The Wilson Report suggesting a 23-mile long subway for this city will probably be regarded as a controversial and unrealistic document by a considerable number of Winnipeggers. The thought of spending an amount approaching half a billion dollars on a rapid transit system for the metropolitan area is staggering.

The rough estimate of the cost of building and equipping a subway system — $449 million — is more than the total assessment for tax purposes of all the real property in the city of Winnipeg proper.

But the novelty of the proposal and the large investment involved should not cause the report to be dismissed as dream stuff. Far from it.

In the first place, this is long-range planning and the Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission is to be commended for looking ahead. In the second place, Norman D. Wilson is recognized as a top-drawer authority on mass transit on two continents. He does not deal in dream stuff.

It is quite true that the cost of a subway would be high — but then so is the cost of expressways or other public works designed to move large numbers of people in and out of the central city of the metropolitan area. The cost-benefit of a subway system merits the same consideration as the perhaps even more costly expresssway system recommended in (the) Wilbur Smith Report.

But what both these reports point to in the clearest way is the need for a metro authority to deal with problems of mass transit and mass movement of traffic n Greater Winnipeg. Only a metro council such as that recommended by the Greater Winnipeg Investigating Commission would have the community-wide viewpoint and the financial resources required to attack these problems intelligently and effectively.

As Winnipeg continues to grow, which will be needed — a subway system, an expressway system or both? If both, which should be built first? What priorities should be given the various stages of each? How should the projects be financed? All these decisions must be dealt with on a metro basis.

These problems are not comfortably distant in the future. Mr. Wilson recommends that in view of the present rate of growth in the city, transit authorities should be ready to undertake the first step of the nine-stage subway project in five years. Five years is little enough time to make a cost-benefit study of subway and expressway, and prepare detailed plans.

It should be borne in mind that it has taken nine years to reach the stage of making field surveys for permanent flood protection works for the metopolitan area.