DESTROY
tHe BOMBS
NOT tue
PEOPLE

DR. JAMES:

ENDICOTT

A SERIES OF
PUBLIC MEETINGS

VANCOUVER

Friday, March 25
8 PM.

PENDER
AUDITORIUM

COURTNEY
March 15 - 8 p.m.

CAMPBELL RIVER
March 16 - 8 p.m.

Tentative

NANAIMO

March 17
EAGLES’ HALL

VICTORIA

DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED

MISSION CITY

March 20
ODEON THEATRE

HANEY

March 21
AGRICULTURAL HALL

LANGLEY
March 22

Tentative

NEW WESTMINSTER

March 24
NORDIC CENTRE

BRITISH COLUMBIA
PEACE COUNCIL

| the Pacific across the Alaska Pan-
/ handle.

Reversal of Liard,

Stiki

could transform B. C. north |

By KEITH

RALSTON

VICTORIA, B.C.

Two mighty Arctic rivers, reversing their natural flow to pour their waters into the Pacific, can transform
northern British Columbia into a vast power and industrial complex, dwarfing the Kitimat project and providing more
power than the Frobisher development an the Yukon and Taku rivers. *
The plan as outlined to the B.C. Natural Resources Conference here last ee by George J. Smith, BCIS, would

divert the Liard River into the Stikine to generate six to ten million horsepower and the Peace into the Fraser to give one

million horsepower near Prince ;
George, or four million between |
there and Lytton.
This compares’ with 1.6 million,
h.p. from Kitimat when it is fully
devloped and 4.7 million h.p. from |
the proposed Frobisher scheme.
The Liard, a tributary of the
Mackenzie, drains a part of north-:
ern B.C. and the southern Yukon,
and flows eastward along the B.C.-
Yukon boundary. The Stikiné rises
to the south of the Liard in the
central plateau of B.C. and flows
west through the Coast range into

j
{

The Stikine is a _ fast-flowing
stream that drops 3000 feet, 1500}
of it in a grand canyon, hundreds
of feet high, that stretches about
45 miles above the village of
Telegraph Creek. There are other

wide fluctuation in flow and lacks
sufficient storage.

The Liard, on the other hand
is a big river with an easy drop.
By damming it near Lower Post
on the Alaska Highway, water
would be backed up to the south,
up the Dease River and into
Dease Lake. From there a canal
could be cut to a tributary of the
Stikine and water passed
through a series of dams on the
Stikine.

The Kitimat project is expected
to support 50,000 on its 1.6 million
h.p. So the Liard-Stikine power
could be expected to provide the
base for a population of from 200,-
000 to 350,000 people. Taken to-
gether with the 150,000 people
who could ‘be sustained by the Fro-
bisher development, it could mean
from 350,000 to 500,000 people in
northern B.C. where now there are
fewer than 5,000.

_A tributary of the Stikine, the
Iskut, would also yield another
400,000 to 700,000 h.p. and there
are numerous other smaller sites
that could be worked into a grid
system’ to step up output.

* * ae

Another great power project
outlined to the conference was
diversion of the Peace River
into the Fraser to provide a mil-

‘lion h.p. at Giscombe Rapids
near Prince George.

the Rockies to the east, creating a

st

é

fine dam sites but the river has al.

The Peace would be backed by|
ja dam where it breaks through |

inn MR SS KG is as
ae
WAY TLIN
Jd) / X\taKe
&
ns
, 52
Us. ay” DEASE
Y=
i, EAU
V) i

Preah eee
PPP PP PD re

J)

ART

b

This map outlines George Smith’s ambitious plan for harnessing the Liard and: Stikine
a new industrial empire in northern B.C.

rivers to create the basis for

reservoir up to the level of Summit
Lake, just six miles north of the
Fraser near Prince George.

Added power would be develop-
ed if the Moran and Lillooet dams
were built lower down on_ the
Fraser.

Cheap power on the scale of
these projects would shift the |
whole industrial balance of the

province to the north and would
mean the opening of a new era.
: x , *
New towns could be expected
to spring up — most likely site
would be the valley running north

jfrom Kitimat and Terrace and the
valley of the Nass to Stewart.

This area has easy access to
the sea at Kitimat, Prince Ru-

_, .A striking view of the Kemano River valley in northern British Columbia,

pert and Stewart. It is the cen-
tre of a vast tract of timberland
and there is agricultural land
nearby. A huge coalfield lies
close — the Groundhog field on
the Upper Skeena.
“A highway and railway from
Hazelton north to Telegraph CreeX
would link with the Stewart road
to give access to. the Alaska High-
way. This could then be joined t?
the long-considered route from
Stewart to the Peace River to give
that country its shortest acces>
to. the sea.

With a natural gas pipeline from
the Peace River, the new indus
trial area would have every mate!
ial needed for a vast expansion.

It would be located in the heatt
of a vast mineral storehouse, @”
ready ,known for «names __ like
Premier gold; Anyox copper, Cas
siar asbestos, but scarcely eve?
scratched yet in terms of explora
tion and development. :

A .railway to the Peace Rive!
would tie the two halves of thé
northern province together. The
wheat, cattle, oil and gas of the
Peace would ‘flow to the west.

In the Peace River itself, #
big petro - chemical industry
based on the byproducts of ma-
tural gas can be expected. T°
gether with the coal of Hudson
Hope and the pulp from. one
the biggest reserves of softw:
remaining on the continent, 6%
other industrial empire can
expected to spring up, east of
the Rockies. ‘

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 4, 1955 — phe 2