ANYONE who navigates the big box shopping districts along Kenaston Boulevard will notice an area lousy with automobiles, but seemingly devoid of people, or at least people on the street. There aren't many sidewalks in the area, just crowded parking lots and busy roadways. It's an inhuman, even anti-human, environment, built almost exclusively for the modern car culture.
It's a culture that is well-entrenched, and there's no evidence it will change in the future. According to the latest Census data, Canada is becoming more and more dependent on the automobile at a time when governments are looking for ways to curb carbon emissions and clean the air. While Canada's population grew by 5.4 per cent, the growth rate in the peripheral municipalities that surround metropolitan districts grew by 11.1 per cent. In Winnipeg, the newer suburbs and bedroom communities outside the Perimeter Highway are booming, ensuring that King Car will continue to rule.
The big question is whether it's a sustainable culture in a world that is a long way from finding an affordable, practical alternative to Big Oil. Stephen Hazell of the Sierra Club of Canada believes people living on the edges of major cities may have trouble getting to work in the future. "We're going to have less fossil fuels around. What fossil fuels we do have are going to be more expensive," Hazell said. "So people who are living out in the suburbs are going to be stranded."
Rapid, or improved, transit is one alternative to reduce the growing dependency on cars and their poisonous emissions, but it is not being vigorously pursued in the greater Winnipeg area.
The Doer government, in fact, is also doing its bit to support Big Oil through the development of the Waverley West subdivision. The government had promised to use the estimated $15 million in profits from the development to renovate homes in the inner city. It has since decided instead to use half the profits to extend Kenaston to accommodate the car culture. The province should never have gotten into this position, where it has a commercial agenda that's in conflict with good -- and green -- public policy, but it foolishly has. It can, however, extricate itself from this conflict by getting out of the development business and recommiting to ensuring that infill opportunities are fully exploited.
Governments cannot tell people where they must live, but they can do more to rebuild the downtown, with housing as its backbone, while rebuilding older neighbourhoods to increase their value and desirability among new home buyers and tenants. That will go a long way to building a stronger and safer city, while reducing the dominion of King Car.