The Joint Committee on Vacant Lands Settlement, also known as the Special Committee on Colonization, was appointed by Council on January 30, 1888 to work with the Board of Trade and other interested parties to devise “a scheme for the settlement of vacant lands in the vicinity of the City of Winnipeg”. The City’s interest in settlement of these lands is apparent as early as 1880 when Council passed a motion on June 14 of that year calling for the Dominion government to “unlock” and distribute land “set aside for the children of Half Breeds” in the Manitoba Act of 1870. The Joint Committee’s plan was implemented during the spring and summer of 1888. It involved the preparation and distribution of information pamphlets by travelling agents hired by the Joint Committee and by agents in North American ports of arrival. Various bonuses were offered to agents and others for successful settlement of these lands. In December of 1888, Council instructed the City Solicitor to prepare a by-law that would enable Council to issue debentures to fund the work of the Colonization Committee during 1889 (By-Law 431). Being a money by-law, it was put to a vote by rate-payers and was defeated at the polls. Although the Joint Committee on Vacant Lands Settlement appears not to have continued beyond 1888, communications received by the City suggest that efforts to encourage settlement of lands around the City of Winnipeg were ongoing into the 1890s.

The City of Winnipeg was incorporated in 1873 by a charter granted by the legislature of Manitoba. At incorporation, the City established a committee system of government: while Council was the governing body for the City, it was in committee that civic policies were formed and executed. The initial task for the first and all subsequent Councils was to strike standing committees for the Council year. In addition to standing committees, Council established special committees to investigate and manage various projects, issues and questions placed before the City. Special committees were typically struck by a Council motion that outlined committee composition and responsibilities. From about 1924 onward, special committees and their associated files were assigned an alpha-numeric code beginning with the letter "A".

The Special Committee on Post-War Reconstruction was established by Council motion on February 16, 1942. It was composed of two aldermen from each of the three wards of the City and was instructed to identify likely projects for post-war work within Winnipeg, draft a plan of action and consult broadly with other public bodies engaged in similar work. The identification and development of municipal projects was linked to a broader national objective of securing employment and stability for those demobilized from the armed forces and from war industries. Among the projects identified were: improvements to Winnipeg General Hospital; improvements to city schools; repairs and renewal of sewer and water systems, bridges, pavement and riverbanks; as well as mention of a new city hall. The committee consulted with other Canadian cities engaged in similar planning and solicited advice and information from the local business community. The file code for this special committee was A49.

The City of Winnipeg was incorporated in 1873 by a charter granted by the legislature of Manitoba. At incorporation, the City established a committee system of government: while Council was the governing body for the City, it was in committee that civic policies were formed and executed. The initial task for the first and all subsequent Councils was to strike standing committees for the Council year. In addition to standing committees, Council established special committees to investigate and manage various projects, issues and questions placed before the City. The Special Committee on Housing Conditions was formed in 1933. The Fact Finding Board on Housing Conditions was appointed in April of 1947 and completed their work in June of 1947.

The Fact Finding Board on Housing Conditions was established by Council in April of 1947. The motion read: "Be it resolved that a fact finding board in respect of housing in general in Winnipeg be appointed by the mayor and that the board report to council by July 1." The Board was made up of three aldermen and the mayor, and one member each from the following organizations: Winnipeg House Builders Association, Greater Winnipeg Lumber Dealers Association, Winnipeg Builders Exchange, Building Trades Council of Winnipeg, Winnipeg and District Trades and Labour Council, Canadian Legion, B.E.S.L. and Winnipeg Unit, Army and Navy Veterans in Canada. The Board solicited information from various jurisdictions, as well as briefs from individuals or groups with an interest in solving the City's housing crisis. The final Report of the City of Winnipeg, Fact Finding Board on Housing in Winnipeg was completed June 27, 1947 and the Board was dissolved.

The City of Winnipeg was incorporated in 1873 by a charter granted by the legislature of Manitoba. At incorporation, the City established a committee system of government: while Council was the governing body for the City, it was in committee that civic policies were formed and executed. The initial task for the first and all subsequent Councils was to strike standing committees for the Council year. In addition to standing committees, Council established special committees to investigate and manage various projects, issues and questions placed before the City. Special committees were typically struck by a Council motion that outlined committee composition and responsibilities.

In 1920, the Women's Canadian Club of Winnipeg erected a temporary monument in front of the Bank of Montreal building at Portage and Main. When the temporary monument was taken down in November of 1923 to make way for the Bank's own war memorial, the question of securing a site and constructing a monument for the City to honor its war dead was again raised by citizens. Given that the City had an interest in the outcome of this initiative, Council appointed representatives to the Winnipeg War Memorial Committee by motion on February 21, 1927. The Winnipeg War Memorial Committee had representation from groups like the Canukeena Club, the Imperial Veterans, the Army and Navy Veterans, the War Widows Association, the Women's Canadian Club, the Rotary Club, the Trades and Labour Council, the Canadian Legion, the I.O.D.E., and Winnipeg City Council. The committee concluded its work in June of 1929 when it requested that the memorial it had unveiled in November of 1928 be transferred to the Parks Board for perpetual care and maintenance.

Both the Rural Municipality and the Village of Brooklands were incorporated on June 10, 1921 through Order in Council No. 36806. Originally part of the Rural Municipality of Rosser, Brooklands qualified for village status under section 9 of chapter 133 of The Municipal Act. The Letters Patent incorporating Brooklands as a village describe the municipality’s original boundaries as “comprising not more than 640 acres, formerly comprised within the limits and extent of the Rural Municipality of Rosser, bounded on the south by Notre Dame Avenue, on the east by Keewatin Street, on the north by Geyser Avenue, and on the west by the center line running north and south of section 14 in township 11 in range 2 east of the first principal meridian in the Province of Manitoba.” On October 4, 1961, under section 16 of The Municipal Act and through Order in Council No. 1207, the Village of Brooklands became a Town. Six years later, in 1967, the Town of Brooklands amalgamated into the City of St. James. In 1968, a further merger between the City of St. James and the Rural Municipality of Assiniboia resulted in formation of the new City of St. James-Assiniboia, which in turn joined eleven other municipalities in amalgamation with the City of Winnipeg in 1972.

Note that from 1939 until 1954, the Village of Brooklands was under the jurisdiction of the Municipal and Public Utility Board. In 1959, after approximately four years of independence, the Village was taken back under the supervision of the Public Utility Board. In 1954, after nearly eighteen years under a provincial trustee, Brooklands was granted the right to administer its own school affairs.

As in other municipalities, government organization in Brooklands was dictated by its letters patent. Accordingly, council consisted of a mayor, sometimes called a reeve, and four councilors elected by qualified electors of the village/town. Council duties included the formulation of public policy, implementation and administration. Like other municipal councils, policy administration was delegated to standing committees comprised of council members. Standing committees were: finance, by-laws, public works, social welfare, water works, fire and police services. In addition to these functions, the municipality was responsible for assessment, tax collection, elections, and for at least part of its history, overseeing a school district. In the 1960’s, with powers acquired when it achieved Town status, council established a Parks Board and an Industrial Development Board.

Typically, daily operations within a municipality are carried out by line departments. It is likely that these records were merged into departmental records in the City of St. James following the merger in 1967, and subsequently into record series in the City of St. James-Assiniboia and the City of Winnipeg at amalgamation. Remaining records for the Village and Town of Brooklands provide little information on departmental organization or operations.

The first City Surveyor was appointed in 1878.

Owen Clark was born on July 16, 1938 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His first experience playing a musical instrument occurred in 1955 at a Canadian Army cadet camp in Dundurn, Saskatchewan where he played the snare drum. A year later at Tec Voc High School in Winnipeg, Clark replaced an absent bass drummer in a school performance, and decided to become a professional musician when he was invited to join the country group, the CKY Playboys in the late 1950s. In 1971, Clark graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education and a Licentiate Diploma in Performance (High Distinction in Percussion) from McGill University in Montreal. In 1974, he received a Masters of Science in Education (Major in Music) from Moorhead State University in Moorhead, Minnesota. Clark has five children and is married to Kolleen Karlowsky.

Clark’s musical skills include drums, vocals, percussion, electric bass, composing and arranging. For many years, he taught The History of Rock Music and Percussion at the University of Manitoba, and Music, Canadian History and Computer courses in the Seven Oaks School Division (Winnipeg). He was a radio announcer and chair of the program committee at CJNU radio station in Winnipeg and performed for radio and television, including recording at CBC (TV and Radio), CTV, CKND, and Shaw cable television network. In addition, Clark performed on albums, jingles, films, documentaries and videos at major Winnipeg recording studios. His symphonic experience includes the CBC Montreal Opera Orchestra, Les Grande Ballets Canadienne, National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, National Ballet, the Manitoba Opera Co., and the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra. Commercially, Clark has performed Classical, Jazz, Rock, Country, Pop, Latin music and in musical theatre, and has appeared with Stevie Wonder, Sarah Vaughan, the Four Aces, Esquivel, Lionel Hampton, Jazzmobile, Stanley Black, Arthur Fiedler, Vincent Price, the Queen City Kids, Rich Little, Lenny Breau, Tom Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Ron Paley, Bob Hope, Andy Williams, Gloria Loring, Freddy Fender, Pat Boone, Bobby Curtola, Len Cariou, Catherine McKinnon, and on Sesame Street, Disney On Parade, the Ice Capades, Alan Blye, Aubrey Tadman, Rainbow Stage, Manitoba Theatre Centre, and The Warehouse Theatre. As co-owner of Clark Productions Ltd. since 1980, Clark plays drums, bass, and percussion and sings with Owen Clark and the Good Time Dance Band, the Owen Clark Big Band, the Ragtime Strutters, and the Owen Clark Jazz Group. He also freelances with many bands, singers, and performing groups in the Winnipeg area. In 2008 he published the book, Musical Ghosts: Manitoba’s Jazz and Dance Bands, 1914-1966 using many photographs from his Collection in the book.

As part of a creative arts committee at Elwick Community School in Winnipeg, Manitoba Clark was awarded the Hilroy Fellowship for Innovative Teaching in 1986. In 2009, he received the Manitoba Jazz Musician of the Year Award and an Association for Manitoba Archives Manitoba Day Award. In 2011 he was nominated for a Winnipeg Arts Council Arts Award.

Richard L. (Rick) Frost worked for 25 years in municipal public service and was the Chief Commissioner of the City of Winnipeg from 1989 until 1997. During his municipal career, he served in many leadership roles including President of the Canadian Municipal Managers Association, President of the Ontario Municipal Management Association and President of the Ontario Municipal Management Development Board. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of The Winnipeg Foundation, Canada’s oldest and third largest community foundation. Since joining The Winnipeg Foundation in 1997, he has served on the Boards of many organizations including the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, The Associates – Asper School of Business, and Dorais Charities. He is also Past Chair of Community Foundations of Canada, a national membership organization serving Canada’s 190+ community foundations and serves on the Premier’s Economic Advisory Council. Mr. Frost holds a Master of Arts (History) from McMaster University, a Master of Public Administration from Queen’s University and Honorary Doctorates of Law from both the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba.

William Smaill was born in Montréal in 1870 and was educated as a chemist and a civil engineer. In 1892, Smaill was living in Acadian Mines, Nova Scotia, but briefly returned to Montréal to marry Jane Robinson Batt, who was from Ireland. In 1894, they had a son, William Hubert, and a daughter, Margaret Kathleen, in 1896. Shortly after this, Smaill and his family moved to Rat Portage (now Kenora), where he worked as a mining engineer and had two more children: Elsie in 1899 and Carlton in 1901.

Smaill was involved in the construction of the Winnipeg Aqueduct that transports safe drinking water from Shoal Lake to Winnipeg. Preliminary work for the aqueduct began in 1914 and included the building of the Greater Winnipeg Water District Railway and the Falcon River Diversion that diverted the waters of Falcon River, which had an unwanted colour, to Snowshoe Bay. The diversion solved the problem of unwanted colouration of the water supply, but had the effect of limiting Kekekoziibii Shoal Lake 40 First Nation's access to the mainland. In September 1914, contracts were awarded to various companies to build portions of the aqueduct. The Northern Construction Company and the Carter Halls Aldinger Company made a joint bid and were awarded contracts 32, 33, and 34 to build over 47 miles of the aqueduct between Indian Bay and the Whitemouth River. The Winnipeg Aqueduct Construction Company, a conglomerate of Northern Construction and Carter Halls Aldiner, was incorporated in January 1915. William Smaill served as the new company’s superintendent, overseeing the construction of its portion of the aqueduct. The aqueduct was completed in March 1919.

Smaill took many photographs of the construction process and believed photography could be used as an engineering tool. He gave a paper to a University of Manitoba engineering class in 1918 titled, “The Uses of the Camera in Engineering Work”. He wrote several other papers on the aqueduct’s construction, including articles for the Excavating Engineer (1915 and 1917) out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Engineer News Records (1917), out of New York City.

Smaill and his family lived in several places while construction of the aqueduct was underway. These places included Reynolds, Manitoba, the Rural Municipality of Springfield, Manitoba, as well as various camps along the aqueduct’s construction route. Shortly after the aqueduct’s completion, Smaill and his wife moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was involved in the construction of the Ballantyne Pier and the Second Narrows Bridge. Smaill’s son, William Hubert, also an engineer, served in the First World War as a sapper from 1916 to 1918. Smaill’s other son, Carlton, died in 1921. Smaill passed away in Vancouver in 1947.

The Flood Record and Archives Committee was created in May of 1997 by the Chief Commissioner, Board of Commissioners of the City of Winnipeg, and was dissolved in [1998]. Its mandate was to collect records of all Winnipeg, Manitoba floods from City departments and to add to existing archives. Collecting focussed on records created by the City of Winnipeg administration, records collected from outside organisations for elected officials, and records existing in the City of Winnipeg Archives. The Committee was chaired by the City Clerk, and included the City Records Manager and Archivist, the Emergency Program Co-ordinator, and a Flood of the Century journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Emergency Preparedness and Co-ordination Committee was created in the early 1980’s, and managed the 1997 flood in Winnipeg. It co-ordinated the activities of all civic departments, outside agencies, the public sector, and volunteer groups during the State of Emergency. In April and May, sandbagging operations were undertaken along rivers in the city and in the flooded regions to the south as the Red River crested at 24.5 feet above normal. Rural and urban areas were evacuated, and the Provencher Bridge in Saint-Boniface was closed. The EPCC’s permanent provincial affiliate is the Inter-agency Committee for Emergency Preparedness, co-ordinated by the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organisation. The EPCC is supervised by the city’s Emergency Control Committee (Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chair of Works and Operations, Chair of Protection, Parks and Culture, and Board of Commissioners members) which is responsible for implementing the Emergency Preparedness Program. The EPCC is chaired by the Commissioner of Protection, Parks and Culture and operates out of the Emergency Operations Centre in the City Hall Council building basement.