Manitoba Municipal Time Line

by Gordon Goldsborough
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Year	Event
1822	The District of Assiniboia, a land parcel presenting an 80-kilometer radius around the Red River Settlement, is formed as a local administrative unit by the Hudsons Bay Company, under the control of a 15-member Council of Assiniboia.
1870	Manitoba joins the Canadian Confederation as its fifth province.
1873	Manitoba’s first municipalities -- Springfield & Sunnywide, Westbourne, and Winnipeg -- are incorporated under the terms of a new Municipal Act.
1877	Manitoba is divided into a series of counties, subdivided further into municipalities, patterned on the system used in Ontario. Westbourne was the first such county. The complex system lasted only a few years and was discarded as being unworkable in a sparsely populated province like Manitoba.
1879	Legislation enabling the incorporation of towns was passed. The first incorporated town was Emerson and, the next year, Portage la Prairie.
1880	Eleven rural municipalities are incorporated: Lorne, Louise, Morris, Portage la Prairie, Rhineland, Rockwood, St. Andrews, St. Francois Xavier, Ste. Anne, Tache, Woodlands.
1881	Ten rural municipalities are incorporated: Argyle, Gimli, Hanover, Turtle Mountain, La Broquerie, Macdonald, Montcalm, Russell, Shoal Lake, and St. Laurent.
1882	Three urban municipalities are incorporated: Brandon, Selkirk, and Gladstone.
1883	It was a busy year for municipal incorporations. Thirty-eight rural municipalities were born: Archie, Arthur, Birtle, Blanshard, Boulton, Brenda, Clanwilliam, Cornwallis, Daly, De Salaberry, Ellice, Elton, Franklin, Glenwood, Hamiota, Harrison, Lansdowne, Miniota, North Cypress, North Norfolk, South Cypress, South Norfolk, Oakland, Odanah, Pipestone, Riverside, Rosedale, Rossburn, Saskatchewan, Shell River, Sifton, Silver Creek, St. Clements, Strathclair, Wallace, Whitehead, Whitewater and Woodworth. As well, there were five new towns: Birtle, Minnedosa, Morris, Neepawa and Rapid City.
1890	Seven new rural municipalities were incorporated: Dufferin, Langford, Morton, Pembina, Ritchot, Stanley and Winchester, along with the town of Virden.
1947	Manitoba’s first parking meters were installed in Brandon, in August. They took in $6,700 in their first year of operation. Winnipeg followed suit in 1949 with 300 meters.
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More information:

History in Manitoba Municipal Names

Association of Manitoba Municipalities

People of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities - Manitoba Association of Urban Municipalities - Association of Manitoba Municipalities

Page revised: 12 November 2008

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