[No abstract available] / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The physical environment of the Nanaimo area, inland forms, climate, soils and vegetation, is similar to that of the eastern coastal plain region of Vancouver Island. Two resources have/influenced the occupance particularly: coal deposits and location. The distributing economy made possible by location is still developing, but the economy as sociated with coal-mining has lost its former dominance. The effects which coal-mining, and adaptation to its decline, have had upon the economic life, the cultural landscape and the population can be studied as a phase in a continuing process of interaction between man and his environment. Physical factors have placed limitations upon the development of local activities. Location, which both fostered and hindered the progress of coal-mining, is becoming an increasingly important asset. Geological conditions proved disadvantageous to the prosperity of mining and limited the span of its productivity. Topography, soil and drainage restricted the scope of agriculture. The volume of local timber reserves confines their exploitation to small-scale operations, but the large reserves in surrounding areas form the basis of the whole regional economy. Fishing makes its greatest economic contribution in directly. Coal-mining expanded slowly from 1852 until the 1880's. The thirty years following 1890 marked the period of greatest employment and productivity, but it was interrupted by recessions due to the competition of other fuels and to labour difficulties. Decline since 1923 has been rapid and steady. The coal resources are now exploited on a continuously declining scale. Other economic activities have been further influenced by their changing relationships to coal-mining. Because of its early start, agriculture has nearly reached the limits of its areal expansion, part-time farming, by which land is used less intensively, has also been encouraged by the mining industry The depletion of timber reserves is directly attributable to the demands of the coal-mining economy. Certain manufacturing industries developed to serve the mining community, have disappeared, but others have expanded slightly Only those dependent upon resources located outside the area are likely to develop significantly. The tertiary industries of the coalmining period formed the nucleus of the present distributing economy. Favoured by location, they have become the mainstay of the area and have possibilities of further expansion. The features of the cultural landscape which originated during the coal-mining period are still discernible, but are being obscured by those associated with the distributing economy. The present complex pattern of agricultural and forest land utilization has been determined by the distribution of soil classes and the relationships of these industries to coal-mining. Zones of increasingly intensive utilization, centred on Nanaimo, may be developing. Settlements, formerly located near the outcropping seams, are becoming involved in a general tendency toward radial development. Three types of street patterns have been developed in the city and its vicinity. Elsewhere, the compact street patterns of the mining period are becoming more linear. Distinctive miners' homes remain in certain localities. The growth of population, formerly related to coal-mining, has not yet significantly increased, but population distribution is changing. Movements in accordance with mining developments have ceased, and the distribution is becoming noticeably dense near Nanaimo. Mining has been replaced as the dominant occupation by the tertiary industries. The nationalities in the area still represent those attracted by the mining industry. Attitudes engendered during the mining period still persist and may have varying effects on future progress. The present economic structure is based upon a primary resource, lumber, which must compete in the world market. Although the productive capacity of the area could be improved, the greatest contribution toward future development would be the maintenance of the regional timber resources. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Much has been written about both brownfield redevelopment and infill development as methods of improving the urban landscape. Barriers to these forms of urban and suburban development are all too often just superficially noted, and seldom subjected to critical analysis. Large metropolitan centres receive most mention; in fact, small, former industrial cities are rarely contemplated in the existing literature. To address shortcomings of critical analysis and the lack of attention on smaller cities, this study focuses on Nanaimo, British Columbia, a former coal mining and lumber processing community turned regional distribution and educational centre. The research is contextualized by a comprehensive review of the existing literature. Then, applying a qualitative research strategy, it was found through both a review of planning policies and in-depth interviews that Nanaimo was impacted differently than large metropolitan centres, and specifically in terms of the barriers that affect infill and brownfield redevelopment. As a result, Nanaimo suffers from additional economic challenges that render commonly-accepted strategies for encouraging infill and brownfield redevelopment less effective. Further, an examination of British Columbia’s program that was designed to support increased levels of brownfield redevelopment revealed that the program is essentially ineffective. Provincial funding models designed to induce redevelopment passively prioritized sites with little or no contamination, offering little financial aid to remediate seriously contaminated brownfield sites. / Graduate

This thesis is an examination of the boundary restructure efforts of Nanaimo, B.C. It examines and compares both the background which precipitated the restructure referendum and the actions and attitudes by individuals, groups, and Government that prefaced the November 2, 1974 vote. It also explores the literature and legislation that is germane to the analysis and relates it to the above. Finally, some consideration is given to speculating probable effects of the amalgamation decision. While there are many reasons which explain the need for a re-alignment of local Government boundaries, the principal one is that the existing political structure impedes the most effective delivery of services to the public. The author's investigations revealed that there were important conflicts in the pattern of local Government in Nanaimo that could be mitigated with amalgamation. Irrespective of the stated benefits, a significant segment of the population opposed amalagamation. Opposition sentiment was based on a variety of arguments, with the effects on taxes apparently the most vocal issue. Opposition sentiment was obviously strong as the outcome of the referendum showed that only 52% were in favour of amalgamation. This despite the fact that a thorough examination of the implications of restructure by a special restructure committee concluded that there would be little initial impact on the tax burden. In general, the thesis is an assessment of an event, and as such, no specific or pre-conceived hypothesis was stated. Three recommendations of particular note, concluded specifically from the case study are: (i) the need for an immediate change in property taxation laws affecting non-municipal areas in British Columbia to bring the taxes in line with the actual cost of services provided by the province to non-municipal areas. (ii) the Provincial Government, in the Nanaimo situation, should be prepared to augment their existing financial commitment to help defray unanticipated costs if they (costs) become excessively burdensome. In future restructure proposals, however the Province should consider undertaking a more comprehensive review of cost figures, projected by local restructure committees to ensure their accuracy. (iii) in any future restructure proposals, the Provincial Government should ensure that the local people responsible for administering the restructure program have engaged in an active and effective campaign of making the local citizens aware of the full ramifications of amalgamation, (both the positive and negative aspects), and that a concerted effort is made to encourage the participation of all residents. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This thesis documents the employment history of Sne-nay-muxw women. The Sne nay-muxw, a Coast Salish peoples, live on the southeast coast ofVancouver Island close to the city ofNanaimo. Nanaimo was established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852 as coal mining town. Coal dominated the economy until the early 20th century when forestry related production became important. Today a service economy has eclipsed both the primary and secondary industries. Within these economies a distinct gender, race and class segregation structured Sne-nay-muxw women’s employment opportunities. This study examines the nature of this segregation, the Sne-nay-muxw domestic economy and the gender ideology that promoted both women’s inclusion and exclusion in. wage labour. A central question posed in this thesis is why Sne-nay-muxw women today perceive their traditional roles to be within the home despite their historical participation in the labour force. Feminist anthropology provides the theoretical and methodological approach used for this study. It is accepted that women’s experiences in the labour force are different not only from men but also from other women based upon relational inequalities ofrace and class. Historical data was collected from a variety of sources; published and unpublished government reports, missionary accounts, letters and journals. Nineteen women and eight men were interviewed in the community for both historic and contemporary accounts of employment experiences. History reveals that during the mining economy Sne-nay-muxw women were excluded from working in the mines and limited to employment as domestic servants. The introduction of Chinese labour, decreasing coal demands and increased technology forced many women to migrate with their families to the canneries on the Fraser river and the hop fields in Washington state. In the forestry related production economy, Sne-nay-muxw women’s opportunities were limited despite the expansion of employment for women in the service sector. State policies and inferior education were significant factors in this exclusion. At this time Sne-nay-muxw women continued to migrate with their families to the fish camps on Rivers Inlet and the berry fields in Washington state. In the last two decades the service economy has dominated in Nanaimo. Sne-nay-muxw women have found increasing job opportunities on and off reserve in administration, management and professional service delivery programs. While this employment is part of the wider trend for women in the service economy, Sne-nay-muxw women’s opportunities remain segregated by gender, race and class. Women’s participation in the labour force is shown to be linked to the organization of their domestic economy. Before 1920 this economy incorporated both subsistence production and farming with seasonal wage labour. After this time the Sne-nay-muxw became increasingly dependent upon wage labour. However, extended family and kinship networks have remained important for support and cooperation. This form ofhousehold organization did not constrain women’s participation in the labour force. Today extended families remain the central organizing principle in Sne-nay-muxw lives. Sne-nay-muxw women’s identity and opportunities for education and employment remain linked to their membership in these families. Shifts in women’s participation in the labour force is shown to be accompanied by acceptance of a domestic ideology. During the mining economy when women actively sought wage labour, they acquired domestic skills needed for wage labour but did not accept an ideology that promoted their dependency upon men. Historical evidence indicates that they retained a significant degree of autonomy in their lives. With men’s increased security of employment in the forestry economy, the idealized role ofwomen as housewives was promoted. Families that were able to realize women’s exclusion from the labour force gained status and prestige in the community. Finally, in the service economy, the Sne-nay-muxw gender ideology includes women’s participation in the labour force to occupations linked to their domestic and nurturing roles.

Urban School Boards and City Councils in British Columbia worked in tandem with provincial officials in Victoria to expand the state school system in the 1890s. In discharging their responsibilities, the Boards functioned with considerable independence. They built and maintained schools, appointed and ranked teachers, and organized students. During the course of the decade, City Councils acquired the responsibility for school finance. Nineteenth-century British Columbia education history, written from a centralist perspective, has articulated the idea of a dominant centre and subordinate localities, but this interpretation is not sufficient to explain the development of public schooling in Nanaimo hi the 1890s. The centralist interpretation does not allow for the real historical complexity of the school system. Neither does it accommodate the possibility of successful local resistance to central initiatives, nor the extent to which public schooling was produced locally. It is important, then, to examine what kind of context Nanaimo constituted for state schooling in the last years of the century. This study concludes that civic leaders and significant interest groups in the community believed schooling played an important boundary making role in forging civic, racial, gender, and occupational identities. In carrying out their interlocking responsibilities for providing physical space and organizing teachers and students, the Nanaimo School Trustees created opportunities for local girls and, within limits, for women. The Trustees limited opportunities for local men, and went outside the community for men who had the professional credentials which were increasingly desirable in the late-nineteenth century. Both the traditions of self-help and the imperatives of corporate capitalism intersected in school production in late-nineteenth century Nanaimo. The focus on securing identities through the differentiating processes of boundaries and hierarchies which was evident in Nanaimo was typical of a wider colonial discourse at the end of the nineteenth century.

This thesis documents the employment history of Sne-nay-muxw women. The Sne nay-muxw, a Coast Salish peoples, live on the southeast coast ofVancouver Island close to the city ofNanaimo. Nanaimo was established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852 as coal mining town. Coal dominated the economy until the early 20th century when forestry related production became important. Today a service economy has eclipsed both the primary and secondary industries. Within these economies a distinct gender, race and class segregation structured Sne-nay-muxw women’s employment opportunities. This study examines the nature of this segregation, the Sne-nay-muxw domestic economy and the gender ideology that promoted both women’s inclusion and exclusion in. wage labour. A central question posed in this thesis is why Sne-nay-muxw women today perceive their traditional roles to be within the home despite their historical participation in the labour force. Feminist anthropology provides the theoretical and methodological approach used for this study. It is accepted that women’s experiences in the labour force are different not only from men but also from other women based upon relational inequalities ofrace and class. Historical data was collected from a variety of sources; published and unpublished government reports, missionary accounts, letters and journals. Nineteen women and eight men were interviewed in the community for both historic and contemporary accounts of employment experiences. History reveals that during the mining economy Sne-nay-muxw women were excluded from working in the mines and limited to employment as domestic servants. The introduction of Chinese labour, decreasing coal demands and increased technology forced many women to migrate with their families to the canneries on the Fraser river and the hop fields in Washington state. In the forestry related production economy, Sne-nay-muxw women’s opportunities were limited despite the expansion of employment for women in the service sector. State policies and inferior education were significant factors in this exclusion. At this time Sne-nay-muxw women continued to migrate with their families to the fish camps on Rivers Inlet and the berry fields in Washington state. In the last two decades the service economy has dominated in Nanaimo. Sne-nay-muxw women have found increasing job opportunities on and off reserve in administration, management and professional service delivery programs. While this employment is part of the wider trend for women in the service economy, Sne-nay-muxw women’s opportunities remain segregated by gender, race and class. Women’s participation in the labour force is shown to be linked to the organization of their domestic economy. Before 1920 this economy incorporated both subsistence production and farming with seasonal wage labour. After this time the Sne-nay-muxw became increasingly dependent upon wage labour. However, extended family and kinship networks have remained important for support and cooperation. This form ofhousehold organization did not constrain women’s participation in the labour force. Today extended families remain the central organizing principle in Sne-nay-muxw lives. Sne-nay-muxw women’s identity and opportunities for education and employment remain linked to their membership in these families. Shifts in women’s participation in the labour force is shown to be accompanied by acceptance of a domestic ideology. During the mining economy when women actively sought wage labour, they acquired domestic skills needed for wage labour but did not accept an ideology that promoted their dependency upon men. Historical evidence indicates that they retained a significant degree of autonomy in their lives. With men’s increased security of employment in the forestry economy, the idealized role ofwomen as housewives was promoted. Families that were able to realize women’s exclusion from the labour force gained status and prestige in the community. Finally, in the service economy, the Sne-nay-muxw gender ideology includes women’s participation in the labour force to occupations linked to their domestic and nurturing roles. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Urban School Boards and City Councils in British Columbia worked in tandem with provincial officials in Victoria to expand the state school system in the 1890s. In discharging their responsibilities, the Boards functioned with considerable independence. They built and maintained schools, appointed and ranked teachers, and organized students. During the course of the decade, City Councils acquired the responsibility for school finance. Nineteenth-century British Columbia education history, written from a centralist perspective, has articulated the idea of a dominant centre and subordinate localities, but this interpretation is not sufficient to explain the development of public schooling in Nanaimo hi the 1890s. The centralist interpretation does not allow for the real historical complexity of the school system. Neither does it accommodate the possibility of successful local resistance to central initiatives, nor the extent to which public schooling was produced locally. It is important, then, to examine what kind of context Nanaimo constituted for state schooling in the last years of the century. This study concludes that civic leaders and significant interest groups in the community believed schooling played an important boundary making role in forging civic, racial, gender, and occupational identities. In carrying out their interlocking responsibilities for providing physical space and organizing teachers and students, the Nanaimo School Trustees created opportunities for local girls and, within limits, for women. The Trustees limited opportunities for local men, and went outside the community for men who had the professional credentials which were increasingly desirable in the late-nineteenth century. Both the traditions of self-help and the imperatives of corporate capitalism intersected in school production in late-nineteenth century Nanaimo. The focus on securing identities through the differentiating processes of boundaries and hierarchies which was evident in Nanaimo was typical of a wider colonial discourse at the end of the nineteenth century. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

It is estimated that the population of the City of Nanaimo will almost double in the next 25 years. In the past, Nanaimo's urban growth has been absorbed using a typical pattern of development - stripmalls, supported by ever-expanding low-density suburban sprawl. This development seems to have occurred with little or no forethought to its environmental or social consequences. Urban sprawl is consuming our land and endangering the natural ecosystems in our region. In response to the ecological and social problems of urban sprawl the City of Nanaimo, in coordination with the Regional District of Nanaimo, has developed a Growth Management Plan. The Plan focuses on creating compact communities within the city boundary, thereby alleviating sprawl and mamtaining the ecological integrity of the hinterlands. We must now seek ways of designing neighbourhoods that not only accommodate our growing population but also enhance both the human and environmental "functioning" of the site. This project examines a sustainable growth strategy for one of Nanaimo's designated urban growth areas. The Southgate Town Centre Concept Plan is the product of an integrated planning process and is based on principles of sustainable and complete communities. The Plan addresses the basic functional elements of a community (habitat and watershed integrity, pedestrian and traffic circulation, and residential and commercial development) and explores how the application of sustainability principles can result in a functional community. The result is a comprehensive design of an urban growth area that has accommodated density while also improving the ecological, social and experiential fimctioning of the site. The design addresses the relationship of the site to its watershed context and its surrounding community. As a comprehensive document it also serves as a model for similar urban development areas.

It is estimated that the population of the City of Nanaimo will almost double in the next 25 years. In the past, Nanaimo's urban growth has been absorbed using a typical pattern of development - stripmalls, supported by ever-expanding low-density suburban sprawl. This development seems to have occurred with little or no forethought to its environmental or social consequences. Urban sprawl is consuming our land and endangering the natural ecosystems in our region. In response to the ecological and social problems of urban sprawl the City of Nanaimo, in coordination with the Regional District of Nanaimo, has developed a Growth Management Plan. The Plan focuses on creating compact communities within the city boundary, thereby alleviating sprawl and mamtaining the ecological integrity of the hinterlands. We must now seek ways of designing neighbourhoods that not only accommodate our growing population but also enhance both the human and environmental "functioning" of the site. This project examines a sustainable growth strategy for one of Nanaimo's designated urban growth areas. The Southgate Town Centre Concept Plan is the product of an integrated planning process and is based on principles of sustainable and complete communities. The Plan addresses the basic functional elements of a community (habitat and watershed integrity, pedestrian and traffic circulation, and residential and commercial development) and explores how the application of sustainability principles can result in a functional community. The result is a comprehensive design of an urban growth area that has accommodated density while also improving the ecological, social and experiential fimctioning of the site. The design addresses the relationship of the site to its watershed context and its surrounding community. As a comprehensive document it also serves as a model for similar urban development areas. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate