R.C. Harris

Roland Caldwell Harris (26 May 1875 – 3 September 1945) was the Commissioner of Public Works for Toronto from 1912 until his death in 1945. Under his leadership, Toronto saw the building of the Prince Edward Viaduct and the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, which was named after him. Harris served in this position in Toronto longer than any other individual.

Harris was born in Lansing, in what is North York, Ontario in 1875.

Harris’s first job was as an office boy at Toronto City Hall (1887). He left that job to enter Jarvis Collegiate Institute. After graduating from Jarvis he obtained a position at The Toronto World as a copy boy. Harris then went on to become a reporter at the Toronto News.

In 1899, he returned to city hall as a civil servant. He was assistant caretaker of City Hall in 1901–02. He became chief clerk in the Property Department in 1902. Harris was then promoted to property commissioner in 1905. One of his crucial tasks as property commissioner was to initiate the city's first serious programme of air pollution control. His next job was commissioner of street cleaning in 1910. After the position of Commissioner of Works and City Engineer was created by Toronto City Council in 1912, he was the first person appointed to the post. During a Toronto Street Railway strike he was appointed, in 1912, by the Municipal Board to manage the railway.

Unusual for a civil servant, Harris was well known and even admired by the media. In an undated 1922 article, a reporter wrote:

Engineering was Harris’s passion although he had no formal education in that field. He used his knowledge on a number of important city projects including the filtration plant and the viaduct. The viaduct was finished in 1918 and the filtration plant was opened in 1941. Both the viaduct and the plant exemplified Harris's foresight, as the viaduct contained a lower deck capable of holding trains which weren't introduced until 48 years after its construction, and the filtration plant had embedded piping and extra rooms in anticipation of an expansion.

Harris is also featured (and misnamed as "Rowland") in the Michael Ondaatje novel In the Skin of a Lion, although the portrayal of him is fictitious.

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