i t 1B.C. Resources | Are Weapons rth in 2 Hey Vi le: 2 ‘ a Hebe TRICITY is one of the chief productive instruments rm t EM ea F a ustries, of modern industry. Two others are oil and steel. An bundance of these three, properly organized for our key in- : would more strongly develop our country and (trengthen our war effort in increased production. In this respect the coalition government of British Colum- tia has taken what appears to be important steps in the di- fection of progressive legislation. The speech from the throne tated: “. .. As preliminary steps in connection with post-war econsiruction and planning, two important proposals will be laced before you. Legislation will be introduced asking for 33 > In the interim report of the 3ritish Columbia Post-War Re- jiabilitation Committee, presented o the legislature by Premier John Fart, we find, among other im- Hbortant recommendations: that he provincial government under- take active promotion of a steel ndustry in British Columbia; con- erences be held with the federal ®-overnment on the possibility of xtending the Pacific Great East- ern Railway to the Peace River | listrict, to Alaska and the Yukon; ‘view of the railway rate struc- ure in British Columbia; detailed urvey of hydro-electric power -ossibilities for the electrification © rural areas. {pee are very important re- commendations, but why. must it be a post-war program? Why not strengthen the produc- ave powers of British Columbia aow, and make possible a far stronger war effort on Canada’s west coast? A steel mil] in British Colum- bia is of the utmost urgency now, to supply the needs of the ship- yards of Vancouver, Victoria, and Prince Rupert. The steel industry, due to the peculiar industrial de- =) velopment of Ganada, is located 1s OTE in the east, and steel which British Golumbia shipyards re- quire must be hauled three thou- @sand miles. Scrap iron and steel fe 2 )in turn must be shipped back to eastern Canada. Establishment of the required foundry and rolling mill is op- posed by. Steel Controller FE. B. Kilbourne and Building Control- ler Black Jackson at Ottawa. The former argues that there is ample foundry capacity in eastern Can- ada to meet all Canada’s require- ments at present and for the im- mediate future. The latter argues that there is no need for such plants on the west coast. British Columbia is the chief production centre for the ship- }buildine program of Canada, and the need of rolling mills and foun- dries which would not only serve the yards but other industries is vital to increased production and the military defenses of Canada’s Pacific coast. ‘uthority to obtain a loan to enable the carrying out of a com- wehensive program of public works, and action will be taken 4} o establish a committee to survey and investigate the feasi- 4 ility of developing hydro-electric power for the electrification Hof rural areas... - YDRO-ELECTRIC power is a grim necessity to take care of expanding war industries. This could be developed in conjunction with a steel] industry. It is not generally known that British Co- lumbia has some of the cheapest and largest sources of undevel- oped water power in the world. Establishment of a steel indus- try and development of publicly- owned hydro-electric power would not only create a stronger in- dustrial British Columbia but would also create, by virtue of its industrial strength, confidence in the future post-war period. There is no doubt that a steel industry could have been located in British Columbia long ago if it were not for a small group of poweriul industrialists in Hastern Canada, who blocked previous at- tempts to establish steel mills on the coast. Such narrow interests should not be permitted to inter- fere with the proper industrial organization for an all-out war effort. But the reason for opposition to industrial development in any other part of Canada than Ontario and Quebec is to be found, not So much in the person of this or that controller, but in the manner in which our Domin- ion was first united under the BNA Act. e@ IR JOHN A. MACDONALD and the rising industrial magnates of Canada feared U-S. expansion. “It is quite evident to me,” he wrote in a letter dated Jan. 28, 1870, “from advices from Washington that the United States Government are resolved to do all they can short of war to get possession of the western territory, and we must take im- mediate and vigorous steps to counteract them. One of the first things to be done is to show un- mistakably our resolve to build the Pacific railway.” Continued rapid expansion of the westward movement in the United States with the opening of the American west under the speed of railways to the Pacific, and the Free Homestead Act of 1862, coupled with the desire to | For Victory By ALFRED C. CAMPBELL keep potential markets for in- dustrial goods and exploitation of western Ganada’s raw material, gave an urgency to the movement ef settlement and railway polic- ies in Canada. @n July 15, 1870, Manitoba was admitted into Confederation as a province. With the entrance of British Columbia into the union in 1871 building of a transcontin- ental railway became a definite commitment. At this time and until the rail- way went through, settlers were trading north and south, Under pressure of industrial interests who sought an east-west integra- tion of the Dominion, and fearful of the interlacement of interests of settlers on both the B.C. coast and the prairies with their neigh- bors to the south, construction of the transcontinental railway was pressed. A crisis in the affairs of each eastern province coincided with the fear of United States pene- tration into the West, and threats of B.C. to join the USA compelled confederation and speedy construction of a railway to connect the country. ) HIS situation made certain policies of national develop- ment imperative if the rising in- dustrial capitalists were to have access to the vast resources of western Canada. The general pol- icies were as follows: 1. provision for east to west channels of trade, independ- ent of the United States, by build- ing a transcontinental railway wholly over Canadian territory. The railway would open the un- developed western plains for set- tlement and establish the politi- eal and economic future of that area in line with the general pol- icy of eastern industrial capital- ists. 9 eee public lands of the great northwest could, through land grants, provide payments for the railway, which in turn with free Jand in the form of homesteads, would attract thousands of land- less people and those with capi- tal and equipment to populate the vast empty spaces of the west. —The railway and land policies were basic national policies which along with the protective tariff would stop trade north and south, and provide a western mar- ket for growing eastern industry, and protect its growth from the competition of the United States. These important basic policies laid the foundation pillars of the future trade, commerce and fis- cal policies of Canada and fixed the shape of its subsequent eco- nomic and political development. The policy of tariff protection was intended to bring about an east- west economic interlacement, an east-west interdependence, and an east-west flow of exports from, and industrial goods to the potential agricultural hinterland. The tariff protection and assured control of the western resources as a market for the industrial east was one of the basic condi- tions of policy in settling the west. Despite these obstacles British Golumbia has developed as an in- dustrial province. The geographic position adjoining the Pacific coast has impelled growth of cer- tain important industries. The few powerful industrialists of Eastern Canada have always opposed any moves -which inter- fered with the traditional econom- ic strait-jacket. They do not care for provincial railways running north and south, or any “prece- dents” which would encourage north and south trade or in any way threaten their monopolist position. c W 1937-38 a wide campaign was conducted by the labor move- ment of British Columbia and its neighbor state of Washington for the immediate building of a road that would link the United States, through British Columbia, to the great undeveloped territory of Alaska, so rich in natural re- sources. Such a program would have helped open up a vast vir- gin area and provided employ- ment for many thousands of un- employed workmen. At the present session of the legislature former B.C. Premier T. D. Pattullo stated he had gone to Washington to see President Roosevelt about the Alaska High- way. “The President would have recommended to Congress the loan of money to British Colum- bia, interest free for 50 years, for the purpose, but Ottawa was not sympathetic to the proposal,’ he declared, ~~ Under the exigencies of war and motivated by miltary needs, this highway into the great north has been accomplished. Into this great expanse of forest, muskeg and faintly trodden paths, the bull-dozers of American army engineers blazed a road knitting the far north from Fairbanks in Alaska with Edmonton in Alberta. Gonstruction of a new highway north of the Peace River, to the Mackenzie River in the north, is now under way by the United States government, and is in ad- dition “to the Alaska Highway. Building of these highways is having an effect on financial cir- eles, and already the B.C. Cham- ber of Mines has discussed at length many possibilities in con- nection with large scale develop- ment of northern British Colum- bia. A movement is now under way to have the existing Cariboo highway connected with the Alaska highway and railroad built morthward through the Rocky Mountain trench to Alas- ka. Such a railroad would open up a rich mineral bearing section of the country. Unquestionably the B.C. Cham- ber of Mines is in possession of information procured by prospec- tors and geologists as regards Jo- cation of valuable minerals which, because of their inaccessibility and lack”“of transportation, made them unprofitable for develop- ment, Chamber officials have al- ready stated that indications of mineral deposits are very favor-— able. Federal and provincial goyv- ernments should be in possession of this information and any min- erals which are required for war preduction should be developed. The future development of the north country, with the exploita- tion of mineral wealth, farm lands, forests, and other resources will bring about an inereasing demand for numerous iron and steel products. - Such products could be supplied by an iron and steel industry if it were estab- lished on the British Columbia coast, a demand which has been endorsed by labor and pressed upon both governments. Today Canada and the United States need oil, which may be lying in northern B.C. in abund- ance. By the end of 1943, United States will require twice as much oil as it is producing now. Usually supplying part of our oil supply, it will need huge quantities of oil for traffic on the Alaska Highway and fuel for its northern bases. The United States, in order to encourage the greatest expansion of oil drilling, has already reduced taxes payable by oil drillers. The Canadian government has, by order-in-council, granted duty and tax exemption on a wide range of equipment and machinery used in drilling of oil wells, and ex- pectations are that large scale development of the tar sands to the north of Edmonton in the Athabasca country will take place. It is clear that any electric power stations and steel mills, which should be built in the in- terests of war production, can later be utilized in the post-war period to help us develop the great natural resources of our country. Qne should be the logical out- come of the other. The pressure for a steel mill and development of publicly- owned electric power develop- ments should not be viewed in any narrow sense as “sectional demands” or “provincial rights,” but rather as practical, burning questions of strengthening the productive forces to organize a still stronger total all-out war ef- fort to defeat Hitler Fascism.