. Until we
have some system of technical training for men to act as managers, it will
be impossible to have a wide extension of that method.
Now in regard to water, I wish I could help out Mr. Black, of Selkirk.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
49
I know a city that eleven years ago charged the fire department $54,000
for water. This year it is charging the department $700,000 for water
and shows a profit. If water rates are too high for the poor people, do
not reduce the water rates, but make a minimum charge; that is, allow a
certain amount of water for a flat rate that anybody could pay and then
meter the rest. You must supply manufacturing concerns, hotels and
big houses. Perhaps when the cost of meters go down--they are tre-
mendous now—they will be more generally used. In several American
cities the adoption of the meter system almost cut the water consumption
in two. There is no reason why Ottawa should use 200 gallons per capita
per day. There is no reason why we should average more than 70 gallons
a day. If any of you have any information that would be of service in
making a study of this subject it will help me out.
EVENING SESSION, MONDAY, MAY 28
,
At an informal reception and supper, held in the Royal Alexandra
hotel, a number of addresses were delivered on civic problems. Mr.
G. W. Markle, chairman, introduced Mr. G. Frank Beer, of Toronto, as
the first speaker.
MR. G. FRANK BEER: If the present war has not destroyed our na-
tional tendency to favour a policy of 'drift' we have not learned one of its
chief lessons. The price of intelligent action is intelligent thinking and
planning. We can drift into social evils and national dangers, but we
shall never drift into national security and social well-being. Drift is
never intelligent, never remedial, never constructive. It is equally
dangerous and costly.
We have been slow to recognize that the principles governing private
business apply equally to the conduct of public affairs. Yet the failure
to adopt sound business methods in the carrying on of public affairs
involves annually a loss greater than the losses occasioned by all the
failures of private enterprise. In the one case the creditors are com-
paratively few, while in the other we are all creditors and all share in the
losses.
It is evident that we do not, as we should, recognize the union of
interests which exists between citizens and the state. To many persons
the administration of public business is a matter of comparative indif-
ference. President Butler of Columbia University has well pointed out
that "the political vitality and integrity of a modern state must rest in
the last instance upon the character and clearness of the political opinions
held by men who are without official station. No administrative vigour
and no legislative wisdom can long survive in the vacuum of public ig-
norance and indifference.” If we are to make social progress as communi-
50
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
ties and national progress as a state, personal interest in matters relating
to public government must be deepened and quickened. We should
now, as in the days of the Greek republics, regard a man who takes no
interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless, character.
The objects of representative government call for restatement.
Governments are representative only in so far as community interests are
dominant. The duties delegated to our parliamentary representatives
need a new and clearer definition. For instance, if, as electors, we really
desire that they shall have the so-called political patronage of their
constituencies, we should not be ashamed to state this fact openly and
formally. Let us not blame governments only for the waste and in-
efficiency for which, we, through our chosen representatives, are directly
responsible. There is, at least, honesty in clear definitions.
Some two hundred years or more ago the people of Great Britain
framed a memorable declaration as to their rights and liberties. Later
days have brought new issues. It would be well for Canada, if there
were now framed for it a declaration of duties and responsibilities—the
duties and responsibilities inseparable from Canadian citizenship. To-
day, as never before, the interests of the state and the common interests
of society immeasurably exceed the interests of persons, provinces or
political parties. Democracy means nothing ennobling, nothing progres-
sive, if it means less than the largest common measure of responsibilities
shared in friendly and equitable co-operation.
If governments do not always sufficiently recognize their duty as
the executive and administrative head of the state, it may be equally
true that we, on our part, fail to recognize as we should our duty as citizens.
If we fail to inculcate these duties in the minds of our boys and girls,
national spirit will surely decay. Instead of the increase in social progress
for which we hope and work, we shall lose the measure of it which we now
enjoy; for social progress is governed by the measure of responsibility
which we attach to citizenship. Without community consciousness
social progress is impossible.
What I have stated has a direct bearing upon the objects of this
conference. As the interests of the state and of its individual members
constitute but one problem, so the development of rural and urban
communities constitutes one problem. Community interests cannot be
dissociated. No greater dis-service can be done the state than to empha-
size local as opposed to common interests. Society becomes strong and
races develop in proportion as they learn to co-operate. Influences
which weaken and obstruct are invariably antagonistic to co-operation.
Selfishness, the greatest of all enemies to social progress, lies at the heart
of this antagonism.
We are met to consider matters which affect the satisfactory and pro-
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
51
gressive development of rural and urban communities. Town planning,
the title commonly applied to the subject of our conference, is simply
nation building reduced to every-day problems and every-day work,
but to understand rightly the objects of town planning one must become
conscious of its spirit. Co-operation is its purpose and recommendation.
It means only intelligent citizenship, but meaning this, does there remain
anything further to be said in its favour?
IRELAND'S CONTRIBUTION
THE MARCHIONESS OF ABERDEEN expressed her pleasure at being
present at the conference and gave some illustrations of the share which
Ireland-now, she hoped, about to emerge from the troubles which had so
long vexed her people—had taken in the war. Continuing, she said:
To the recruitment in Ireland itself of between 130,000 and 150,000
soldiers must be added the number of Irishmen who have joined British
regiments. The young people of Ireland, who can not find employment
at home, have emigrated by thousands. Many of them have gone
overseas, mostly to the United States; but many have found work in
England and Scotland, and, upon the outbreak of war, joined the regi-
ments recruiting there to the number, it is calculated, of 170,000 over
and above the Irish enlistments.
Nor has Ireland's contribution to the war stopped there. Since the
passage of the Land Purchase Act, agriculture has improved. In the year
before the war Ireland exported to Britain more foodstuffs than any other
country in the world, with the exception of the United States, and the lat-
ter is not far ahead. The value totals some £33,000,000; but since the
war, this has reached nearly £60,000,000. In 1916, 83,000 acres of new
land came into cultivation, and in the present year the area under culti-
vation has grown by no less than 750,000 acres. These facts must be
borne in mind in regarding Ireland's contributions to the empire's war
resources.
There is a close connection between Ireland and the subjects held in
view by the Civic Improvement League of Canada. The conditions
under which the working classes of Ireland live are often those such as you
are labouring to prevent or remove in Canada. Lord Aberdeen and I
have had ample opportunity to learn at first hand the needs of the Irish
people in respect to child welfare, housing and other social conditions.
We have recognized that the people of Great Britain have had great calls
upon their generosity, and have, therefore, come to America to appeal
to the descendants of the Irish who have settled here for aid in the work
of civic improvement in Ireland, commenced in Ireland just before the war
broke out. Thirty per cent of the inhabitants of Dublin live in one-room
tenements, and another twenty-two per cent in two-room dwellings.
52
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
The old, decaying residences, occupied at one time by the well-to-do
classes, but now by the poorer classes, have often had nothing done to
them since their former occupants abandoned them.
The alarming mortality among children under one year old, not only
in Ireland, but in England also, must be seriously considered. It serves
to illustrate the need for facilities for dispelling ignorance and improving
the conditions of life for the Irish people. Despite the war, they have,
fortunately, been able to sustain the social welfare work commenced,
and have formed more than eighty associations similar in objects to the
Civic Improvement Leagues of Canada.
I earnestly appeal to Irish people and those of Irish extraction to
volunteer their aid in making a better state of living conditions possible
for the people in Ireland, especially those of the large towns and cities.
MRS. ADAM SHORTT: I want to say a few words respecting the re-
lation of the home to civic problems. I know no problem concerning the
food supplies of my household that is not a civic problem. With present-
day opportunities of education and information, no housekeeper, who
sanely and wisely undertakes the responsibility of nourishing the bodies
and looking after the mental and moral surroundings of her family, can
close her eyes to where her food supplies come from. It surely is not all
that a woman can do to receive the meat at her back door and never ask
where it comes from or whether it is inspected meat or not. Surely no
woman who is conscious of her responsible position, can accept and feed
to her children milk of whose origin and the conditions surrounding the
transportation of which she is ignorant. Surely no woman can be ignorant
of or wilfully apathetic in regard to housing, sewage, the disposal of gar-
bage, or tuberculosis, the problem of mental deficiency or especially the
question of infantile mortality.
Winning the war is uppermost in our minds, and the question to-day
is how can those not at the front help most. A clarion call for conserva-
tion is sounding from the Pacific to the Atlantic; for conservation of adult
life, conservation of our returned wounded, conservation in the saving
of life and in promoting healthy conditions for the growth of small children
and healthy adults. Surely there never was a time when the call for pre-
servation of human life, when the call for the preservation of infantile life,
was so great, so peremptory as it is to-day. Those are forms of conser-
vation in which every Civic Improvement League is interested. But
the one that is loudest and most insistent to-day is for the conservation
of food, for the practise of thrift. Appeals have been issued for greater
production, and, to a certain extent, they have been answered, but the
farmer is without the man-power to even plant and reap what he would
have done in other and better times. It is pathetic to see the tens of
.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
53
thousands of acres in this broad Dominion untilled, when in every
municipality we hear the call for the cultivation of the little back yards.
We have surely come to a time when the women can help as never
before. What are we to do in the face of a food shortage? Every thinking
person knows that sane people eat to live, and do not live to eat. Now
what must we eat to live? There must be a wide-spread educational
effort made to teach people what is the science of good living. Everybody
should know that certain foods give us the material requisite for growth,
or for repair, or for producing energy. We must know the qualities of
foods if we are to keep our bodies in a state of maximum efficiency.
Furthermore, we must know what are the available substitutes in order
to conserve wheat and meat.
There should be an appeal to save and produce made from every
pulpit in this country to the people. If it is made clear enough it will not
fail. Unless we can bring the appeal to the masses, we shall not succeed
as we should. If we can hold the second line while our boys at the front
hold the first, we shall, at any rate, have done our part in national service
and have helped to 'carry on' to the last ditch and to bring victory home
to serve our nation.
THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Thomas Adams, of the Commission of Conser-
vation, will report on the general progress the Civic Improvement Leagues
are making, and Ald. Kelly will bring greetings from the Civic Improve-
ment League at Halifax, and Mr. Philip from that at London, Ont.
NR. THOMAS ADAMS: Only some seven per cent of the people of
Canada are at the front fighting our battles, 93 per cent are at home
providing the munitions of war, whether they are shells, or wheat, or beef,
or other commodities. Yet we are sometimes told that when we are at
war we have, as it were, a house on fire, and our whole duty should be to
put out the fire. Well, that is true, if we remember that the water which
is used to put out the fire has to be provided by the people at home,
that our men who are beating down the flames depend upon us for the
water.
We all know that at present we are suffering from land speculation
in the past, and as a consequence are to-day faced with seriously diminished
production. We have been devoting our attention to planning land for
the purpose of its speculative use instead of its productive use. Even
to-day there are men in this country who are, consciously or uncon-
sciously, using this need of production for purposes of speculation. We
want to safeguard ourselves from such profit and concentrate our forces
to increase production, to conserve food and to prevent exploitation of
our citizens by selfish interests.
Now at the root of these problems there is the question of planning
and developing the land. You cannot get effective co-operation, you can-
54
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
not get effective statistical information, you cannot organize a satis-
factory system of rural credit, you cannot properly organize your muni-
cipalities, while land settlement is so widely scattered. Only some 20
per cent of the land which is sub-divided is really in process of cultivation,
-or certainly not more than 30 per cent, if you include pasture land and
land in the state of fallow. The land in cultivation represents only about
one-fifth of what has been disposed of. Where is the other four-fifths ?
It constitutes a barrier between the consumer and the producer, it means
so many more miles of bad roads to be travelled over to bring the produce
from the farm to the market, it means that much of our most fertile and
accessible land is not producing at the moment when food is scarce and
dear. Our greatest need in Canada is to conserve life, to provide us with
the human energy necessary to convert our natural resources to human
use. Lady Aberdeen referred to high mortality figures in England, but
England has a death rate of only 14 per 1,000 as against our 17.2 per 1,000
in Quebec. We have 17 per 1,000 in some of our Canadian cities as
against 14 per 1,000 deaths in the city of New York, with all its conges-
tion and all its slums. This waste of life is the problem that affects us
here at home. We are allowing children to die in Canada because of
neglect and indifference, we are losing valuable young lives when the
most valuable production of this country is young lives.
Next in importance to the conservation of life, is the conservation
of human skill. The farmer wants labour, but he wants more skilled
men rather than more men. We want more tractors on the farms and
more men with skill, because every skilled labourer will help to give
employment to several unskilled labourers. Production is the only basis
of wealth, and the only means to secure increased production is by con-
serving and educating the people. This question is being dealt with by
Civic Improvement Leagues in every province. In Halifax, Mr. Kelly
is secretary of an active league, which has the same difficulties as the leagues
in every province. The prominent men in the city seem to stand off,
they are not so hearty in their interest as they might be; some of them are
active and enthusiastic and doing all they can while others fight against
progress. What is the chief foe? It is not any direct and intelligent op-
position, but simply a sort of indifference to the problem because it is not
understood. In New Brunswick, Mr. Burditt represents the Town Plan-
ning Commission, which is planning an area of 20,000 acres, of which he
will tell you to-morrow. Lady Aberdeen told us that when they came to
solve the housing problem of Dublin, they started to prepare a town plan;
when we come to solve housing conditions in any of our municipalities,
the first thing we will have to do is to plan for healthy building develop-
ment. As for Quebec, the Montreal League is the oldest in Canada.
It will be referred to by Mr. Covert later on. In Ontario, we have a
number of leagues, including several in Toronto, where splendid work is
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
55
being done by Dr. Brittain's Bureau of Municipal Research. We have
in Ottawa an active league, of which the Hon. Sydney Fisher is chairman
and Mrs. Shortt is a member. All these leagues have dealt with or are
dealing with the questions of assessment and taxation, of abattoirs,
industrial farms and other questions. We also have activity in Hamilton,
in London and in other cities. In Port Arthur, a splendid group of men,
with Mr. Milne as secretary, is actively engaged in civic improvement.
In the western provinces we have not yet formed Civic Improvement
Leagues to any large extent, but as far as Vancouver we have groups of
men engaged in the work of promoting leagues for the whole of the coast
districts. I need not refer to Winnipeg; that is a question which relates to
your own district, but we are awaiting the time when we will have leagues
all round this city. The Commission of Conservation is only interested
in this matter because it recognizes the fact that you cannot make much
progress in a democratic country unless you educate the people to appre-
ciate the effect of the legislation which you introduce; you must make them
realize that the most important thing is not to pass acts of parliament,
but to administer them properly. Legislation cannot be effective unless
the people are educated to appreciate it. We want to make the people
feel that they want these acts of parliament rather than that we are im-
posing acts which they do not want.
I have had an opportunity during the last few weeks of studying
conditions in certain rural districts, in which I find that the degeneration
and the poverty is worse than in some of our city slums. We want to
look to that problem, especially when we remember that some people are
suggesting the placing of returned soldiers on isolated rural lands, where
it is possible we may be doing them a dis-service instead of a service.
We want to give these men something that is worthy of the efforts and the
heroism which they have shown on behalf of our country, and we want to
plan those new settlements so that they will enjoy social facilities and edu-
cation and co-operation.
MR. F. A. COVERT (Montreal): The Montreal Civic Improvement
League is able to report progress during the past twelve months. We
have secured greater cleanliness and greatly benefited and bettered the
public health of the metropolis of Canada. We are also discussing in a
quiet way the problems of housing in Montreal. Our league took active
steps last January to influence public opinion in favour of a town-planning
act for the province of Quebec. The suggestion was favourably received
by the Government, and we understand a bill will be introduced to provide
for better town-planning facilities for the province.
We have recently formed a committee, with Fire Chief Tremblay
at its head, for the purpose of going into the legal aspect of the fire laws,
as it applies to the province of Quebec. Our fire laws seem to make it
easy, as our Fire Chief says, for certain people to make a business of having
56
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
V
fires, and he is studying preventive legislation to be placed before the
Provincial Legislature.
We have appointed a strong committee in Montreal to study the drug
habit, so that we may be able to go to the Legislature or the Parliament of
Canada, backed up, I hope, by the various leagues throughout Canada,
and ask for the most drastic laws to prevent the spread of this habit.
We are going to ask the city to pass a by-law to prevent the selling
of second-hand clothing or furniture without disinfection, or at least to
prevent their being sold before being passed by a city inspector.
If there has been one feature or one problem which has come to the
front more in this conference than any other problem, it is that of securing
clean and efficient municipal government, and I believe that this is an
outstanding phase of Civic Improvement League progress. At the annual
meeting of our league the executive was instructed to take steps to form
in Montreal a commission for the purpose of educating our citizens in the
operation and function of good civic government. We also intend to
form a junior Civic Improvement League so that we can implant in the
boys and girls, who in a few years will exercise the franchise, the proper
civic ideals.
MR. ALD. KELLY extended greetings from the Halifax Civic Improve-
ment League.
MR. GORDON PHILIP (London): In London we have formed a branch
of the Civic Improvement League. As a result of a meeting held last
December a resolution was sent to Toronto, which we followed up later
by representatives, asking the Provincial Government to form a depart-
ment of municipal affairs, and to pass a town-planning act. Our efforts,
along with the efforts of other civic improvement organizations throughout
Ontario, were successful, and a department of municipal affairs has been
established in Ontario. We also have a town-planning act, although,
perhaps it is not yet all that could be desired. On behalf of that part of
the Dominion I think I can say that we are ready and willing to do what
we can to advance the work which has been started by the Commission
of Conservation.
TUESDAY, MAY 29-MORNING SESSION
T
At the morning session the chair was occupied by Hon. Valentine
Winkler, Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba, who, in opening the
meeting, said: The subject under discussion this morning is 'Production
and Distribution'. There is nothing more vital to the people of western
Canada than this. To produce it is necessary to have population. In
the older countries great anxiety is caused by the threatened depopulation
of the rural districts, and even in Manitoba, practically a new province,
we hear the cry of 'back to the land'. It is not so much a 'back to the
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
57
land' movement as a 'stay on the land' movement that we need. We
ought to keep the boys and girls, the farmers' daughters and sons, on the
land. To do that it is nescessary to make farm life comfortable and con-
venient. Much has been done to accomplish this. We now have the rural
telephone, the automobile and very much better roads. In Manitoba
we have a Good Roads Act, under which our roads are being improved.
We have also what is still a greater utility in our electric power.
In Manitoba perhaps more water-power is going to waste than in any other
province or state on the North American continent. Winnipeg has har-
nessed a considerable portion of that power, almost enough to supply
the whole province. That this electric power may be available for general
use by the people of Manitoba, all that is necessary is a trunk transmission
line throughout the different parts of the province.
Distribution is our most important problem. Geographically, we are
in a very awkward position; we are far from the seaside and consequently
our freight rates are high. To overcome this handicap all our products
should be concentrated as much as possible. I feel that our wheat ought
to be made into flour here, and the bran and shorts returned back to the
farmer. This would be an incentive to the greater production of both
hogs and cattle.
I will now call on Dr. Robertson.
Rural Production and Development
BY
DR. JAS. W. ROBERTSON
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It is not my intention to
attempt an elaborate exposition or description of rural production. It is
my hope that I may be able to present a few statements of facts and some
ideas and suggestions which may be useful, particularly to those who are
actively engaged in occupations concerned with production from farms.
Foods and the raw materials for clothing come almost wholly from farms.
Fish is an important exception. But in Canada many of the fishermen
are also farmers. In some countries rural production includes the manu-
facture of many articles not made from farm crops. Belgium had de-
veloped a combination of agriculture with industrial production. The
northern and eastern parts of France were noted for carrying on success-
fully a union of intensive agriculture and small industries. Such in-
dustries as weaving and the making of brushes, boots and shoes, lace,
straw hats, bolts and nuts, paper knives and fans were carried on ex-
tensively by the same people who cultivated the land. While these are small
industries the annual output amounted to very large quantities; and the
prosperity of large areas has been attributed to the diversified occupations
58
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
of those who lived on and cultivated the land. The development of the
people themselves and the satisfaction they gained from making useful,
and in many cases beautiful, articles were in themselves accounted as
very valuable, in addition to the money revenues and other economic
gains.
Although manufactured articles are now being made in Canada al-
most exclusively in towns and cities, we must not forget that that is a
modern adjustment, which may not be permanently satisfactory. Cheap-
ness in goods may be obtained at too high a cost-even at the expense of
the quality of life and the opportunities for decent, wholesome living of
the workers who produce them.
In the large, rural production must include the production, by
development, of a rural civilization through which individuals and com-
munities may realize their highest and best possibilities. That implies an
intelligent organization of the planning and effort of individuals and com-
munities to bring about conditions which are favourable to that end.
While farming, as a rural occupation, is followed to earn a living, it is also,
by the nature of its setting and its activities, "a way of living." To a
thoughtful worker its reactions are highly educational on both his capacity
and character. It makes contributions in things and qualities essential
to stable, prosperous national life. The most obvious of these contribu-
tions are food products, and other forms of wealth such as farms, homes,
roads, etc. Besides, there are developments of qualities of human
character and the social organization of some parts of a community and
a nation preparing and sustaining a basis for a high civilization.
Fertile productive land is required for the sustenance of a large
population. Its wise use is essential to the advancement of civilization.
The nation is concerned very intimately with the way in which land is
controlled as to its ownership, concerned as to the way in which land is
used, and the way in which land is being developed. I will read to you
a brief extract from a speech by Ex-President Taft, one of the wise men
of the continent and the century: "In considering the conservation of
the natural resources of the country, the feature that transcends all others,
including woods, waters and minerals, is the soil of the country. It is
incumbent upon the government to foster by all available means the re-
sources of the country that produce the food of the people. To this
end the conservation of the soils of the country should be cared for with
all the means at the government's disposal”-should be cared for with all
the means at the government's disposal. The development of agricultural
land for the most profitable use for the present should always be part of
a plan to prepare that land for being used still better in time to come.
If we consider the ultimate object of cultivating land, we will put more
wisdom as well as energy into our attempts. That ultimate object is
nothing less than ministering to the advancement of civilization.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
59
In brief, in the consideration of rural production there will be some
help towards clear thinking and wise planning by bearing in mind at least
three objects to be attained: First, the development of the occupation of
farming, to make it more profitable and more satisfying to those who
follow it; second, the development of rural production, to enable and
cause it to contribute more and more to the prosperity and well-being of
the nation; and, third, to enable and cause the occupations and the other
interests of rural life to minister more and more to the advancement of
civilization itself.
The farmer's occupation is primarily directed to produce food and
the raw materials for clothing, such as wool and cotton. He has to move
and manage soil, select seeds and grow crops. Through these he collects
sun-power into usable forms for the sustenance and service of the race.
His business is to make arrangements, and carry them out as far as he
can, whereby some of the power of Old Father Sun will be captured by
wheat plants, potato plants and other plants. When these and their
products are consumed as food the captured sun power is set free inside
the eater and keeps him going. For carrying on that difficult and in-
dispensable service, surely the farmer is entitled to a reasonable and
satisfying share of what is produced. That share is what is known as
wages and profit. He only is a really good farmer who grows crops at
their largest and best, increases the fertility of the soil, develops the power
of the plant, augments the service rendered to the community and im-
proves the beauty of the place.
Canada has in use about 28,000,000 acres of field crops to capture sun
power. Probably 20,000,000 acres of that area are in these three Western
Provinces. Is the fertility of the soil being kept up, is it being exhausted,
is it being increased ? To get an answer, the Commission of Conservation
carried out a survey of 2,245 farms. We asked questions of 2,245 farmers
located all over Canada. We took them in groups of about thirty or
forty-in all about sixty groups, from British Columbia to Prince Edward
Island. On this point we made a definite enquiry of the farmer as to
whether the fertility of his farm was being maintained or was deteriorating.
Here is the answer: 30 per cent of them reported about the same yield per
acre as twenty years ago, 40 per cent reported some increase in yield, and
30 per cent reported some decrease, as compared with twenty years ago.
That is to say, the land, as used by 30 per cent of all the men reporting,
was poorer in its power to produce crops, than it was twenty years before.
From Manitoba, 32 per cent of the farmers reported about the same
yield per acre as 10 years before; not one man reported an increase;
and 46 per cent reported some decrease in the yield per acre. That is a
summary of the answers to the question when put under an intelligently
conducted survey.
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
We want in Canada more serious and intelligently conducted surveys
of our conditions in order that we may acquire real knowledge of facts
as they are. Then we can come to conclusions and plan our course of
action to deal with the facts discovered and properly interpreted. In
the West the lure of land was for a time similar to the lure of the Yukon;
and the lure of the Yukon in the main led on to disappointed men, de-
teriorated health, and parts of the Yukon left with less material sub-
stance that could be called wealth than it had before. There is some
excuse for the pioneers taking more than one generation's share of the
fertility stored in soil by the beneficence of nature during long ages of
preparation. In the pioneer days they needed and had some right to
more than their share of this store of natural wealth while making the
place ready for occupation; but after that first need is satisfied it becomes
their duty to make the place more fertile while in their hands.
The history of other countries and other farmers sheds light on our
problems; and we may be instructed, to our great advantage, by their
experience. In central New York wheat growing was followed success-
fully for forty years. During twenty years more the success was doubt-
ful. Then it became definitely unprofitable. With a climate favourable
for agriculture and propitious for crop-growing, it took forty years of
exclusive grain growing to make that system unprofitable, and twenty
years more to compel the farmers to stop that sort of practice. Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and other Western States either have or are making
similar history. I have gone over them and talked to the old men;
from 30 bushels of wheat to the acre they came down to 14.
Where do we find any example of the opposite kind ? Do you
remember that enquiry: "Can anything worth while come out of Judea ?”
one of the despised places of the time. An American scientist, a great
agriculturist, Professor King, of Wisconsin, went to China on a mission
to study its farming, and to see how he could help China by the ap-
plication of modern methods based on science. In China, where cycles
of centuries have succeeded centuries, with a dense population gathering
their living from the soil, he had to admit that they had developed such
a system of farming that there was no way in which western science
could aid them. The Chinaman knows how to grow beans, or some plant
like beans; and thus out of the inexhaustible stores in the atmosphere he
gathers nitrogen for the enrichment of his soil. He saves and applies
all material having manurial values. He grows legumes. He follows a
systematic rotation of crops. He keeps down weeds. There is no other
way. The place is doomed, doomed to exhaustion of its fertility, if the
farmer cannot or will not grow clover, or alfalfa, or beans, or peas in be-
tween the other crops. Japan is another example. In this time of stress,
until quite recently, many thousands of tons of shipping were used by
the British to carry beans from China and Japan to Britain. They grew
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
61
so many beans that they could spare them for other nations, besides fur-
nishing food for themselves and enriching the land.
We can afford to take a lesson from even our enemy in the war.
Germany is a country with a soil which on the whole is not naturally
very fertile. Within about 30 years she had been able to effect an increase
of about 30 per cent in the yields per acre of her crops. On the other hand,
over large areas of Canada our methods of farming are exhausting the fer-
tility of our farms to some extent; and there is danger that the fertility
of considerable areas will be reduced below the point of profitable farming.
Let me direct your earnest attention to the need of increased produc-
tion of foods at the present time. Every nation in the war is, officially
and unofficially, doing its best to contribute its utmost so that the com-
mon and united effort will bring victory to our arms and cause. We in
Canada say we are doing or are going to do that. At this time the food
supply in Europe of our Allies is the gravest problem they have to face.
There has not hitherto been a more perilous condition of uncertainty
regarding the outcome of the war. That is owing to the danger that
there may not be a sufficient supply of suitable foods for the armies and
the civilian populations of the allied nations in Europe.
The world is face to face with a food shortage of very grave propor-
tions. So great is that shortage that one cannot hope that the pro-
duction of the present year or next year will overtake it. Unparalleled
though the efforts of farmers have been and will continue to be, the
world can hardly escape the danger of famine until the 1918 crop is har-
vested. Even under the most favourable of climatic conditions it will
be some years before the world is again producing foodstuffs sufficient
for its usual needs. And just when this food shortage is upon us, men and
women in war work are being called upon to put forth efforts that are
unprecedented in history and for which they require an abundance of the
most nourishing foods. It is in view of these facts that the appeal is
being made for greater and still greater production. We know that the
farmer is a hard working man; that he is already driving himself almost
to the limit of endurance. Under the circumstances he becomes impatient
of urging and has a right to resent outside meddling. We feel, however,
that too much cannot be done to let him know the facts, believing that
with the facts fully before him he will continue to throw the last ounce
of his industry and intelligence into the work of relieving the situation.
The causes of the world wide shortage are cumulative.
Causes of the
Food Shortage
There was a general shortage in the northern hemi-
sphere last year of the five big cereal crops, wheat, corn,
rye, barley and oats. Of these crops 1,968,000,000 bushels less were
produced in 1916 than in 1915, or about two and a half times the
total quantity of these crops raised annually in Canada. Even in
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COMMISSION OF CONSERAVTION
normal peace times this shortage would have been serious, but its
seriousness is greatly accentuated by the war. The shortage was due to
several causes. One of these was the weather, over which, of course,
there was no human control. The chief cause, however, was the with-
drawal of labour from farm production. About 24,000,000 men are at
present under arms, and it has been estimated that since the beginning of
the war about 40,000,000 have been in active war service. Probably
60 per cent of these came from farms. A great part of the French army
was recruited from rural districts, the skilled mechanics of the cities
being retained for munitions making. The same is true of Italy and her
army. The Russian army also is widely recruited from the farming
classes. Coming nearer home, we have an enormous withdrawal, com-
paratively speaking, from the farms of Western Canada, while in Eastern
Canada, besides the enlistment in large numbers from among the farm
workers, there has been a tremendous flow of men attracted by the high
wages paid for munitions making toward the manufacturing centres.
Altogether, a conservative estimate would place the total number of men.
withdrawn from agriculture for fighting and munition making in the bel-
ligerent countries at some 30,000,000.
The scarcity of food has been accentuated to a considerable extent
by losses due to destruction by submarines. For a long time 50 per cent of
the cargo capacity of most ships crossing the Atlantic was reserved for
food stuffs. Many of these ships have been sunk, as have also doubtless
many others which were loaded solely with food products. Of the food
supplies which were still available after these great losses, it cannot be said
that they had been husbanded to the best advantage. The temporary
prosperity of munition workers, many of whom are receiving higher wages
than ever before, has resulted in extravagant buying and living. Taking
all these factors into consideration it is no exaggeration to say that the
world at present faces a food situation that is nothing short of appalling.
Greater
All this has occurred in the face of a campaign for
Production greater production. But we must not now slacken
our efforts. The logical sequence to the work that
has been done for greater production is to follow it by a further
campaign for still greater production. We should use all the experience
we have thus far gained in planning and carrying forward a campaign
for larger acreages and higher yields in 1918 and the years that are to fol-
low. We can better meet the needs of the Allies by the production of
food than by any other service. The farmers of North America are in a
better position than those of any other great wheat producing section of
the globe for contributing to the food needs of the armies in Europe.
A given tonnage of shipping can carry over twice as much grain from Amer-
ica as from Argentina and three times as much as from Australia or New
Zealand. It is vital at this juncture and will continue vital until the end
for 1918
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
63
of the war that shipping be employed on the routes where it can be used
to greatest advantage. One of the most effective ways to conserve
shipping is to provide as large a proportion as possible of the food require-
ments of the Allies from North America.
The urgent question, therefore, is to discover the methods by which
we can increase our exportable surplus. This surplus can be augmented
in three ways: First, by increased production; second, by the elimination
of waste; and third, by the shifting of consumption on this continent from
foods the armies and civilian populations of the Allies need to those which
cannot be sent forward for their use.
There is no reason why Canada should not adjust its eating to help
the war situation. It might not for a time be cheaper or convenient.
It might not pay, but who is talking of making money out of the risks we
run of losing the war. If a widespread campaign, with clear statements
and enthusiasm, could shift our home consumption from wheat flour to
oatmeal and cornmeal, to the extent of at least half, we would provide
millions of bushels more in the year for the armies and the Allies. We
ought to do it. It would be a great help. There will be on this continent
plenty and to spare of corn and oats; there may not be enough wheat to
spare for the needs of the armies. To do this is a patriotic duty and war
service. There will not be enough to go round unless we save and prevent
waste.
Much can be done to increase the exportable surplus
Elimination of
by the elimination of waste. The total amount of
food wasted in a country like Canada is enormous.
That total is made up of the aggregate of small wastes. In many
towns, organizations have been formed for the purpose of edu-
cating the people in methods of preventing waste. People also need
education regarding the amount of food necessary to maintain the body
in a healthy condition. They require to be taught what quantities and
kinds of food constitute a maintenance ration. It should, for example,
be made common knowledge as to what would constitute a maintenance
ration for a week for a family of five. All that is saved from any form
of waste would go to swell the exportable surplus which is so much needed
to relieve the pressure of partial famine in Europe.
The exportable surplus of wheat, beef and bacon and
The Shifting
of Consumption
their products can be materially increased by shifting
consumption from these products to cornmeal, oatmeal,
vegetables, fish and other food materials which cannot be exported or
are not so desirable for that purpose as wheat, beef and bacon. It is
not generally known that when properly cooked one pound of oatmeal
has a nutrient value equal to two dozen eggs or to one and three-quarter
pounds of beef. One pound of beans contains food elements equal
Waste
64
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
to one and one-half pounds of beef. Three pounds of potatoes
and one pound of cheese are equivalent to three and one-quarter
pounds of beef. In the United States a great effort is being made to
stimulate the consumption of corn with the object of saving wheat.
A saving of almost 50 per cent can be effected in the consumption of wheat
products by a family without hardship. It is easier for us to make this
shift in consumption than for the men at the front. Living under such an
enormous strain as they are it would impair their fighting efficiency to
make a radical change in their rations to food materials with which they
are not familiar. We on whom the strain falls lightly in comparison
can shift our consumption very largely. Here again the aggregation of
a great number of small savings would amount to a very great total;
and that total would go to swell the exportable surplus of those food
products which are most desirable in feeding the splendid men who are
opposing German arrogance and military barbarism on the battle lines
in Belgium and France.
How can we bring about an increase of production? What are the
factors that enter into what I shall here call the operations of farming?
Soil fertility; temperatures and rainfall; systematic rotation of crops;
cultivations; selection of seeds; labour; machinery, tools, and equipment;
live stock: Some of these are only partially within the control of the far-
mer and then subject to limitations caused by seasons, weather, markets,
available labour, etc. I shall not attempt a discussion of each; but hope
I may serve you by a few observations upon those factors through which
intelligent control may accomplish most.
As to soil fertility: In these western provinces and all over
Canada the one element of plant food that becomes seriously scarce is
nitrogen in some form of nitrates. Over every acre of land there rests
in the atmosphere enough nitrogen for a million and a half crops of wheat.
It is at the disposal of whoever is wise enough and capable enough to bring
it into his service. That is where the clover, pea and bean plants become
the capturing workers. Recently water-powers, through the agency of elec-
tricity, have been used to fix a small part of that nitrogen and make it
available as a fertilizer. There are other advantages through growing
nitrogen collecting plants. The decaying remains of roots and other parts
of plants in the soils enable them to retain moisture. You know nature
is a very marvellous manager and farming is a most complex and difficult
occupation. The cooks, the agents that prepare in the soil the food that
plants must get through their roots, are myriads and myriads of bacteria.
Without the work of these lowly forms of life, crops could not be grown,
and the bacteria cannot live unless there are in the soil the decaying roots
and other parts of previous crops. Their fibre also holds the soil in
position. I have seen parts of the countryside where, by foolish farming,
the fibre had been so utterly destroyed that the winds of spring swept
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
65
the surface clean off, and sometimes caried the seed with it. A systematic
rotation of crops helps to conserve and increase soil fertility. The Com-
mission of Conservation survey of farms disclosed that over Canada a
systematic rotation of crops was followed on 28 per cent of the farms.
The power of the plant, to overcome obstacles in
Selection of
Seed
finding and assimilating the food which it takes in
through its leaves and roots, is determined by the kind
of seed it comes from. That is the essence of being thoroughbred, being
able to overcome obstacles of all kinds. Certain plants have that quality
more than others, and their seed will give plants that can do that better
than others.
It is quite certain that if the crops in these three western provinces
last year had all been grown from selected seed, there would have been,
from the same soil, the same labour and the same climate, not less than
70,000,000 bushels more grain. With a rich soil and a favourable season,
there is not so much advantage. Under those conditions a feebler
plant can get its living and accumulate a surplus, but when conditions are
difficult and the season unfavourable, then the selected seed gives a plant
with power to overcome these difficulties in an increasing measure.
That indicates the advantage of having all the farms sown with selected
seeds. The selected seed gives an assurance of the biggest and best crops
that the soil and the climatic conditions will permit for the season. Seven-
teen years ago, I began a competition for boys and girls all over Canada
in which they were to select the big heads of grain on their fathers' farms.
I got a great response and the competition began over the width of Canada
with 1,500 boys and girls in it. At the end of three years the evidence
was that those who had followed systematic selection had made gains,
in quantity and quality, equal to about 30 per cent of the yield. From
that competition arose the Canadian Seed Growers' Association; and now
the grain sown on thousands of farms in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta is grain improved by selection according to the plan of the Cana-
dian Seed Growers' Association.
It is necessary to improve live stock in a similar way; but I shall not
discuss that question this morning. However, before I leave this part of
my theme I wish to submit a few illustrations to prove that the things
I am talking of are not merely theories but are statements of facts and
conclusions from those facts. In the survey of farms conducted by the
Commission of Conservation, to which I have already alluded, we had in
mind always the advantage of preserving a sense of proportion between
the collection of information and the action that should follow the collec-
tion and interpretation. The Commission inspected these 2,245 farms
and kept records. By examining the reports it is found that the ten best
managed farms out of every one hundred gave about 50 per cent more crops
66
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
to the acre and more than 50 per cent more profits to the farmer than the
average of all the other farms surveyed. That is fact, not theory. If
by any means the other farmers could be led to follow similar systems and
methods and to do their work as well, the result would be 50 per cent
more yield in crops. Of course, I know that it is not pssible at once to
change all the minds and change all the methods, but we can work towards
that end; and 50 per cent more yield in our crops last year would have
meant 400,000,000 bushels more grain in Canada. And that is not all
that may be accomplished; that is not the end. Of these farmers, who
were at the top in our surveys in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Pro-
vinces, 22 were chosen as Illustration Farmers. We sent one of the
Commission's expert counsellors to visit those Illustration Farmers
three or four times a year-not to make them do what we wanted, but to
offer them counsel, to help them to utilize the best knowledge and judg-
ment that any of us had for use on their farms. What was the result?
On these best farms, which were already much above the average, after
three years, the Illustration Farmers reported that their business had
been bettered in crops and profits from 10 per cent to 30 per cent The
best men were thus still going forward and going up. The possible
improvement is incapable of exhaustion.
Better
We need more and better organization of our forces,
Organization in two spheres. Better organization is needed on the
Necessary
individual farm as a going concern-as a producing
and business undertaking under the management of the farmer. And
better organization is required in respect to the public services out-
side the farm, which may and should contribute to the advancement
of rural production and the betterment of rural life. At this near-
the-end stage of my address there is time only to mention, but not
to discuss fully, the main points.
On the farm: The farmer can and must organize his own general
and particular kinds of ability for use in the management of his business,
and in doing the work of the farm. In large measure, whether the largest
and best crops shall be gained from a constantly improving soil depends
on the capacity of the man. Capacity arises from understanding the
system of farming which is suited to his land, his means and his available
markets. It includes the making and carrying out of definite plans,
and also ability to perform the skilled labour of farming and to utilize
to advantage other labour, including that of men, horses and machinery.
For the development of such capacity and ability he must have suitable
education. Such education may be in part from schools, or reading, or
observing, or learning from discussions which bring out the truth; but
it will be, even through these as first agencies, from practical experience.
Here, as in all education worth the name, the first fruits and the ultimate
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
67
personal benefits will be an increase of intelligence, practical ability,
good judgment and co-operating good-will. These qualities, these powers
do not come by instinct or by intuition. They are developed by series
of experiences in observing, in gaining knowledge, in planning, in carrying
out plans, in recording results and in coming to general conclusions for
guidance in the next series of experiences. By such processes as these
the farmer learns to organize his personal powers and to develop them for
application to his business and work.
Outside the farm, the organization and development of public services
which aid rural production are going ahead rapidly. One needs only to
mention departments of agriculture, experimental farms, demonstration
farms, illustration farms, travelling instructors, district representatives,
field crop competitions, etc., to be reminded of the many forms of
organization of service outside the private farm, which are helping or are
intended to help and are capable of helping every farmer.
Steps have been taken to make credit, or the use of capital, available
to producing farmers. Capital, as I understand the thing itself as dis-
tinguished from the many pleasant names under which it hides its real
nature and its functions, is what is "left over" by a community or the race
at any time after it has consumed by living and using a part of what it
has produced. It is the “left-over" after the consumption and destruc-
tion by the tear and wear of living and eating from day to day. Many
of our economic difficulties and distresses have arisen from the control of
the ‘left-overs' having been allowed to pass into the hands of greedy and
selfish men who have not regarded themselves as trustees of the 'left-
overs. The uncontrolled personal and private control of the “left-overs'
of wealth is coming to an end. Efficient and effective public control will
put more of them at the service of producing workers, particularly, I
think, to aid rural production. Of course the rural producer must not
be given the place and power of controlling the 'left-over' for his personal
advantage as against the community to whom the thing itself really
belongs. The farmer must give security for wise use of the share of the
"left-over' or capital which is made available to him to enable him to
increase rural production. And he must give security to preserve and
return it intact, with interest, for further use by some other producer as
soon as he has accumulated enough 'left-overs,' of his own production,
to enable him to make the best practicable use of his land and available
labour. The length of time during which the use of capital loaned should
be assured to him will depend upon the object for which he wants or needs
the use of it. For buildings, live stock and machinery the term might
vary from 3 to 5 years, according to circumstances. For permanent
drainage the term might be longer. For specially useful seeds 2 years
might be necessary to enable him to return it and at the same time to
have an equivalent of 'left-over' or capital from his own production.
I
68
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
The thought I am trying to make clear is complex. I leave it by
stating that it seeks to get a correct conception of the fundamental
relation of capital to production and of the inherent right of the community
or people, through their laws and institutions, to control the use of all
‘left-overs' after the original producers and contributors have consumed
their share in living.
Some of the other services, outside the farm, which are in process of
better organization are storage facilities, methods of marketing and
transportation. The point I want to make is that all these services
should be controlled more and more to ensure that all charges for them
shall be only enough to provide moderate compensation for services
rendered between the rural producers and the urban consumers and,
vice versa, between the urban producers and the rural consumers.
It ought not to be beyond the resources of Western civilization'
to remove the obstacles to rural production caused by lands which are
withheld from use to obtain for their nominal owners an unearned or
community-created increase in value. To use a simile from the anecdote
of Stevenson, his original engine and the 'coo'. If the 'coo' does not
voluntarily get off the track, “it will be hard on the coo.”
In a word the increase and improvement of rural production and the
advancement of rural development are to be sought in order that benefits
may accrue to the occupations and to the characters and capacities of
individuals and communities; and in order that, through these, contribu-
tions of continuously increasing value may be made to national well-
being and to civilization itself. Some of the ways and means to be
immediately followed and used have been indicated. For us of this
generation the promised land may be only for our children. But if we
set our faces and our hands and our hearts, with resolution and diligence,
to such tasks as I have tried to outline we will make such contributions
of things, of intelligence, of ability to manage and of co-operating good-will
that we shall pass on to our children and their children the kinds of 'left-
overs' which will enable individuals and communities to realize their
highest and best possibilities through rural civilization.
MR. J. W. DAFOE: My experience of the farm, and I presume it is
the experience of many more in this gathering, was such that, at a very
early age, after a survey of the situation I took the stage for the city.
When I did that, some thirty-five or thirty-six years ago, there were a good
many thousand lads of the same age in Ontario who did the same thing.
That has continued year by year ever since, and is continuing to this day.
The result is that in every province in Canada there are farms where the
production is merely a percentage of what it ought to be, owing to the lack
of intelligent and sufficient labour. And it is not a fact that the farmer
boys and farmer girls have stepped from the farms to positions of afflu-
ence and influence in the city; in many cases the boy from the farm is
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
69
driving a dray or doing work of equal importance, or is immured in a fac-
tory, while the daughter of the family is a typist in an office. Yet,
despite those conditions of life, they prefer the city to the country, not-
withstanding the supposed charm of rural life. These conditions, con-
tinuing for years, are producing and have produced the most abnormal
state of affairs. There are, it is said, 100,000 fewer people on the farms of
Ontario to-day than twenty years ago and that in that province, which is
regarded as the first farming and agricultural province in Canada, the
urban population to-day exceeds the rural. Even in western Canada,
where the beginnings date from but yesterday, we have, at least in Alberta,
a very high percentage of the population living in towns and cities. In
Australia, which is also a young country, a majority of the people live in
the cities. That is a monstrous state of affairs; it is no more reasonable
than it would be for a pyramid to rest upon its apex. But for all these
conditions there are reasons which cannot be removed by speeches, or
resolutions, or articles.
They are derived from circumstances which must be analyzed, con-
sidered and removed, and that is a work to which, at last, the atten-
tion of the community is being directed.
During the last hundred years the organization of
Conservatism
of Farmers
business and manufacturing communities has been
revolutionized, while the farming population has
had little consideration. That has been largely due to the farmers'
traditional conservatism. The dominating characteristic of the farm-
ing population, until a very recent period, was its intense conservat-
ism, its pronounced individualism, its refusal to co-operate, its blind
adherence to convention and to dogma, with the result that in all the in-
dustrial and commercial adjustments which have been going on, the inter-
ests of the farmers have neither been looked after by themselves nor by
anybody else. Back of economic causes there is usually a political
cause, and politically it is a notorious truth that the farmers are the most
constant quantity in politics. If you were to analyse the vote cast at an
election in an Ontario township sixty years ago with that cast at an
election to-day, you would find that the percentage of the vote cast for
each party would vary but slightly. Generations succeed generations
and they step in the old ruts, and they think the old thoughts. Consider
where other industries would be to-day had they not thrown off the bonds
of traditionalism. Farming is a primary industry, and yet this industry,
upon which cities depend, upon which our great transportation systems
are built, has, until recently, been an outcast in the matter of getting that
reasonable consideration from accumulated capital which is as essential
to modern business development as the sun is to the growing of the crops.
70
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
Organization
If we are to have increased production, we must have
Must Precede all those organic improvements and adjustments of
Improvements
organization to which Dr. Robertson has referred so
eloquently. The first and most potent factor in increasing production
is increased monetary returns, because, in this world, people are influenced
mostly by financial returns. People have fled from the farm to the city
chiefly owing to their inability to secure a suitable reward for their labours,
because the intervening agencies between themselves and the ultimate
producer—their superior organization-assimilated or took an undue
proportion of the profits and because they failed to receive from other
community organizations, such as banking, that encouragement and sym-
pathy to which they were entitled.
Within the last few years, however, a marked change has come,
and, as might have been expected, it has emanated from the farmers
themselves. In western Canada there has been a development of the
co-operative spirit and an era of free thinking among the farmers. To a
very large extent they have shaken off their adhesion to conventions and
inherited notions; they have become students of economics and of publics;
they have been and are demanding from all the agencies of our modern
civilization, their share of help and consideration, and the results have been
immediate. Within the last ten years it has occurred to bankers, for the
first time, that perhaps the farming point of view is entitled to considera-
tion. That is typical of the attitude of all forms of organized business.
Nothing more promising has happened in Canadian development than
the rise in western Canada of the grain growers' associations. They
have brought farmers together, taught them to meet and exchange
opinions, and have tended to eradicate that pronounced individualism
which often ran to suspicion, and which, in the past, made it impossible
for farmers to help one another. They have induced the farmers to study
the questions of government and of economic development. This latter
has led to the creation of an annual gathering, representing the farmers
of this province, at which public questions have been discussed with an
ability which would stand comparison with our formally elected legis-
latures and which, getting into touch not only with political life but with
business and banking life, is compelling those powers to recognize their
obligation to study problems from the farmers' point of view. The great-
est effect of this awakening will be increased production. If we can make
life on the farm reasonably profitable, production will increase; scientific
agricultural educational facilities will be provided and co-operation will
develop.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
71
Civic Efficiency and Social Welfare in Planning of Land
BY
W. F. BURDITT
Chairman, St. John, N.B., Town Planning Commission
L
AND is the primary source of all production, the foundation of our
homes and industry. The conservation and development of our
country's resources, the health, prosperity and happiness of our people
depend upon the manner in which we plan and utilize the land. And yet
the fore-sighted planning of the land, until quite recent years, received
but little thought or attention.
With respect to the country as a whole, there has been but little
effort to plan with foresight its economic development. Is it not safe to
say that, had it been possible to survey and plan with a vision of the future
a transportation system for this great Dominion, in advance of its develop-
ment, it would have been possible to devise a railway service that, with
half the expenditure would have been at least equal in efficiency to what
we have; or, on the other hand, that with skilled and co-ordinated plan-
ning more effective service might have been obtained with the same
expenditure? In like manner, no comprehensive scheme has been fol-
lowed in laying out the highways of the country. An immense saving in
the cost of highway maintenance and transportation could be effected
were it possible to plan anew the entire highway system of the country.
I wish particularly to refer to the planning of land for urban develop-
ment—the land that lies within, without, and around our city boundaries
--and to the influence that such planning may have upon the efficiency
and social well-being of the community,
Western people will say they have had quite sufficient
Proper Planning
planning of land to serve for some time; what they now
need is something that will enable them to absorb,
digest and assimilate the extensive plotted areas which lie around every
western town. Of planning of a certain kind I freely admit there has
been more than enough. That kind of planning has not been confined to
the western provinces. Nearly all this planning, whether of railroads
that span the continent, or of city streets in the subdivision of agricultural
land, has had individual gain for its main object, while control in the public
interest has been almost entirely absent. In the planning of land for
urban use, the subdivider is not the only party interested; the prospective
occupier and the community should also be considered. The object of
Essential
72
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
intelligent planning should be to harmonize these three interests, which are
not so divergent as might appear.
The subdivider thinks he has a right to do as he likes with his land,
so he lays it out in rectangular blocks, parallel to his boundary lines, to
secure the greatest number of building lots within a given area; this without
any attempt to co-ordinate his particular plan with that of adjoining
property or with any other part of the city plan.
Upon this continent the tendency has been to unduly magnify the
rights of the individual, especially the rights involved in the individual
ownership of land, to the neglect of community rights. As a consequence,
the planning of our towns and cities as well as of the country has been
left to uncontrolled individual and competitive enterprise.
Land is not the product of human genius or industry; it is the gift of
the Creator and the heritage of all people. Every man has a right to
sufficient of the earth's surface to enable him to live, so that in Canada,
with its 3,729,665 square miles of surface, among eight million people,
there should be no crowding. The title to the land was originally vested
in the Crown, which signifies that in the first instance it belonged to the
people as a whole. The obtaining from the Crown of a title to a few acres,
or a few thousand acres, constitutes merely a trust that may at any time
be withdrawn if the authority from whom it was originally obtained finds
such course expedient. Titles may pass from one to another, the land
change its so-called ownership a thousand times, but there is always back
of the individual title, what is termed the right of eminent domain, a
recognition of the fact that the Crown--the Government representing the
people-has always the right to take back any portion of the land, paying
the holder merely for his acquired interest therein. It follows, therefore,
that where there is this right of eminent domain there must also be the right
to control, in the interest of the community, the use to which land shall be
put and the manner of using it.
The city is the home of the community, and should be planned as we
plan our homes, for the benefit of all its occupants and with every possible
provision for their health and happiness. When a man wishes to build a
house he obtains the best mechanical skill he can procure and plans his
house so that it will be well adapted to its site, convenient and commodious,
with ample space and abundant light. He will give due consideration to
sanitation, economy of service and maintenance, and to everything that
will tend to provide him with a home as comfortable, convenient, health-
ful and attractive as his means will afford.
The city is not only the home and dwelling place of the
The City is the
community, but it is also the work-shop; hence it needs
Home
to be planned as we plan our modern factories, with
every possible facility for commercial traffic. The city may be well
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
73
planned, badly planned, or not planned at all, but, as in the case of the
individual dwelling or factory, its convenience and attractiveness, its
healthfulness, the economy of its service and its efficiency for business, its
effectiveness for all the functions thata modern city is called upon to fulfil,
will depend upon the skill and foresight exercised in the preparation of a
well-conceived and comprehensive plan, which makes, so far as practicable,
provision for the future needs of the community. It should, however, be
planned as a whole, functioning the different parts to the needs of the whole
community; one part should be for work and service, another for rest and
still another for recreation. It follows that the effective planning of a
city involves the proper choice of sites for the different parts; industrial
establishments should be located on land best suited to industrial purposes,
while the residential portion, the rest-room of the city, should be protected
from the noisy intrusion of the work-shop.
When we plan our houses and our factories we pay
Expert advice
should be secured anywhere from three to ten per cent of the prospective
cost for expert advice. The best expert advice ob-
tainable in town planning would probably not cost one-tenth of one per
cent of the expenditure involved, yet so little have we as communities
appreciated the importance of comprehensive and foresighted planning
for a city's development, that only in rare instances has such advice been
sought.
Not infrequently, a factory grows, as most of our cities have done,
by external accretions, added from time to time as the need for expansion
arises, until ultimately the whole aggregation becomes so inconvenient and
ineffective in meeting modern requirements, so costly in operation, that
it pays to tear it all down and build anew. Many a city finds itself in
the same plight as the obsolete factory, excessively burdened with over-
head charges because of lack of foresight in its planning. You cannot,
however, tear down and rebuild the ill-planned city as you would the old
factory. On rare occasions, as the result of some calamity, the opportunity
comes to a city to rebuild upon better lines, as in San Francisco in 1906,
but advantage has seldom been taken of even such opportunties.
Almost every large city and town in England has spent
Expense of
Delayed Action
vast sums of money in the last twenty-five years in
removing and improving congested districts, and in
assimilating independently planned districts in the surrounding suburbs.
For the most part, the cost of improving congested districts has been
met by the increased rental value of the improved area, but the expense
of providing or connecting and assimilating independent drainage systems,
avenues of traffic, and the like, in the newly built accretions around most
of the large cities has involved the loss of an immense amount of capital,
that might have been avoided by comprehensive planning under control
74
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
of the municipal authorities. It has been estimated that not less than
$30,000,000 has been lost to the ratepayers of Great Britain in the last
thirty years for lack of the town-planning powers which they now possess
under the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909.
Many of the larger cities on this continent have in recent years ex-
pended large sums in correcting the errors of bad planning. Philadel-
phia, for instance, is spending millions in cutting diagonal streets through
its rectangular blocks and many other cities are only deterred from similar
undertakings by the immense cost involved. Toronto, though compara-
tively young, is contemplating extensive and costly improvements of a
similar character for the purpose. of relieving congestion caused by its
gridiron plan. One of the most difficult and costly of our present-day
civic problems is the provision for traffic, not merely or chiefly the convey-
ance of merchandise, but the conveyance to and fro of the vast number of
people who find employment in the business and manufacturing centres of
our large cities; but in the planning of our cities it has received but little
consideration. Streets have been laid out as though it were anticipated
that the traffic would be evenly distributed throughout the city's area, yet
experience and statistics indicate that three-quarters of a city's traffic
radiates from the centre outward. This means that there should be a
sufficient number of arterial thoroughfares radiating outward from the
centres of trade and commerce, which, in their aggregate capacity, will
have to take care of seventy-five per cent of the city's traffic.
'time is money,' while every year we are wasting a large percentage of
our time and productive energy in travelling around these rectangular
blocks; for the distance is forty per cent greater than by a direct diagonal
A further and equally serious objection to the gridiron plan is
that it is impossible to determine in advance which of these parallel streets
will become traffic streets, be devoted to business or remain residential.
In other words, the plan affords no means of differentiation as to the char-
acter of the street. While a few may prove to be too narrow, ninety per
cent are made wider than necessary, entailing enormous waste in the cost
of construction and maintenance. In truth, this plotting of streets in paral-
lel lines crossing each other at right angles is done without any reference
whatever to facilities for traffic, easy gradients, drainage, economy in
construction and maintenance or any other consideration, except that of
securing the largest number of building lots out of a given area of land.
We say
course.
In the west, where townsites are generally on level
Advantages of
Diagonal Streets
areas, considerations of topography and grades do not
enter so largely into the planning problem as they do in
the Eastern provinces, but, even where the site is comparatively level,
there are many cogent reasons other than those I have mentioned for de-
parture from the gridiron plan. One is that such a plan affords little
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
75
opportunity for architectural effect; unless a building occupies the whole
side of a block only two sides at most may be exposed to view. On the
other hand, either a radial or diagonal street plan will afford numerous
opportunities at the junction of converging streets where a three-front
site will be available, and further, it is possible to so arrange streets,
meeting at different angles, that a building occupying such a position
becomes the central feature in the vista of one or more of the streets con-
verging at that point.
Not less important than an effective street plan is the provision of
open spaces--playgrounds and small parks at frequent intervals, with larg-
er parks wherever suitable and easily accessible land is available. We
have not, in Canada, appreciated as we should, the value of our water-
fronts. No doubt we will more highly appreciate these and similar
lings when we become a little less absorbed in acquiring wealth and begin
to think a little more of the amenities of city life and the elevating influence
of natural scenery coupled with artistic effect. Reservation of land for
parks and parkways, whether on the water-front or elsewhere, can usually
be made at small cost to the community if made at the right time, with
provision for appropriating the resulting increase in value of adjoining
property.
The character of the plan has a very great influence
Influence of
City Planning upon the character of the people who become occupants
on Character
of the land and indirectly upon the social status and
well-being of the whole community. We have only within the past few
years awakened to the fact that we have in many of our cities, areas in
which, though limited in extent, the congestion is as great and the condi-
ticns generally almost as bad as in the slum districts of the older cities of
the United States and Europe. We have been hearing a good deal about
the housing problem and its consequences; but what are its causes ?
Principally, need and greed—the need of people to live or find shelter in
some place not too far removed from their work, and the greed which
prompts men to take advantage of this fact. These men, having acquired
possession of a small portion of the earth's surface, tax their fellow citizens
all they can stand for the privilege of living upon it. In time, the need
or the greed prompts the tenant to subdivide his apartment or to take in
lodgers, and thus room over-crowding follows upon land over-crowding.
In olden times, cities became congested because of being ringed about
with stone walls. In these days they are encompassed by a ring of land
speculators and circumscribed by the limit of the five-cent fare. The
housing problem is, therefore, in part a transportation problem, and the
problem of transportation facilities enters largely into the planning of
land. Prevention is better than cure, and in planning for the future
growth of our cities, coupled with proper restriction and control, we can
76
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
if we will, prevent land over-crowding, which is the primary cause of all
the ills associated with bad housing.
The custom in this country of subdividing land into 25 x 100 foot
lots, with a rear alley running between two tiers of lots, invites congestion,
and, coupled with the inflated prices at which lats are sold, has a direct
tendency to over-crowding. It not only encourages, but almost forces, ,
the building of houses in solid rows. The provision of the rear alley is in
itself a recognition of the fact that sooner or later the entire width of every
lot will be built upon at the street end, so that access to the rear can only
be had by the rear alley. But the rear of the lots, being thus accessible
by a sort of semi-public thoroughfare, it is not long before someone con-
ceives the idea of turning the rear portion of his lot to account by putting
up another and usually much inferior building there; and then another
and another follows his example until a double row of shacks or cheap
inferior houses fronting upon a narrow street or alley 15 to 20 feet wide,
for the care and up-keep of which the city acknowledges no responsibility.
A slum is created and the entire block is depreciated in value. Housing
reformers in Washington and other cities of the United States have found
it necessary to buy up large blocks of property for the purpose of ridding
the city of slums created in just the way I have described.
It is sometimes argued that the crowding of land is necessary in the
interest of the wage earner who cannot afford to pay the high rents that
are supposed to result from a more liberal use of land. High priced land,
we must admit, results in crowding, but the converse is equally true, for
the more people you crowd upon a given area of land, the higher the price
which must be paid for its use. There is no greater fallacy than that
which supposes that rents are permanently, even if temporarily, reduced
by crowding.
The character of occupancy is influenced by the planning of land,
but planning, however good, is of little value without effective control.
Many of the more enlightened real estate dealers have recognized the
value of restriction both to themselves and their clients. In the absence
of any civic or municipal control, they establish by agreement with their
customers, restrictions as to the number of houses that may be erected
on a given area, the character and even the cost of the houses that may be
erected and how far they shall be set back from the street. They pro-
hibit the erection of certain kinds of buildings and endeavour to exclude
from the limited area which they control every feature that may be re-
garded as objectionable in a residential district. The advantages are
mutual, to the subdivider a better price for his land, to the purchaser
stability of value, and to the occupier and limited community in which
he dwells, amenity and pleasant surroundings. There is some question
as to how far restrictions thus created as a condition of sale, can be en-
forced against subsequent purchasers, and it is consequently doubtful
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
77
whether they can be permanently effective. Moreover, restrictions
thus imposed by private agreement have only a very limited effect so
far as the general welfare of the community is concerned. They usually
apply only to what is termed high-class residential property. The areas
that are subdivided to provide building sites for the great mass of the peo-
ple are subject to no reservation or restriction other than the occasional
stipulation of a building line. The men of small income, the wage-earners
and workers of the community, who are in a great majority, have as much
right to light, air and breathing space, to pleasant and healthful surround-
ings, and protection from undesirable intrusion as their more fortunate
fellow citizens.
It is not unusual to see land plotted for residential purposes that is
much better adapted for industrial or other use, or to see a useful but
offensive industry established in the midst of what would otherwise be a
desirable residential district. Thus, the mere making of plans is not
sufficient. Along with far-sighted and comprehensive planning of land
for the future expansion of our cities there should be vested in the muni-
cipality power to so far control the use of land as to make its plans opera-
tive and effective in accomplishing their purpose for the benefit of the
whole community.
Before closing, I would like to make a brief reference to what we are
doing along this line in my own province. The Legislature of New
Brunswick, in 1912, at the instance of the Town Planning Committee of
the St. John Board of Trade, passed a Town Planning Act, the provisions
of which were based upon the English Act of 1909. It is permissive in
its character but can be brought into operation, subject to certain con-
ditions, on the initiative of any city or municipal council. St. John has
taken power under this Act for the preparation of a town-planning scheme,
covering an area of approximately five miles radius from the present
city's centre. Part of the area is within the city limits, but by far the
greater part is in the outlying parishes, which are controlled by a separate
authority. One of the most important advantages conferred by the Act is
that it makes it possible for the controlling authority, in co-operation
with other local authorities, to make plans for expansion beyond its
present boundaries and co-ordinate all the diverse and independent
planning of different interests in one comprehensive scheme. St. John
claims the credit of making the first move in Canada for town-planning
legislation and to have been the first to commence the preparation of a
town-planning scheme. We have not, so far, made very rapid progress
with the preparation of our St. John scheme, but, with the assistance of
Mr. Thomas Adams, Town Planning Adviser to the Commission of
Conservation, who has done so much to arouse the people of Canada to
a sense of the importance of this subject and to an interest in municipal
affairs and civic improvement of every kind, we hope to make more
78
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
rapid progress in the future. We are already deeply indebted to Mr.
Adams and the Commission of Conservation for the very valuable
assistance they have rendered during the past year or more.
The preparation of a town-planning scheme involves a great deal
more than the making of a map or plan. The plan is in fact only the visual
expression and illustration of the scheme. The scheme itself is concerned
with the laying out of streets; it locates and reserves land for main tho-
roughfares, for parks, playgrounds and open spaces, and determines what
shall be done and what shall not be done with relation to the occupation
of land for building purposes, prescribes the width between building
lines, limits the height of buildings, the number of houses per acre in
specified districts, and indicates how the cost of street construction and
drainage shall be provided. It embodies in effect a set of by-laws under
which the future development of the city is to be controlled by the muni-
cipal authority. When completed and approved the scheme has all the
authority of a special act of Parliament. The objects I have spoken of
cannot, of course, be accomplished without some interference with what
are termed individual rights and the rights of property, but the rights
of the community are ever paramount to those of the individual.
For a quarter of a century or so preceding the outbreak of the war,
so rapid was the development of Canada, so great were the opportunities
for gain, that as individuals we became almost wholly absorbed in the
acquisition of wealth and, as communities, in the increase of population
and the expansion of our commerce and industry; while the amenities of
life, the health and happiness of the masses, received scant consideration.
The war, with the enormous sacrifices it has entailed for the purpose of
upholding the ideals of free citizenship, has thrown into new perspective
our relationship to our fellow men, and all the obligations and responsi-
bilities which such relationship entails. We begin to realize that the
accumulation of wealth is not the highest object in life, that the possession
of wealth is itself insecure and of little advantage while city slums are
breeding places of pestilence, and the masses of the people, the real wealth
producers, are unhappy, discontented and largely incapacitated for work
by the sunless and insanitary conditions under which they eke out a pre-
carious existence. Let us hope that our men of thought and action will
take a greater interest, not only in the planning of land, but in all that has
for its object the social well-being of the community.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
70
Planning and Development of Land
BY
THOMAS ADAMS
Town Planning Adviser, Commission of Conservation
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It is recognized that land in
Canada--the greatest of all our natural resources has not been planned
and developed in the best way to promote its economic use, and with the
primary aim of stimulating production. The orgy of speculation has
passed and we see the extent of the injury it has caused to production
and the physical and moral injury it has caused to our people. Our re-
sources in these western provinces have no end that can be visualized
if we could conceive them to be properly organized; but as at present
organized their end appears to be fast approaching.
The absence of a sound system of development for the economic
use of land and all natural resources, and of human resource and energy
asa raw material of wealth, has brought us face to face with acute financial
and social problems which will not be solved in this generation unless we
show ourselves more awake to the significance of present tendencies and
conditions.
We cannot separate town and country, or province and municipality,
or manufacturing and agriculture. Their interdependence must be
recognized. We must establish confidence in government organization
under our federal system unless we desire to revert to autocracy; we must
impose more confidence on the base of government organization, which
rests in the municipality.
posts to promote industry in town and country we must recognize that
production alone makes or increases wealth, and that speculation di-
minishes production, and therefore diminishes wealth. Urgent as are our
urban problems, our chief attention needs to be directed to our rural
problems. In connection with the rural problems we need
1. To plan and develop land for economic use
2. To promote closer settlement and closer connection between
manufacture and agriculture
3. To provide facilities for co-operation, rural credit, education and
social intercourse.
There is no simple solution of these problems; plan-
Agriculture Must
be Made to Pay
ning and development will only provide the founda-
tion on which to build. We must plan to promote
values and methods of production as wellas to guide physical development.
80
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
It is folly to force increased production from agriculture without mak-
ing agriculture a better paying business; it is equal folly to use govern-
ment money to increase production and not make it easier and cheaper
to produce, nor to take into account the probable increase of production
in England and other countries.
In new countries self-interest is apt to be so strong that it prevents
people from realizing the truth that whatever artificial condition is in-
jurious to social well-being, whatever impairs health and lowers vitality,
is destructive of productive capacity and proportionately lessens our
wealth. We know that natural resources in themselves are not a source
of wealth, and that the real source comes from the human energy and skill
we apply to whatever resources are available. Instances are numerous
where crowded populations live in poverty with ample natural resources
at their call, and of others, where an energetic and skilful people have
founded great wealth on comparatively small natural resources.
Some
people seem to think that increase of population and of capital only are
needed in Canada to develop our resources, whereas these things may
neither increase wealth nor production per capita unless we apply more
science and organization to develop our resources.
Our fault has not been that we have not planned, but that we have
been planning for the wrong purpose. We have assumed that it is more
important to get uniform and straight lines than to pay regard to econo-
mic and natural conditions. As intelligent beings we should adapt our
plans to nature for the purpose of stimulating production, instead of blind-
ly ignoring nature and causing unnecessary burdens to be borne by
producers.
One of the first requirements in connection with plan-
Classification
ning a rural territory is that we should make a proper
of Land
classification of the land and find out the purpose for
which it is best adapted.
For want of planning, farms are too scattered, there are far too many
roads and there is insufficient population per square mile to make and main-
tain good roads or to enable us to get facilities for co-operation and educa-
tion. With all our vast resources calling out for more population to de-
velop them, we have the parallel problems of high cost of living and un-
employment. For instance, we speak about the difficulty of settling a
few hundred thousand returned soldiers when we should be ready and wil-
ling to absorb a few millions. These were pre-war problems. Enquiries
made into the problem of cost of living and unemployment before the war
showed that the chief causes were the lack of proper equilibrium between
town and country and a proper system of land settlement and of scientific
organization of production.
There are conditions in the cities and towns where people are suffering
from poverty, bad sanitation and over-crowding, simply due to the want
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
81
of foresight in planning; and there is also poverty and degeneration in
our rural districts. Enquiries made by the Commission of Conservation
show that poverty and isolation together cause physical and moral de-
terioration of the worst kind in the country districts. For want of plan-
ning and classification, land has been settled upon from which it was im-
possible for the settlers to make a living. In spite of these past mistakes,
we are now developing new homesteads, hundreds of miles from railways
and market centres, and are failing to recognize that the cost of distribu-
tion from these new settlements, even when the land is fairly good, makes
it impossible for the farmer to produce at a profit. Meanwhile, large
areas near railways lie idle-either in the hands of speculators holding
for a rising market, or because they need drainage or clearing, or owing to
the sub-division of the land into building lots 30 years before it is needed
for building. While the sub-divided areas represent diminished produc-
tion from fertile land lying near the market, there is also great loss to the
community due to the fact that long stretches of vacant lots near towns
are served with sidewalks, pavements, seu ers, water-mains, etc., which
produce no revenue to the owners, and greatly increase taxes on productive
industry. Heavy burdens have to be borne by reason of the fact that
swampy and low-lying areas are built upon, and have to be drained at
great expense for pumping. Such land often costs more to develop than
it is worth. Surely we have enough good land to go round without wasting
money on bad land that cannot be developed on a sound economic basis.
Loss by
These are one or two of the problems which are being
Unnecessary created in our towns and rural districts, and the respect
Deaths
in which our economic loss, from the lack of proper
development, is greatest is in the injury that is done to human life. Dr.
Hattie, Medical Officer of Health of Nova Scotia, estimates that our
economic loss from unnecessary deaths in Canada is $150,000,000. Prof.
Irving Fisher, of Yale, estimates that the saving possible from better con-
ditions of public health in the United States is far greater than one and
one-half billion dollars and may be three and one-half billion. In northern
America it is estimated, on the highest authority, that we lose 690,000
people annually in deaths from preventable causes. These are appalling
figures, even to-day, when we are accustomed to the toll of human life
which is being taken in Europe. Feeble-minded children cost America -
$90,000,000, and crime costs $600,000,000 a year. A great proportion
of this loss could be saved if proper hygienic measures were taken by
government authorities. We cannot estimate what proportion is due to
individual neglect, and in any case, it may be difficult for us to secure any
improvement in that direction; but we know that much of the loss is due
to lack of intelligent development and to criminal indifference, and that
we only need courage to remedy these evils by means of government
organization.
.
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
I am only able to indicate very briefly some of our immediate needs
in Canada, apart from the prosecution of the war itself. In my judgment,
these matters need to be taken up as war measures. The very sacrifices
which are being made in the war demand that we who are at home should
devote our attention to laying the foundations which will insure healthy
living conditions and increased efficiency in the future.
The following recommendations follow the lines of certain pro-
posals I have made in a report on rural planning and development* *
which will shortly be published by the Commission of Conservation.
I commend them to your attention, as being the first steps necessary to
be taken to enable us to apply proper remedies for such social evils as we
have and to promote national prosperity in the future.
1. The Federal and Provincial government machinery for dealing
with the control of the planning, settlement and development of land
should be extended and improved; the surveying branches of the govern-
ments should be strengthened and more elaborate surveying work as-
signed to them; and a complete and co-ordinated system of federal,
provincial, and municipal administration of land resources should be
devised, with the whole organization centralized in a department or
permanent commission of the Federal Government.
2. A comprehensive survey of the social, physical and industrial
conditions of all rural territory should be made, with the object of as-
certaining the main facts regarding the problems of rural life and rural
development, and of enabling constructive proposals to be made re-
garding the development of the human and natural resources of the con-
try. This survey should comprise, inter alia, a complete inventory of
all lands which have been already surveyed and homesteaded, with a
view to securing their proper settlement, and devising means to lessen
injurious speculation. Settlement of remote areas should be suspended
while the survey is being made, and no Crown lands should be settled
until after proper planning.
3. Provincial governments should reconsider their systems of
administering colonization highways and municipal affairs, with special
regard to the need for securing more co-ordination, uniformity and effici-
ency in all matters pertaining to local government, and for increasing
the responsibilities and powers of municipal authorities under the skilled
advice of a central department in each province.
4. Model regulations setting a minimum standard of sanitation
and housing, building construction and general development should be
agreed to by Provincial governments and municipalities in joint
conference and then made compulsory in each province.
5. Carefully planned model towns or 'garden cities' should be estab-
lished on suitable sites as object lessons in industrial development, and
of increasing production by scientific means and providing more varied
opportunities for labour, including returned soldiers. Areas in these
towns should be reserved for both manufacture and agriculture, on
lines which have already been successful.
*Rural Planning and Development, by Thomas Adams, Commision of Conservation, 1918.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
88
6. Planning and development acts, corresponding to the draft act
of the Commission of Conservation, should be passed in Ontario, Quebec,
Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, and the
town planning acts in the other provinces should be changed in name
and widened in scope, so far as may be necessary, to make them applicable
to deal adequately with both rural and urban development. All rural
and urban land should be planned and regulated by proper 'development
schemes', prepared under such planning and development acts, with a
view to securing health, convenience, efficiency and amenity in connec-
tion with its use for building or other purposes, and discouraging specu-
lation.
7. The problem of re-instating ex-service men into industrial and
social life should be dealt with by the municipalities under the guidance
and control of provincial departments, and provision should be made for
placing such men in suitable and congenial vocations, either in rural or in
urban localities. They should be placed where their abilities can be put
to the best use, where it is reasonably certain that adequate reward can
be obtained for their labour, and where facilities for social intercourse
and education are available.
Development schemes dealing with wide areas should be prepared
in advance of any settlement on the land of returned soldiers, and such
schemes should be economically sound, independently of the financial
aid that may be given as a reward for military service.
The chairman intimated that any discussion of the papers which had
been read and further discussion of the returned soldiers and other pro-
blems would be resumed after luncheon in the Fort Garry hotel.
The Problem of the Returned Soldiers
At a special session of the conference held immediately after lunch in
the Fort Garry hotel a formal discussion took place on the subject of the
problem of the returned soldiers. Mr. Thomas Adams occupied the chair
and introduced Mr. Louis Kon, Director of Immigration and Colonization
for Manitoba.
MR. LOUIS KON: By virtue of my occupation I am mostly concerned
with the land settlement of returned soldiers. To deal intelligently
with that phase of the returned-soldier problem, a careful survey of the
existing land conditions is necessary to decide how our productive agri-
cultural lands, at present in the hands of people who do not till them,
could be utilized for the above purpose. The land question at large, and
particularly as applied to the settlement of returned soldiers, requires
largeness of vision by those who are considering it, either for study or for
practical purposes.
To make a success of the proposed plan of the Dominion
Settlements
Government it will be necessary to have the returned
for Soldiers
soldiers placed on lands in districts served with trans-
portation facilities—lands which, unfortunately, are no longer publicly
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
owned. It is also essential that the settlements be planned, having in
view both the economic and social ends. In Canada the areas properly
planned, and which might be available for settlement, either for returned
soldiers or for the anticipated after-war immigration, are very limited.
The spirit with which Canada ought to approach the land problem
will have to be founded more or less on the same sentiment as Lloyd-
George recently expressed when addressing a body of British workmen:
"Don't be always thinking of getting back to where we were before the
war; get a really new world". I firmly believe that what is known as the
after-the-war settlement will be a settlement that will direct the destinies
of all classes for generations to come. Therefore you are doing well in
giving your time and thought to considering, and considering,deeply, on
a bold and daring scale, what you are going to do after the war.
J. H. T. FALK (Secretary of the Social Welfare Association of Win-
nipeg): We should not consider the problem of the returned soldier
without at the same time considering his brother, sister, mother, and
father, and those who are in industry. In adjusting labour conditions
after the war, those displaced by the returned soldier must be considered.
Much is heard of placing the returned soldiers on the land, but many
of them will not go on the land, and if they are given homesteads, or other
land, and $3,000 in cash at various intervals, will, as soon as that $3,000
is exhausted, return to the cities. Winnipeg has a large number of Slav
immigrants who have taken the place of the absent soldiers, 95 per cent
of whom were accustomed to working, or earning their living, on the land
in Europe. The future of Canada depends upon increased production,
under favourable conditions. If we could take this potential power for
production, as represented in these Slav immigrants, and put it out on the
land, we might have work in the cities for returned soldiers.
The Commission of Conservation should organize
Unemployment
Question After a department to concentrate and co-ordinate work in
the War
regard to the adjustment of conditions after the war,
and it should not be limited in any sense. We want to register our man-
power and, if possible, our woman-power, with a view to service after the
war; we also want to register the power of those who are fighting, or who
have enlisted to fight, and the power of those who are going to be displaced
by those who have enlisted, when they come back. We should then be in
a position to plan for after the war. We should also have a Dominion
system of information bureaus on labour conditions. These information
bureaus, supplying the necessary information, will demonstrate quite
clearly that we must reconsider the use of private and public capital, also
the question of unemployment insurance, if we are to have the kind of
social conditions and possibilities that we all hope for.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
85
1
MR. F. A. COVERT (Montreal): After the war there will be a very
great demand for food supplies and manufactured articles, by reason of
the destruction caused by the war, and that fact is to be borne in mind in
relation to the question of employment. If peace were declared to-
morrow, the two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand men who
are at the front would not return to Canada for at least thirty months.
Steamship facilities would not be available, and for that reason the pro-
blem will almost solve itself-the men who have volunteered for service
at the front are going to decide for themselves what line they are going
to take up.
ALD. OWEN (Vancouver): The subject most worthy of consideration
at the present time is provision for the widows and orphans of the soldiers
who have been killed, and the families of those who are maimed. These
should be dealt with by joint action between the Dominion and pro-
vincial authorities. In British Columbia the men who have gone to the
front are miners, lumbermen, fishermen and men of such callings, and
they are not the class of men who are going to take to farming.
MRS. TORRINGTON (Toronto): We must regard the returned soldier
as we would the boys whom we start out in life, we must provide them with
employment that they will take pleasure in and that they are fitted for.
The men should, therefore, be classified, to ascertain just what each in-
dividual man is fitted to do, and they should be given the privilege of
taking up the work they desire. That perhaps may be done through our
agricultural colleges and schools, through the technical classes which
already exist and, it is to be hoped, through an added number which may
be brought into existence for this very purpose.
MRS. JOHN DICK (Winnipeg): The present problem concerns the
dependants of the soldiers. A government separation allowance of $20
a month to the wife without any children and the same allowance of $20
a month to the wife with nine children is an absurdity. The woman
with nine children receives a separation allowance of $20 a month, and,
with half her husband's pay, this amounts to $40 a month; on this it is
impossible to live. The government should raise the allowance to $25
a month for a wife with children and allow $6 a month for each child.
Manitoba has now a patriotic tax and, for the simple reason that Manitoba
has sent more soldiers to the front in proportion to the population than
any other province, the people here are the more penalized. Then there
are the returned men, who have been discharged with a gratuity of $50
although their earning power has been decreased fifty per cent.
civil case recently a jury awarded the plaintiff $10,000 damages for in-
juries received and nearly $6,000 special damages. If it is right for a
private company to give such compensation, what about the right of the
government as to men who had sacrificed everything.
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
PROF. STOUGHTON (Winnipeg): On the Greater Winnipeg water-
way, the land is divided into units of about forty acres each. It is very
good land and adapted to intensive farming, for the products of which
a market would be found in Winnipeg and elsewhere. The matter of
planning was first considered and a departure was made from the good
old gridiron system in favour of roads laid out so as to secure greatest
convenience.
A tract of thirty or forty acres has been reserved for the purpose
of a village centre, for school, church and other buildings. Besides
this, there will be reservations along both banks of the river, about fifty
feet, so that the owners will not own to the river. This work has been
done by special permission of the Dominion Government. In addition
to the arrangements which have been made under this plan, the depart-
ments of the government are providing for instruction and help in the
matter of farming and planning, of co-ordination of effort and resources
and of marketing products.
A delegate from Victoria, B.C., said: Referring to the remarks made
as to the inadequacy of the pension--at first it was $20, but the govern-
ment in Ottawa realized it was not sufficient, and it was raised to $32,
with $6 for each child.
MR. NELSON RATTENBURY (Prince Edward Island): A department
should be formed by the government to exploit foreign markets with
regard to industries peculiar to Canada, such as lumber and its products,
paper, etc. The returned soldier should be trained and educated for
that purpose.
MR. W. F. BURDITT (St. John): Mr. Dennis, of the Canadian
Pacific Ry., struck the right note when he said that the returned soldiers,
instead of being turned loose upon the community when they are brought
back, should be provided for in concentration camps under the care of
the Dominion Government. There they should be educated and gradu-
ally adapted to industrial pursuits. What is needed is something along
the line of the Duke of Manchester's scheme in England, which provides
a technical manufacturing establishment, where the men can gradually
take up lines of industrial work. Such a scheme should also provide
some instruction in agricultural production.
MR. T. F. MILNE (Port Arthur): I had the privilege recently of
hearing an address by Col. Hogarth, who had returned from the front.
Col. Hogarth's opinion was that our soldiers would come back entirely
changed men. They had been living under very different conditions,
had been subject to a rigid discipline, which might rob them of much of
their initiative, and most of them would require to be treated with pa-
tience by the citizens of Canada. Some system of supervision will be
necessary for these men after they return, to assist them in every way
until they get back into the regular routine of their lives.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
87
MR. W. COUSINS (Medicine Hat): If every one is ready to do his
‘little biť, some solution will be found for the problem of taking care of
the returned soldier.
COL. GEORGE C. NASMITH (Department of Health, Toronto): Some
time ago we spent many an evening in France in our little mess, dis-
cussing this very problem of what the men would do and would want to
do when they returned, and how they would be absorbed into the life of
the community. From what we had seen, we came to the conclusion
that many of the men who had been working in clerical positions in
cities, now that they had had a taste of life in the open, and had become
rugged, would go to the farm in preference to the city. That was the
conclusion arrived at then. We have now had to reverse that conclusion.
We find that the men, even those who had come from the land, will not
go back to the farm when they come home, because, for one reason,
they have become more or less gregarious; they have lived together,
and men who had lived a lonely life before, have now had friendship
for years. They have made strong friendships, and they have come to a
different point of view on almost everything.
The returned soldier to-day is a man who cares very little for wealth
or for position; he will look you right in the eye and tell you exactly what
he thinks. I have had that experience; I have had men applying for
positions who had been private soldiers, and, although I was in uniform,
they would come in and talk to me in a way they would not have dared
to do if they were in uniform. They have seen things, and they realize a
good deal of what is real in life. When we talk of the returned soldier,
we must consider, first of all, his mental point of view. The returned
soldiers, particularly those who have been in the field more than two
years, have been and will be to a large extent spoiled for ordinary work.
Many things they considered worth while before will no longer attract
them. They consider, for instance, that the question of making money
is not the greatest thing. The system under which the wounded man lives,
and is encouraged to do nothing, in the hospital, really trains him to
be a loafer. He is deliberately trained to do nothing. The first thing
to do with the average man when he comes back, is to get him gradually
broken in to the idea of working and becoming a citizen of the community.
I know myself-I am back sick and I can speak from personal experience
-that it has taken me practically to the present time to get the point
of view of the civilian that things here are worth while. The man at the
front has passed through great experiences, and, when he comes back,
the ordinary things of life seem dull and unprofitable. In some way he
has to be got out of that attitude, which is largely mental.
Economic conditions after the war will play a large part in the
absorption of the returned soldiers. Whether competition be great or
not, I do not think these men will go on the land unless some means can
88
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
be provided whereby they can live together and have a community life.
I do not think they will consider for one moment going back on those
large farms on the prairie.
MRS. ADAM SHORTT: If you want to develop the country, you must
take the woman's side of it very markedly into consideration. There
have been instances in recent years and they still exist, in the neighbouring
province, at any rate, where some women are living lives harder than the
bought slave. They are working from early morning to late at night, and,
besides doing the manual labour, are rearing future citizens of this country,
although they have not had that professional medical care which every
woman should have. Some of the western provinces have begun to
realize these things and have started provincial hospital units, which will
be a base for nursing and hospital service for the women of those provinces,
and give that protection to the mother in her trials that has not been given
to her in the past. The woman question is greater on the farm than in
the city. City women have developed by meeting together and reading,
but the women in the country could not be expected to stay there unless
they have facilities and enjoyment equal to those of city women. When
the daughter is expected to rise early, wash on Monday, bake on Tuesday,
iron on Wednesday, scrub on Thursday and so on, do you think that
after she has made a visit to her cousin in the city, any strong inducement,
except the strong love and affection for a young man, is ever going to take
her back again to follow the steps of her mother ? That has to be con-
sidered in any system of rural land development.
MR. D. M. FREDERICKSON (Minneapolis, Minn.): What has been
said in connection with town planning in the West is really trying to
close the door after the horse has gone forth. The towns have all been
planned by the railway corporations, without regard to the people; the
only consideration was how to obtain the best grade, and the towns
were consequently placed in mud-holes and laid out in square lines of a
certain size. I would suggest that the lots reverting to these towns
on account of arrears of taxes be made available for community purposes.
BUSINESS SESSION
The conference then resolved itself into a meeting of the Dominion
Civic Improvement League, for the purpose of considering various
resolutions. The chairman stated that the league had been formed during
the time of war, and, at the first meeting, it had been decided that it was
undesirable to have any definite constitution other than the provision
which was necessary for the purpose of forming a council to call the
annual conferences and deal with the resolutions passed at these con-
'ferences. Owing to the unsettled state of national affairs and the diffi-
culty of securing concentration of the public mind upon social questions,
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
89
it would perhaps be desirable for the league to continue its work without
having any regular constitution and without much change in the personnel
of the national council. To put this matter to a test, he submitted
the following resolution:
Resolved, that the Dominion Civic Improvement League be continued
in the form adopted at the previous conference in Ottawa, and that the
present membership of the Dominion Council be requested to act until
the next annual conference of the League, with power to make such
additions to their membership as they may deem expedient.
This resolution was put to the meeting and adopted.
It was resolved that the following western representatives be added
to the Dominion Council: Commissioner F. M. Black, Edmonton; Mr.
G. W. Markle, Winnipeg; Commissioner C. J. Yorath, Saskatoon; Ald.
Owen, Vancouver, and Mrs. H. Day, Victoria.
The following resolutions were passed by the meeting, after being
duly moved and seconded by delegates:
1. Whereas, the present method of planning, dividing and settling
land in Canada for agricultural purposes has not met with that measure
of success which might be expected, having regard to the great natural
advantages possessed by the Dominion, the League again endorses its
previous resolution to recommend the Federal and Provincial govern-
ments to make a complete survey and investigation into the problem of
rural development; to consider à more. scientific method of laying out
the land so as to encourage the settlement of lands near to existing
means of communication, and secure closer settlement of the population,
more co-operation among farmers, and better facilities for transportation,
education and social intercourse.
In view of the conditions likely to arise after the war, and in con-
nection with the return of soldiers from the front, the League desires
especially to direct attention to the need of this problem being dealt
with in the immediate future.
2. That the League again directs attention to the want of economy
and efficiency in municipal government which in their opinion is not due
to any absence of administrative ability or executive skill in the Do-
minion, but to the lack of proper means of educating and informing
public opinion, of co-operation between the provinces and municipalities,
and of co-ordinated and skilled provincial departments dealing with
municipal affairs and capable of advising and assisting local administra-
tions.
3. That the system of registration of voters and election of repre-
sentatives in all forms of government needs revision and that the Dominion
Council of the League be requested to place the question of proportional
representation on the agenda for discussion at the next annual conference.
4. That the teaching of citizenship in the schools be urged as of
vital necessity to secure a better informed and wisely directed public
opinion on civic problems.
5. Whereas, there is at present no uniform system of municipal
accounting and reporting in Canada, and, whereas, the benefit of such
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
for mutual help, information and guidance is incalculable; therefore,
be it resolved, that this convention place itself on record as favouring
such uniformity and lend its moral support to the Union of Canadian
Municipalities which is already engaged in advancing this principle.
6. That the provincial governments be urged to pass planning and
development acts in all the provinces so as to secure that land will be
laid out for purposes of economic use, health, convenience and amenity.
7. Whereas, in any system dealing with employment, public em-
ployment offices under the direction of government are essential, and
whereas, the larger the territory organized, and, consequently, the
greater the number of occupations concerned, the more easily can prob-
lems of employment be dealt with; therefore, be it resolved,
That it is urgently desirable that every province in Canada im-
mediately organize if it has not already done soma nucleus of an em-
ploymen office system which may be developed as requirements demand;
That these provincial systems should be uniform and that measures
be provided for closer inter-provincial co-operation; and
That this co-operation be effected through a Federal Bureau to be es-
tablished in connection with the Dominion Department of Labour.
8. (a) Whereas, there is need for more efficient and uniform
legislation and administration relating to vital statistics in Canada,
under which each province shall compile its statistics to enable com-
parisons to be made between the different provinces, as well as inter-
nationally, and
Whereas, the minimum standard for collecting vital statistics should
at least be equal to that adopted by Australia and the United States; and
Whereas, public health problems, immigration and knowledge of
the man power of the country cannot be studied without the aid of ac-
curate statistical information;
Be it resolved, that the Census and Statistics Office at Ottawa be
congratulated on the steps it is taking to improve the methods of col-
lecting vital statistics and that the said office and Provincial govern-
ments be memorialized regarding the urgency of further measures being
taken to collect more accurate and comprehensive data regarding vital
conditions.
(b). Whereas, there is no satisfactory system of collecting and
tabulating municipal statistics in Canadian provinces and the muni-
cipalities within each province have sometimes radically different stan-
dards, and
Whereas, municipal expansion is proceeding and municipal expendi-
ture increasing at a rapid rate in Canada, and municipalities are unable
to get the advantage of any comparative study of municipal develop-
ments and statistics;
Be it resolved, that the Dominion Government be urged to institute
a Federal system of municipal statistics in co-operation with the muni-
cipal departments, bureaus, or branches, of the Provincial governments.
9. Whereas, the problem of returned soldiers is of pressing national
importance and should be dealt with independently of the problem of
land settlement, and
Whereas, the organization of effective means of educating ex-service
men to the class of industries for which their inclination and ability
will suit them, other than those who are disabled and who are therefore
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOMEN T
91
being taken care of by the Hospitals Commission, requires the attention
of a skilled and non-political federal commission acting in co-operation
with the provinces and municipalities, and
Whereas, land settlement should not be forced or artificially stimu-
lated in the sole interest of disposing of lands or increasing rural popula-
tion, and
Whereas, the establishment of any colonies or the promotion of
any system of land settlement should be carried out on scientific lines
and with due regard to the economic use of the land, so as to secure the
facilities necessary for increasing production in all classes of industry,
including manufacture and agriculture, and
Whereas, there is need for an elaborate survey and inventory of land
resources and the preparation of complete topographical maps of land in
Canada, the opportunity should be taken to employ those ex-soldiers
who have suitable training for this purpose to make a survey of these
resources and prepare the necessary maps.
Be it resolved, that the attention of the Dominion and Provincial
Governments be drawn to the importance of these matters, notwithstanding
the work that is already being accomplished by the Dominion Govern-
ment through the Soldiers' Aid Commission.
10. That the League records its adherence to its previous resolution
in favour of better laws to control immigration, to improve civil service
standards and to form a Dominion department of public health.
EVENING SESSION
Dr. A. J. Douglas, Medical Officer of Health, Winnipeg, presided,
and introduced Dr. Helen MacMurchy, Inspector of Feeble-Minded for
Ontario.
DR. HELEN MACMURCHY: Public health is not now, as it was a
century ago, a subject that is without a literature, a science or standards.
England has led the whole world and still leads in public health, and the
work of the pioneers of that movement was done not quite one hundred
years ago. We now have two standards for the measurement of public
health and these are just as exact as engineering or any other standards.
One is the typhoid death rate in any community, and the other, a greater
and wider standard and of wider application, is the rate of infant mortality.
The paper prepared by Mr. Coats, Dominion Statistician, pointed out
defects in connection with the collection of vital statistics. In England
one hundred years ago they had these statistics. Registration of births
in this country is not as complete as it ought to be, but even with the regis-
tration we have, we are advised of the situation, because we have reports
of the infantile mortality rate in those portions of the Dominion where
birth registration is fairly satisfactory. For example, in Ontario our
infant mortality rate is somewhat better than it was at the beginning of
the century, 1900 or 1901; it now averages 102 per thousand births per
year. Compare that with the infant death rate in some of the towns
of the province. In Woodstock, the death rate is considerably below 100,
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COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
while in another city the infant death rate is 200 out of every 1,000. That
is a terrible death rate, and shows we have yet much to do. Infant
mortality is high where the sanitary authorities neglect their duties.
Great Britain is fast lowering her infant death rate; in New Zealand it is
something like 50 per 1,000 births; so it is apparent that attention will
very largely reduce the infant death rate.
The typhoid death rate is an indication of the sanitary
Typhoid and
Sanitation
condition of a community. Cities are divided by sani-
tary authorities into first, second and third classes,
according to the typhoid death rate. If a city of 100,000 inhabitants
has ten deaths from typhoid in a year, we speak of it as first-class;if it has
twenty, second class, and thirty, third-class. It is quite possible for a
city to reduce its typhoid death rate to zero, and that is what Winnipeg
is trying to do. The great cause of typhoid is an impure and improper
water-supply. Quite true, there are some epidemics which are milk-
borne. There is hardly a city or town that has not cases of typhoid every
year, and, when one realizes it is an absolutely preventable disease, one
sees how much remains to be done for public health.
We must house our people so that the houses will not hurt their
bodies. Dark and overcrowded rooms invite tuberculosis and other
diseases. Well did Sydney Webb speak of the soul-destroying conditions
of the one-room dwelling; for if there is anything else that causes the soul
of man to languish and droop and die, it is having nothing that is worthy
of his love. The affection of us all centres round home. How can the
slum child grow up to be a worthy citizen, with nothing better to look
back on as the ideal of home than such conditions as must exist in a one-
room dwelling?
PUBLIC HEALTH WORK AND ITS APPLICATION TO CHILD LIFE
Col. G. C. Nasmith, of the Department of Health, Toronto, gave a
very able and succinct description of health conditions among the armies
at the front, showing in detail how outbreaks of disease and epidemics had
been successfully met. From the experience gained by health officers,
he gave it as his opinion that, in the future, epidemics will not be of very
great concern, except in the case of venereal diseases.
Continuing, Col. Nasmith said: The results which
Conservation
have arisen and the facts which we have obtained have
pointed to the necessity of conserving the lives of the
people. The British people, for instance, and the French people, have lost
so many men and will lose so many more, that they consider the greatest
problem facing them now, from the health standpoint, is the conservation
of human life at its beginning. They are, therefore, concentrating, in
England, particularly, on the problems of pure milk, child welfare, housing,
of Life
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
93
and medical inspection of schools, activities which have been in operation
to a more or less extent during the last few years. So great has been the
interest aroused in these problems in England, that the great London
newspapers have taken up the problem of obtaining pure milk and week
by week they call attention editorially to the necessity of improving
their milk supply, because of the great part it plays in the conservation
of child life. The great lessons and the future of public health work
during the next few years will lie along those lines. Conservation must
be the key-note of our aims. We will have to elaborate our system of
medical inspection of schools and of child welfare, and concentrate more
and more upon the problems of obtaining pure milk. While these pro-
blems have been more or less satisfactorily solved in some of our cities,
the solution reached needs to be applied in the smaller towns and rural
communities. In Toronto, the milk supply is now 100 per cent pasteur-
ized, and this condition should apply to all Canada. It is just a question
of practical conservation; you can save on the one hand a great deal, by
spending a small amount on the other.
Control of
The paramount problem and the one which will directly
Venereal
concern us is that which has been reported on to the
Diseases
British Parliament by a Royal Commission-venereal
diseases. Sir William Osler has said that venereal disease is one of the
four great killing diseases, and the one which causes more misery in the
world than all others put together. The problem of how to handle
venereal diseases heretofore has been very difficult and almost impossible
to attack. They have been the so-called social, or secret, diseases, and
it has been felt there was little use discussing them because nothing could
be done. But during the last few years, however, we have obtained re-
sults which indicate that these problems are not so difficult as they for-
merly were. This has been brought about by the discovery of a specific
cure for one of them, syphilis, which can be practically cured in something
over 90 per cent of cases. Now we see some hope, as outlined by the Royal
Commission, and certain suggestions in its report are already being partial-
ly adopted in Canada.
There has been a great agitation for compulsory
Protection of
Innocent Victims
notification of these diseases, but the Royal Com-
mission reported against it, because, as they said,
the physicians would not report them. Men would not go to physi-
cians because the doctors would have to report them, and they would
be driven more and more to take advice from charlatans and quacks
and unauthorized practitioners. So, rather than make the conditions
worse, they have refused to endorse this compulsory notification. The
hope lies in the fact that they have provided the machinery to
compel municipalities to establish, throughout the country, in certain
94
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
centres, clinics for venereal diseases. People may go to these clinics,
have their cases diagnozed quietly, and be treated free from all
expense. The Commission feel that this secrecy is justifiable, because a
great deal of venereal disease has been innocently contracted and they
refuse to take the responsibility of putting into the same category those
who have innocently contracted this disease and those who have not.
They say that gradually, when men and women know they can be cured,
they will go to these clinics and take the cure.
Canada has practically no Dominion public health
Free Laboratory
Diagnosis
committee. We have certain advisory bodies, but we
have no machinery for taking up and forcing muni-
cipalities to do what they do not want to do; that is left largely to the pro-
vince. Ontario proposes to add to its laboratory work the free diagnosis
of venereal diseases. In Toronto, we expect to make the diagnosis for
any physician, for we consider that this is the basis on which the problem
is to be solved. We, in Toronto, feel that if notification were compulsory
we could perhaps in this way make some advance. There are venereal dis-
ease clinics now at the Toronto General Hospital. The difficulty is that
men or women are partially treated; they think they are cured and
refuse to come back, when they are probably only half cured. Under
compulsory notification, if a man refused to come back before he was cured
and was considered to be a menace to the community, we could compel
him to do so under the Public Health Act. This problem is, in my opinion,
one of the greatest in Canada.
DR. FRASER: Perhaps the most important subject that we or any
nation can deal with is that of public health. A great writer has said
that the greatest concern of any nation is the public health of its citizens.
Conservation of life is the watchword. The toll of death from disease
has been and will continue to be greater every year. Almost too late we
completed our organization to fight for freedom; almost too late we may
make our organization to fight for life that has been wasted in the past.
The key-word of Col. Nasmith's address was prevention-prevention
rather than cure. The key-word of prevention is knowledge, to bring
knowledge to the people concerned. The people welcome the knowledge
being brought to them in their homes and in their communities. Mani-
toba has inaugurated a system of public health administration, with
the aims in view that Dr. MacMurchy and Col. Nasmith have spoken
of, namely, to bring to the children at school knowledge of the conditions
that spell disease. Religious organizations have regarded childhood as
the time when moral principles should be implanted, and we are to-day
slowly recognizing this, and also that the school and home are the places
to inculcate the principles of health. If the addresses that have been
given to-night have emphasized one point more than another, it is that a
communicable disease is a preventable disease.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
95
MRS. N. C. SMILLIE (Convener Public Health Committee, National
Council of Women): We are deeply grateful for the addresses that have
been given us to-night. We are certainly very glad to know that what
have been considered our invisible foes are now put plainly before us, and
we are also glad to assure all who are working to fight those foes that the
women of the National Council are ready to assist in educating the public
—to do anything that may be in our power to bring about a better con-
dition of affairs. The relation of venereal diseases to infantile mortality
is a very close one. We women are especially concerned in the questions
of infantile mortality and venereal diseases.
THE MARCHIONESS OF ABERDEEN: The prevention of disease and
the conservation of life is one of the most important forms of war work.
They have sometimes been overlooked and sometimes regarded as of
secondary importance, and it is good indeed to be reminded of how vital
it is by one of such high authority as Col. Nasmith. He spoke to-night
of the special efforts that were being made in Great Britain and Ireland
to reduce infantile mortality. I have I een requested by those who are
specially engaged in this work in Great Britain to ask for the interest
especially of the National Council of Women in Canada in the efforts that
are being made.
“Save the nation, save the babies”, is the watchword
Save the
in Great Britain. This most essential war work must
Babies
be kept to the fore; the greatest, the most precious
asset of the nation is the human life and especially the lives of the little
children. If this had been kept in view during the year 1916, there would
not have been 71,000 deaths of little children under a year old out of 700,-
400 births in England and Wales, nor 10,000 deaths in Scotland out of
109,000 births, nor nearly 8,000 deaths in Ireland out of 90,000 births, nor
would there have been the terrible contingent of little children growing
up crippled and maimed and defective in various ways because of the lack
of knowledge and because of the apathy of the community, of local and
municipal authorities, and of the parents whose homes the children were
sent to bless. We are trying to collect funds for the foundation of a
great mother-craft institute to be established in or near London, where
every kind of effort for the care of mothers and young children is to be
carried out, so that local authorities or voluntary associations or indi-
viduals can come and study and get the best and latest information
possible in the particular schemes which they wish to carry out in their
own districts.
MRS. MURRAY (Halifax): There is a practical side
Health Education
to this matter of conservation of human life that
in the Schools
seldom occurs to the most of us. We have, in the public
school, machinery at hand to help us if we could make use of it. If we
96
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
began to-day to teach our children, both boys and girls, the necessity
of caring for themselves and for the future generations for which they will
be responsible, we would be taking a practical and advanced step towards
the conservation of human life for the future. Halifax should be the most
healthful city in North America. There is absolutely no excuse in the na-
tural climate, its facilities, its situation, for anything but the utmost
health, and yet in 1915 we had a very high death rate. We have talked
about conservation, about the necessity of a good water supply, about
pure milk for our city, and about housing for ten years, and yet we have
the most appalling housing problem at the present time that any civilized
community ought to have. I do not know anything about the western
cities, and I am not laying any accusation against any of you, but I do
hope that those of you who have so enjoyed this lecture to-night, and
expressed yourselves so by your applause, are not in your own souls
conscious that the community to which you belong is a thousand years
behind the age in these very particulars, and that you are taking it all out
in talking.
In the present stage of the war, the most important thing is to con-
serve the life we now have, and to improve the conditions for the life
that we shall have within the next year or two. It is the duty of every
community to make use of the public school for health education pur-
poses, because most of our ill-health and most of the venereal diseases
come from ignorance. The parents had failed in their duty and the
children had not been warned. That is why I would suggest that we
begin at the beginning with these things, and, while we are trying to right
the wrongs that we have at present, we will at the same moment try to
prevent the occurrence again of such wrongs by training our children
aright.
WHAT CLEAN-UP HAS ACCOMPLISHED
MR. COVERT (Montreal): In Montreal we have what we term our
clean-up campaign in relation to public health. We have heard a good
deal at this conference of the conservation of child life. We in Montreal
are carrying on a work which, in a small way at least, is solving this
problem. People have a misconception in connection with the work
of 'clean-up'. It is in most places a 'clean-up week'. In Montreal it is a
permanent campaign. Our committee is working every month in the
year, and the result we have achieved may make it interesting to you to
know how we are carrying on our campaign.
The basis of our methods of conducting our cam-
Co-operation of
Citizens and paigns is co-operation. To begin, we secured the
Authorities
active co-operation of the heads of the health, fire and
incineration departments by making them members of our committee.
URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
37
The securing of this active co-operation disarmed any possible opposition
which might have occurred, and we secured the help of the entire personnel
of these departments for campaign work. This contact has undoubtedly
acted as an incentive to a more energetic carrying on of the routine
work of these departments, and this has been one of the chief elements
in results achieved. After nearly four years, this active co-operation
is more enthusiastic and hearty than it was at the beginning.
We have the support and co-operation of the members of the city
government; they grant us each year the funds necessary for our work.
The newspapers have co-operated very fully, by reporting our
meetings and the results achieved, and by printing special articles and
editorials. The clergy co-operate by preaching special sermons on
'clean-up' on Sunday. Through the school commissioners we secure the
co-operation of principals and teachers of all the schools, who, in addition
to giving special lessons on cleanliness and garden cultivation to their
pupils, act as our agents in distributing our booklets to the children.
We issue 75,000 booklets, which are educative along the lines of clean-
liness, health, fire prevention and safety first. They also give the pro-
gramme of our home garden contest. Other general mediums of publicity
are also used.
In addition to this, we hold mass meetings throughout the city, at
which we show picture films and slides, and give lectures relative to the
subjects discussed in our booklet. These meetings are largely attended
by both adults and children.
Through our home garden contest we enlist the efforts of the children
and their parents in the growing of vegetables and flowers in their yards.
Every place entered is judged and prizes awarded. This year we have a
prize list totalling $1,275.00.
I will show the results achieved in the order of the objectives aimed
at. The first was the securing of greater cleanliness. During May,
1914, our first campaign, the amount of garbage removed by the in-
cineration department exceeded by 8,798 tons the amount carted in
May, 1913, and constituted, by many thousands of tons, a record up to
that time.
This condition of cleanliness has had marked influence
Effect of
City Clean-up on the second objective we have in view, viz., the
on Death Rate
reducing of our death rate. The average for the
ten year period 1905-14 was 24 deaths of children under one year per
100 births; in 1916, the percentage was 18.58 per 100 births.
Dr. Boucher, our Health Officer, in reporting results, said: “From
the viewpoint of hygiene there is no doubt that the campaign has had
marked influence on the general state of the public health and particularly
upon the infantile mortality. It might seem a vain boast to ascribe
this latter result only to the efforts of the clean-up committee, because it
98
COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION
springs rather from a combination of efforts, and from the co-operation,
intentional or otherwise, of various organizations, but it is equally true
that the clean-up campaign has played no mean part in this result."
He also gave figures showing, for the last four-year period, a reduction
of three per 10,000 of population in the deaths from this tuberculosis, and
went on to say: "As you all know, the sanitary conditions of the home
and of the neighbourhood are a prime factor for or against the spread of
tuberculosis, and these figures show that the teachings concerning clean-
liness must have had their share in the preservation of our population
from this dread disease."
RESOLUTION OF THANKS
MR. THOMAS ADAMS: I would ask you to pass a unanimous reso-
lution of thanks to those who have so kindly assisted in making this
convention a success: The T. Eaton Co., for hanging flags around
the room without charge; to the Greater Winnipeg Water District and
the city of Winnipeg, for so hospitably arranging to-morrow's excursion,
in which we are joining with the National Council of Women; to the
business men of the city, who have provided motor-cars to show the
delegates around the city; to the Research League and the Civic Im-
provement League of Winnipeg, who have joined together in giving us the
support of their organizations and have endeavoured to help this con-
ference in being a very great success. We have had the co-operation of
the women in many ways. There has been no time for formal votes of
thanks and I am endeavouring to include in this those with whom we have
had the privilege of co-operating and to whom we are indebted. I would
like to include the Ministers of the Government, the Acting Premier,
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Winkler and Mr. Armstrong, and everyone connected
with the Provincial Government who has taken part in our proceedings
and helped to make this conference successful.
We have had present representatives of every province in the Do-
minion; we have had papers by some of the ablest men on the subjects
with which they have dealt. We have enjoyed the hospitality of the city
of Winnipeg, and I would like you to pass a unanimous vote of thanks
to those I have named.
The resolution of thanks was put before the meeting and unani-
mously passed, after which the conference adjourned.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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3 9015 02590 4726
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