Watershed planning and land use development planning are two different planning processes dealing with many of the same water and land resources. Watershed planning is conducted on watershed boundaries; land use development plans focus on municipal or planning district boundaries. It is important that these plans are properly integrated so they are mutually supportive of one another. This study focuses on Manitoba, where land and water issues include potential floods and droughts, poor water quality in major lakes, and the need to protect drinking water for human use. The severity of these issues could increase in the future as Manitoba is projected to experience climate change that will further impact water and land resources in the province. The research explores different modes of integration, finding that collaboration is valuable in some circumstances in terms of maximizing collective resources, but that it is important to build upon strong cooperation and coordination. Results indicate that land use planners have a role to play in watershed management, using both technical and soft skills to protect watershed health through land use planning tools and plans. Watershed management planning and land use planning integration in other Canadian provinces is explored. The study concludes with a conceptual framework for integrating watershed and land use plans, as well as recommendations for improving integration in Manitoba, including: ongoing public education, pooling existing resources, more collaboration between watershed and land use planners, consideration of future water-related land use regulatory authority for watershed-based organizations, establishing clear responsibility for ensuring integration, continued learning by doing, creating a guiding framework for integrating watershed plans and land use plans, and using an adaptive management approach in both planning processes.

This research explored the use of development charges (DCs) as a sustainable planning policy implementation tool to address integrated urban water management (IUWM) principles through the implementation of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) practices. This was accomplished by focusing on whether and how development charges can be used in Canadian slow-growth city regions to provide incentives for sustainable urban infrastructure practices through facilitating the decentralisation of stormwater management. The forms of stormwater management explored included structural landscape- and building- based strategies encompassing bioretention, infiltration, and dispersion. Potential implications were explored from the perspective of planning through semi-structured interviews, to the on-the-ground site design level within development projects through a review of the literature and case study analysis. Findings from the National Capital Region (Ottawa and environs) case study were synthesised into a series of best management practices for implementation of an IUWM DC strategy for the Manitoba Capital Region.

Although there has been extensive research focused on school violence, very little research has been conducted on the relationship between perceptions of school violence and personal safety and perceived academic performance of students in rural areas. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate how self-reported perceptions of school violence and personal safety are related to perceived marks in math and ELA in a small rural Manitoba school division. Data were collected from two groups of students (Grades 4 to 6 and Grades 7 to 12) who completed different versions of the Canadian Public Health Association Safe School Survey (CPHA) and also answered questions prepared by the school division’s Health and Safety Committee regarding their perceptions of individual math and ELA marks. The implications of the findings of this study for the school division are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

With the aim of developing a housing needs assessment tool for rural Manitoba, the research investigates definitions of ‘rural’, the concept of housing need, and approaches to its assessment. The main question is: how can housing need be identified and quantified at the community or regional level? The response comes in the development of a community-based rural housing needs assessment guidebook (documented in Volume 2). Literature reviewed (Part 2) targets definitions of rural, and an examination of: methods of assessing housing need, the nature of housing need, trends in housing policy, housing services programming, and the determination of housing need at a local level. Throughout, there is a focus on application of relevant literature to informing the design and development of the guidebook. The key informant interview process and related ethical considerations are presented in Part 3. The precedents review, of prior housing needs assessments and guides, is also described. The results from these research methods interviews are presented in Part 4, again with a focus on identifying how each informed development of the guidebook. Part 4 concludes with a description of the design of the housing needs assessment guidebook, addressing the structure and scope of the assessment process, key considerations and components included in the guide, the two-phase process that constitutes the main information-generating component of the tool, and the discrepancy model used to guide the user through the assessment process. Design of a sample survey (an optional component of the guide) is also briefly discussed, as well as perceived limitations of the guide including the need for a complementary strategic planning process that picks up where the assessment leaves off, which might merit a second guide that details such further steps. Certain realities of housing needs assessment in rural Manitoba, and complicating aspects of the discrepancy model, are also discussed. Part 5 details the early stages of application of components of the housing needs assessment guide in the Minnedosa area of Manitoba. Strengths and weaknesses of the components are identified, and associated refinements and changes are noted. It is concluded (Part 6) that the rural housing needs assessment guide is a viable means of identifying housing need in rural Manitoba. Possible benefits of its application are noted, but there are also cautions regarding further desirable or necessary research.

On November 8, 2001, the Government of Manitoba announced that the number of school divisions and districts in the province would be reduced from 54 to 37. With that policy announcement, Manitoba embarked upon the most significant restructuring of school board governance arrangements since the late 1950s. The purpose of the research was to examine the school division amalgamation initiative as a case study in policy-making by the Government of Manitoba. The study investigated the nature of this initiative, including its origin, development, eventual conclusion and implementation. The fundamental question addressed by the study was this: Why was school division amalgamation an idea whose time had come in Manitoba? Discussion of amalgamation had been active within the Progressive Conservative administration of Gary Filmon since the early 1990s, but despite the recommendation in 1995 of a provincially established Boundaries Review Commission to move forward with government directed amalgamation, the idea languished until a newly-elected provincial government under Gary Doer, leader of the New Democratic Party, assumed power in 1999. The theoretical framework used in addressing the question posed relied primarily upon the work of John Kingdon (Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies) who contends that there must be a timely convergence of three key aspects of policy formation: problems, solutions and politics. Therefore, the study examined the key role of elected officials in promoting certain policy ideas and their impact on the decisions of government at specific times. It also compared and contrasted the differing policy approaches taken by the Filmon and Doer regimes on this question, and assesses the opportunities and constraints which explain the differences found. The study relied on extant public documents and other primary sources, and especially the expressed view or position of certain elected officials and supporting staff gained through one-on-one in-depth interviews. The focus of the analysis was an attempt to assess the interplay of problem, solution, and politics, and whether or not it reveals what Kingdon has called a “window of opportunity” for decisive action by government. The study showed that, indeed, the window of opportunity for amalgamation occurred with the convergence of three forces by 2001: pervasive indicators of a problem; promotion of amalgamation as a policy solution previously tried in Manitoba and elsewhere; and the election of a new government in 1999 which was receptive to pursuing some degree of change with respect to school division governance and organization.

This thesis examines the occurrence of Canadian Raising in Manitoba, using acoustic-spectral analysis. Factors such as lexical frequency and morphological complexity are examined to determine their role in Canadian Raising production within the sample population. One of the key findings is that what are usually analyzed as “raised” phones in pre-voiceless context are considerably shorter than non-raised (pre-voiced) phones, but do not exhibit substantial differences in terms of vowel quality. A method of multiple-timepoint spectral analysis used to achieve this finding is described in detail. Examination of raising-like diphthongs before /ɹ/ indicates that vowel duration differences exist in different contexts. There is some indication that morphological complexity is related to variants of “raised” phones, such that complex morphology is correlated with longer duration.

Intercultural communication addresses some of the apparent challenges that surface from interactions among diverse people. The concept stretches beyond language and dialect barriers and includes the ways in which culture influences how people understand, create and respond to communication depending on where they are from, their life experiences, social structure, ethnicity, religion, education, occupation, and so on. This research acknowledges that culture is a broad and difficult to define concept because it influences individuals and groups in different ways, especially in an era of globalization. Through an exploration of literature, semi-structured interviews and a focus group, and applying the concept of intercultural communication to active planning practice, the research examines how a sample of Winnipeg planners learn and practice such intercultural communication. Their perspectives on this practice are then considered in the context of collaboration, where it is concluded that intercultural communication competencies can directly foster collaboration. The practice has potential benefits for the many diverse publics that now need to be better served through planning processes. Intercultural communication is an important practice of planners in culturally diverse cities such as Winnipeg because planners often find themselves in intermediary 'bridging' roles among diverse cultures. It is confirmed that intercultural communication requires a necessary set of competencies, values and skills that must influences one's planning practice.

Influenza is a population health issue in Canada, with an annual infection rate of 10-25% of the population. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze influenza-like illnesses (ILI) from 2004-05 through to 2008-09, both spatially and temporally, throughout the province of Manitoba. The analysis used a framework specific to spatial analysis, and incorporated the principles of population health and ecological frameworks. The underlying objectives of the research were to better understand the patterns of ILI diagnoses as well as the characteristics of those diagnosed. Maps were created to show the results from various perspectives and negative binomial regression analysis was used to test which, if any, of the chosen variables were significant. Based on this research, one could conclude that although clusters of ILI do exist in Manitoba, a clear relationship does not exist between the determinants of health and ILI.

For the Asiniskow Ithiniwak (Rocky Cree), the Missinipi (Churchill River) holds many traditional resource areas and cultural landscapes with oral histories that transfer knowledge through the generations (Linklater 1994; Castel and Westfall 2001; Brightman 1993). In recent decades, hydroelectric development in north central Manitoba has impacted Cree livelihood by altering resource use, limiting access to significant cultural landscapes and accelerating the erosion of campsites and ancestral burials into the water. Even with existing provincial heritage legislation, some of these heritage resources remain threatened by land-based developments because of the limitations related to their identification, documentation and presentation in the cultural resource management field. The tendency to focus on physical manifestations of heritage such as archaeological sites, heritage objects and built heritage overlooks other resources of heritage such as places known in the local language. I argue that these biases result from cultural divergences that exist in the understanding and definitions of heritage, particularly Indigenous heritage. In this dissertation, I articulate how underlying theoretical assumptions of reality influences our understandings of heritage. I present a postcolonial understanding of heritage as interpreted from the perspective of the Asiniskow Ithiniwak using an Indigenous research paradigm, methodologies and the nīhithow language, in conjunction with knowledge based on Western intellectual traditions. The use of a bicultural research model led to new ways in identifying heritage resources important to the Asiniskow Ithiniwak and meaningful interpretations of archaeological materials based on legal traditions. Further, this case study demonstrates that there is no singular or universal definition of heritage for Indigenous peoples. For successful heritage resources protection, I illustrate that understandings of heritage need to be contextualized locally through a community’s language, culture, customary laws and local landscape. This view, promoted by UNESCO, emphasizes that the values and practices of local communities, together with traditional management systems, must be fully understood, respected, encouraged and accommodated in management plans if their heritage resources are to be sustained in the future (Logan 2008; UNESCO 2004). This outcome demonstrates the need to reexamine the practices, policies, legislation and procedures concerned with Indigenous knowledge in cultural and natural resources management in Canada.

What does it mean to be Indigenous in the city? This question, expressing the experiences of a majority of Indigenous peoples in Canada today, is largely overlooked. Indigenous youth, who have grown up exclusively in the urban space of Winnipeg, with limited to no connection with the reserve or rural community of their families, define the contours of this thesis. My own personal and family history as having Cree-Métis roots in the Red River area as well as Scottish-English settler roots will tether along with the main narrative, if only to tell a parallel while also divergent story of the complex historical threads that inform many identities and collectivities today. In the days where Indigenous groups are struggling and fighting to maintain their histories and cultures against the legacy of colonialism that has been trying to rob Indigenous peoples of their history and culture for hundreds of years, the politics of identity are a highly charged scene where historical conflicts are waged. As lines are drawn, however, the complexities and richness of identity are often deadened at the expense of urgency and expediency. It is my contention that the youth tell us something about the complexity of individual and collective identity, living as they do in an environment that contains cultural, political, and material paths laid down by both traditional Indigenous and settler-Canadian historical processes. The youth remind us to ground our intellectual and political work in the everyday, the place where our bodies make sense of the world we live in. The practice of storytelling is a unique source of making sense of this world that is grounded in the everyday. I will utilize the storytelling practices of a wide range of authors, and will also seek to expand the practice of storytelling beyond its discursive, literary, and oral forms to that of embodied practice and movement, as well as a primary mediator or our relations with the land. Storytelling helps us see that the youth are on Indigenous land and articulating a dynamic identity that helps us (re)conceive the divisions between the rural/reserve and the city as well as see differently the historical continuities and discontinuities of Indigenous identities. Storytelling becomes the basis in this project for me to seek how our political and intellectual commentaries can become accountable to our everyday experience while also putting the everyday in to dialogue with the political and intellectual concepts we rely upon to guide us.