Welland, Ontario

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Welland (formally The Corporation of the City of Welland; 2001 population 48,402) is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Ontario, Canada.

The city has been traditionally known as the place where rails and water meet, referring to the railways from Buffalo to Toronto and southwestern Ontario, and the waterways of Welland Canal and Welland River, which played a great role in the city's development.

Location of Welland in the Niagara Region

The city is notable for its large francophone population. Welland is one of few communities in southern Ontario where the percentage of Franco-Ontarians exceeds the overall provincial average.

Welland's nickname is The Rose City.

[edit] History

The city was first settled in 1788 by the United Empire Loyalists. In 1814, Canadian forces led by George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, met American invaders near the present-day town site during the Battle of Cook's Mills. After two days of combat, the Americans retreated to Buffalo, New York, ending the War of 1812 on Canadian soil.

The Welland Canal is involved in the history of the area ever since the First Welland Canal was extended to reach Lake Erie in 1833. A wooden aqueduct was built to carry the Welland Canal over the Welland River at what is now downtown Welland, and the area became known as simply Aqueduct. A lock to cross from the canal to the river and vice versa was also built. A small shantytown soon developed around the facility, providing essential services in what was a convenient stop-over location.

The Main Street Bridge (Bridge #13), completed by Mohawk steelworkers in 1930, carries East Main Street over the old alignment of the Welland Canal. Many residents consider the vertical lift bridge a Welland landmark.

The growing town was later named Merrittsville, after William Hamilton Merritt, the initiator of the Welland Canal project. This name is still reflected today in the name of the Merrittville Highway (Niagara Road 50), which served as the primary north-south route in central Niagara before the construction of Highway 406. Welland gained its present name when it was incorporated on July 25, 1858. It became a city in 1917.

In addition to the presence of the canal itself, one of the few railway crossings across the canal was also located near Welland. The two factors contributed greatly to the development of heavy industry in Welland. The Plymouth Cordage Company was the first major industrial company to open a plant in Welland in 1906. By 1930s, Welland was an important industry location in the region and was developing rapidly.

In 1960s, the city was starting to outgrow the canal passing through its core. The Welland By-Pass project, started in 1967 and finished in 1973, provided a new, shorter alignment for the Welland Canal by removing it from downtown Welland to the outskirts of the city.

Originally, this was viewed with enthusiasm as the constant traffic on the canal was interfering heavily with transportation within the city. The old alignment of the canal was renamed the Welland Recreational Waterway with the purpose of developing several recreational facilities and tourist attactions along its shores. The plans called for fishing platforms, water slides, boat rental points, as well as marine and rail historical exhibits. Eventually, most of these never came to be.

The effects of the canal relocation were compounded by the gradual, but steady move of industry out of Welland as a trend for global manufacturing was developing. As a result, downtown Welland has seen much deterioration in the years following the project. Stores moved out to the north end of the city, where a retail hub was being developed in and around the Seaway Mall. Downtown became a mix of a ghost town and a ghetto. Local residents looked with envy at Port Colborne, which although still saddled with a canal cutting the city in two, has enjoyed greater success attracting tourists to its happenings such as the Tall Ships Challenge.

[edit] Government

The current mayor of Welland is Damian Goulbourne, previously a tourism and development professor at the Niagara College. The Welland city council is made up of the mayor and 12 councillors, each elected in his or her ward.

The City is responsible for fire protection, libraries, parks and recreation and secondary streets, but many municipal services come instead from the broader level of government, the Niagara Region. Regional responsibilities include social welfare, community health, and policing through the Niagara Regional Police.

The Welland Civic Square

The chief local political issue is the redevelopment of the downtown core area, which has been deteriorated in the years following the Welland By-Pass project. The Civic Square project has been completed after spanning the terms of three city councils and three mayors. The new building, facing both East Main Street and the old canal, houses the city hall and the Welland Public Library. The project is proving to be a catalyst for development, as several new establishments have been opened downtown and some current business are expanding.

Welland is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by John Maloney as part of Welland (electoral district) and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by Peter Kormos as part of Niagara Centre.

[edit] Demographics

During the 2001 Census, the population of Welland was determined to be 48,402, making Welland the 87th largest city in Canada. The population count remained essentially unchanged since the 1996 Census. In more recent years many new homes have been constructed in the city, but the effect on the population won't be officially known until 2007, when the results of the 2006 Census are released.

The Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology brings people from all over southern Ontario to the city, promoting diversity.

According to the 2001 census, 95.5% of the population is Caucasian, 1.7% Aboriginal, 1.1% Black, 0.2% Korean, and 0.3% of other Asian descent. 17.7% of inhabitants are under the age of 14, while those over 65 account for 16.9%.

In 1914, a local business called Empire Cotton Mills was bought by a Quebec-based company. They brought in twenty French families to work in the mill, giving a start to a francophone community still very alive in the city today. Presently, Welland is one of only three communities in southern Ontario (excluding eastern Ontario) where Franco-Ontarians, as a percentage of the community's population, exceed the provincial average of 4.8%. (The other two are Penetanguishene and Lakeshore.)

Another significant cultural group was established with the opening of the Plymouth Cordage plant. Many workers relocated to Welland from the company's operations in Plymouth, Massachusetts were of Italian origin. To minimise the potential effects of cultural and language barriers, Plymouth Cordage sent four foremen to Welland: one was Italian, one French, one German and one English. The neighbourhood that the company built for its employees (now Plymouth Cordage Heritage District [1]) became the first Italian ethnic neighbourhood in Welland.

The Top 5 largest ethnic groups include: English: 24.9%, French: 23.3%, Scottish: 14.4%, Italian: 13.3%, and Irish: 13.1%. There are also many people of eastern European origin from countries like Croatia, Hungary, and Poland, as well as a growing contingent of Colombians and Venezuelans.

[edit] Education

Like the rest of Ontario, Welland has access to two public education systems: the regional school boards are the Niagara Catholic District School Board and the District School Board of Niagara.

Thanks to the large population of francophones, both the Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest (the French public board) and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud (the French Catholic board) operate elementary and secondary schools in Welland. École secondaire Confédération and École secondaire catholique Jean-Vanier are the only French public and French Catholic, respectively, secondary schools in the Niagara Region. Jean-Vanier is planned to relocate to a new building in the north end of the city in the near future, although the proposal is not without controversy, and is currently being investigated by the Honorable Gerard Kennedy, Ontario Minister of Education.

There are a total of twenty elementary schools and five secondary schools in Welland. Of these, four elementary schools and two secondary schools are part of French-language boards. All schools offer education in French to some extent.

Due to the abundance of French schools, it is not unusual for parents to opt for French-language education for their children, even if only one or neither of the parents have French heritage. The process further strengthens the bilingual character of Welland.

[edit] Economy

Initially, manufacturing firms were the biggest employers in Welland. The plants of companies like Union Carbide, United Steel, and Plymouth Cordage Company had big influence on shaping early Welland. While recent years saw the end of Welland operations for several companies, businesses such as John Deere and Lakeside Steel (a pipe plant formerly owned by Stelco) continue to employ a significant amount of residents.

Due to a large concentration of francophones in the city and resulting large degree of bilingualism, the city has been successful in bringing several call centres to Welland. Correspondingly, Canadian Tire Financial Services is presently Welland's largest employer, employing over 1,600 people in two centres.

Welland's electricity comes from the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric generation plants at Niagara Falls via Welland Hydro. Thanks to the presence of the massive plant, power remained on in over half of Welland during the 2003 North America blackout until rolling blackouts began the next day in an effort to provide power to areas that hadn't had it for nearly 24 hours.

[edit] Geography

Welland is located in the centre of south Niagara. Over the years, urban growth has all but united the northwest part of Welland with the community of Fonthill. To a non-local, the only clue that they have left Welland could be the slightly more upstyle character of Fonthill.

Prior to the Welland By-Pass project, the Welland Canal cut through the centre of Welland. As a result, a very prominent split was created between the east side and the west side of the city. The west side grew primarily to the north, while the east side expanded south. The west side also became the more affluent of the two. Today, even though the canal traffic no longer causes regular interruption in the traffic across the city, the channel lives on as Welland Recreational Waterway. The waterway still serves as a very prominent visual feature dividing the city, and it is perhaps for this reason that the east side/west side division is still very much alive in the minds of Wellanders. East side and west side are very commonly used as basic directions.

The communities of Cooks Mills and Dain City have their own separation stories. Cooks Mills, located on the other side of the By-Pass channel than the rest of Welland, has arguably been protected against the impact of urban sprawl, but the necessity of using one of the two highway tunnels to cross the canal causes some residents to head to nearby Niagara Falls instead. Dain City, located in the south of the city where the two channels meet, is separated by the massive approaches to the Townline Tunnel required to provide the low grade for the rail lines that use the tunnel.

Currently, there is a slight movement to develop the northern end of the east side, an area formerly left undeveloped. A community named Hunters Pointe is being built close to the banks of the By-Pass, and the area received further investment when a new Wal-Mart store opened on Woodlawn Road close to Highway 406.

Technically, both the east side and Dain City are peninsulas, surrounded by the waters of the old and new channels of the Welland Canal and connected to "solid" ground only by the relatively small plug in the old canal along the Townline Tunnel approaches.

Another interesting man-made geographic feature is the Merritt Island, a strip of land approximately five kilometres long and, in some places, less than 100 metres wide. The island was created when the alignment of the First Welland Canal was constructed basically parallel to the Welland River and since the abandonment of the old canal has been established as Merritt Park, featuring a popular four kilometre-long paved trail.

[edit] Transport

[edit] Roads

Highway 406 in Welland has the only at-grade railway crossing of any 400-series highway.

Highway 406 is the main route out of Welland, leading north to Thorold, St. Catharines and onwards via Queen Elizabeth Way. However, the first nine kilometres of the highway are not a freeway like the 400-series highways standard dictates, but rather a standard two-lane highway with at-grade interchanges, and, uniquely among the 400-series highways, an at-grade railway crossing. This is a common source of bottlenecks, especially at the busy intersection with Niagara Regional Road 20, where delays during rush hour can run well in excess of ten minutes. Construction to upgrade the 406 to the freeway standard past the intersection at Regional Road 20 is underway, with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation estimating completion of the project by July 27, 2007^[1]. Current plans will only see the 406 upgraded between the Beaverdams interchange and the intersection at Merritt Road. No date has been set for an upgrade all the way to Welland.

Port Colborne is linked to Welland by Highways 140 and 58. Port Colborne residents then can take the 406 further north.

The Mid-Peninsula Highway, once constructed, can play an important role in the transportation patterns of Welland, as it might cross the Welland Canal along the Highway 58A corridor in the south of the city. Should that occur, Highway 406 will likely be extended to reach the new thoroughfare.

Two of the three tunnels under the canal, Main Street Tunnel and Townline Tunnel, are located in Welland, just east of the main urbanised area.

[edit] Railways

Welland is the location of one of only two remaining railway crossings that span the Welland Canal. The Townline Tunnel is built for three railway tracks, but the center track was removed in the early 1990's. Now, only two tracks run through the tunnel. The north track is the Canadian Pacific Railway Hamilton subdivision. The south track was formerly the Canadian National Railway Cayuga subdivision. Since the abandonment of the majority of that subdivision, operations on this track were limited to occasional trains interchanging with Trillium Rail's Port Colborne Harbour Railway. Today, Canadian Pacific also uses this tract as their "Brookfield Siding".

There is also a Trillium Railway (Port Colborne Harbour Railway) north-south line running through the east wide of Welland and beside the old Atlas Specialty Steels plant. A daily (Monday to Friday) train operates along this route to Merriton (interchange with Canadian National). No passenger trains stop in Welland - the closest VIA Rail stations are in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. There was once a tram line connecting Welland with Thorold, but the service was discontinued and the right-of-way of the line is now used as a recreational trail.

The Welland Canal was relocated in the early 1970's. Prior to this , there were two crossings of the old canal. The busiest was a swing bridge located between the Lincoln and Broadway bridges. This bridge was a relic of an earlier canal, and although it does not swing any longer, it remains in railway use. Once or twice per week, a local way freight crosses this bridge to access Vesuvius Industries on the west side of the old canal. The second crossing was as vertical lift bridge at Dain City, Ontario which also remains in use as the Trillium Rail Canal line.

A recent initiative proposed by local businessmen and politicians, in particular Trillium Railway owner Wayne Ettinger and the Mayor, Damian Goulbourne, calls for the planned GO Train extension into the Niagara Region to include a station — and cross the Welland Canal — in Welland rather than St. Catharines. The proponents argue that an adequate rail line is already in place and using the Trillium's track through the Townline Tunnel would allow for uninterrupted train traffic to Niagara Falls. They also point out that a station in Welland would fit in the Niagara Region's "Grow South" policy of expanding the infrastructure south of the Niagara Escarpment. ^[2]

[edit] Air

The closest airport to Welland is the Welland/Niagara Central Airport on the western edge of the city. It is a small field airport and is not served by any regular links. However the airport is under a number of developments in hopes to expand its services. For now, most air travellers use either Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport or Hamilton's John C. Munro International Airport. The Buffalo Niagara International Airport is also used by some, as it is the closest, although it requires the travellers to cross the American border.

[edit] Public Transit

The city runs Welland Transit, a public transport service. Welland Transit has 11 routes of scheduled bus services covering the city, but the ridership rates remain low. Also provided is Welland-St. Catharines Connection, a link to the St. Catharines public transit system which offers a connection from Welland Transit's downtown terminal to Brock University terminal in St. Catharines.

For areas too outlying to be serviced by regular buses, Welland Transit runs a service named Trans-Cab that offers taxi connections to the bus routes for a small extra fee. Welland Transit is also in charge of Handi-Trans, a door-to-accessible-door service using lift-equipped vehicles that provides transportation for individuals who are unable to use regular Welland Transit service.

[edit] Events

Niagara Food Festival, marketed as The Peninsula's Tastiest Party, takes place on the Merritt Island in city's downtown every September and brings crowds from the entire region in addition to the locals.

Niagara Regional Exhibition, running since 1853, is held at the Fairgrounds in the north end of the city every fall. Tradition stands that on at least one of the operational days it will rain.

Farmers' Market, held downtown in the Market Square, features up to 60 vendors offering food, produce and homemade items every Saturday morning, year-round.

[edit] Communities

• Cooks Mills
• Dain City
• Hunters Pointe
• Welland

[edit] See also

• Welland Canal, Welland By-Pass, Welland Recreational Waterway
• Battle of Cook's Mill
• Niagara College

[edit] External links

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 42.993468° -79.24719°
  • WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
  • Street map from Mapquest
  • Topographic map from Topozone
  • Aerial photograph from Terraserver
• City of Welland homepage
• The Welland/Pelham Chamber of Commerce
• Welland Transit website
• Welland Public Library
• Welland Tribune, the local newspaper
• Niagara this Week, the community newspaper
• Welland Jr.B Canadians, the Jr B. hockey team

[edit] References

1. ^ MTO Contract No. 2005-2041
2. ^ Furminger, Greg. "Fantastic idea; Railway owner makes pitch for Go Transit service", Welland Tribune, 2006-07-20. Retrieved on 2006-08-09.

• Lewis, William H. Aqueduct Merrittsville and Welland : a history of the city of Welland : the beginning years, A.M.W Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-9682743-0-7.
• Lewis, William H. Aqueduct Merrittsville and Welland : a history of the city of Welland, volume 2 : the continuing years, A.M.W Publications, 2000. ISBN 0-9682743-1-5.
• Lewis, William H. Aqueduct Merrittsville and Welland : a history of the city of Welland, volume 3 : the 20th century, A.M.W Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-9682743-2-3.
• Welland Public Library's Local History Resources
• History of Industry in Welland