Text of speech in legislature

the better.’’ This was the

Frost’s admission was

exploit the province's iron

Mr, Salsberg: .

County, that good tobacco land
_ by whom, or what for. It had
_ People speculating as to the facts.
_ Was it a big plant going up? Was

Ford moving in? Was something
_ €lse coming in? No one knew.

The secret was well kept un-
til one fine morning the Globe
and Mail in Toronto sprang
the news, and the news was
that the United States Steel Cor-
Poration had bought up the
F land, and secured the ‘mineral
 Yights, because there is a great
deposit of iron ore underneath
the surface of this farm land
-8round Simcoe. :

They bring this additional in-
formation which I frankly state
did not make me feel very hap-
Dy. The Globe said: _

“When the then mines minister,
Welland: Gemmell, visited the
Mississabi Iron Range in the Unit-
&d States last year, he casually in-
Vited the United States Steel Cor-
Poration officials, with whom he
Was travelling, to come over and
Spend some money in Canada.
Wednesday, he was reminded of
his invitation, and told that the

_ Muiti-million dollar investment

Which the company is making in
. the Simcoe area, is their reply.
To his successor, the new mines
_ Minister, Philip Kelly, the duties
of host have fallen.”

On the surface there is nothing

Wrong except that I, Mr, Speaker,
Question the correctness of a min-
‘ister of mines of this province
‘nowing as he undoubtedly does,
that a great reserve of iron ore
Was located in a given area in this
Province — going to the United
States and inviting an American
corporation to come in and spend
&® buck, ;
‘I felt; however, that would
excusable if the minister

Went to the trouble of also in-
-Viting the Canadian steel com-

Pany to come and take a look.
Now, Mr. Speaker, we are all

familiar with the geography of

the province, and we know that
Simcoe is not far from Hamil-
ton. We also know that Hamil-
ton is the steel centre of this

Country, the biggest single steel
Mill is in that area.

___ That needs ai great deal of iron
- Ore. JT am not suggesting they
have a shortage of ore, but it is

— logical, and good economics, and
800d business, to bring together
& vast supply of iron ore, which

S Only 40 miles away from one
Of the big steel mills, and that
Steel mill, and to make it avail

4

“We are very glad to have American money; we
are very glad to have American inte
Industries come into this province.

ing expressed by Premier Leslie Frost last week during
the special session of the Ontario legislature.

LPP member for Toronto-St. Andrew, revealed that
the provincial minister of mines had extended invita-
tions to United States trusts to come into Ontario and

Salsberg’s remarks to the special session follows.
.. 1 want to bring to the attention of the House,
Something which has disturbed me considerably.
Our last session, and I want to mention it here.
For a period of weeks, the people of this province were treated
to a mystery play by the newspapers
terious person or group was or were
was being bought, but nobody knew

Salsberg: reveals how
Ontario Tory gov't
aided U.S. iron grab

TORONTO

The more we have,
admission of Tory think-

made after J. B. Salsberg,

ore wealth. . The text of
It happened since

telling them that some mys-
buying up farms in Norfolk

I think if the hon. minister, while
travelling in the Mississabi range,
to which some of the United Steel
corporations invited him, he
should at least have invited some
of the Canadian mills.

Hon. Mr, Gemmell] (minister of
lands and forests): May I ask a
question, Mr, Speaker?

Mr. Salsberg: No. I would ra-
ther the hon. minister permit me
to finish, and then he can ask any
question he likes.

Now, to satisfy my curiosity, I
wrote to Mr. Hilton, the president
of the Steel Company ef Canada,
and told him I tread this in the
paper, and would like to know, if
he cared to tell me, whether the
Ontario minister of mines had al-
so advised his company of the
information, and had the CGana-
dian steel company been invited
to take a look at the iron ore in
Norfolk County.

Hon. Mr. Gemmell: On a point
of order, -Mr. Speaker, the re-
marks by the hon. member for St.
Andrew (Mr. Salsberg) leave the
impression that I invited the Unit-
ed States Steel Company to spend
some money in this area, and to
explore the Simcoe area. That is
entirely erroneous. I said that
I would supply them with all the.
information our geological branch
had available, and they could ex-
plore any part of the province
which they wished. ;

- May I say to the hon. members
that the land in Norfolk County
is entirely freehold and patented
land, and owned by the people
who live on it, and it not at the
disposition of the government at
all. I never directed these people
to Norfolk County, in any way,
shape or form,

Mr. Salsberg: Mr. Speaker, I
would like to have the privilege
‘to continue this, and then I will
yield to the hon. Premier.

a

may say something, Mr. Speaker—

Mr, Salsberg: No. Mr. Speaker.
I insist on the right of finishing
this one point.

I wrote to Mr. Hilton and asked
him whether the minister of mines
also invited him,

Mr. Hilton was away on vaca~
tion when my letter reached there,
and his assistant replied that

when Mr.
would wndoubtedly answer my
letter.

I now have a letter date Sept.

rests and American }-

Hon, Mr. Frost: 1 wonder if I}

Hilton returned, he)

dressed to me, reading as fol-
lows:

“T apologize for the delay in
following up the letter written
by Mr. Griffith on June 19,

“Im reply to your question,
may I say that this company
was not approached, either di-
rectly or indirectly, by the On-
tario government, in “connec-
tion with the Simcoe, Ontario,
area,

Sincerely yours,
(signed) Mr. Hilton, president.”
Mr. Warrender: That is what
the hon. minister said.
Mr. Salsberg: Now, Mr. Speak-
er, the hon. minister, in interrupt-
ing me, tried to make a correction
that these were not Crown lands.
I never said. they were ‘Crown

lands. In fact, the record will

show that I spoke of “farm

lands.”’ ; .
Secondly, the thon, minister

said that I am trying to imply
that he invited them to look into
the Simcoe area, whereas his in-
vitation was extended to cover
the whole province.

Hon, Mr. Frost: Certainly.
Mr. Salsberg: I base my state-
ment on the Globe and Mail story.
If the Globe and Mail is incorrect,
then, of course, that is another
matter. The Globe and Mail’s
story was to the effect that the
announcement made about the
United States Steel Corporation
entering Simcoe County, was the
answer to the invitation by the
hon. minister.

Hon. Mr, Challies: Yes.
Hon, Mr. Frost: So it is.
Mr, Salsberg: I do not think so,
Mr. Speaker, and I suggest that
such procedure is entirely wrong
—wrong. I am not saying that
anything was irregular. Now,
please understand me—
Hon. Mr. Porter; Are they hid-
ing behind the Iron Curtain?
Mr. Salsberg: I say it is wrong
in principle.
Hon, Mr. Daley: What is?-
Mr. Salsberg: If the government
has information, that information
Pthen becomes the property of ev-
erybody. .
Hon, Mr. Gemmell: These re-
ports were published years ago.
Mr. Salsberg: I know they were,
and I have copies of those reports.
Hon. Mr. Porter: So, undoubt-
edly, had the Steel Company.
Hon, Mr. Dailey; And no doubt
the Steel Company of Canada had
the reports, also, ‘
Mr. Salsberg: I say that no hon.
minister of the Crown should go
to the United States and invite a
big American corporation to come
in here, without at least extending
simultaneously an invitation to
Canadian companies, particularly
when the iron ore is practically in
their own back yard.
Mr, Challies: It is already there.
Mr. Salsberg: Mr. Hilton said
that neither directly nor indirectly
was he invited.
Hon. Mr. Porter: The one thing
that can be said is that we did
not give them the money.
Hon, Mr. Challies: ‘The only
mistake was that he apologized to
you.
Mr. Salsberg: I say this meth-
od should be condemned.
I might say, in connection with
that, that I do not necessarily
mean that the United States Steel

those reserves. It would not be
the best thing.

May I advise the hon. members
of the treasury benches, who
heckle me a little on this ques-
tion, that their own national lead-
er has gone up and down the
province saying the same thing
I said in the House at the spring
session, and that I am saying now.
You heckled me in the spring
when I spoke about utilizing Steep
Rock and their iron ore develop-
ment, for the development of the
stee] industry in Canada. May I
say that I would sooner see a steel
mill at the head of the lakes
utilize less iron ore than to ship
more of it to the United States.
I would sooner see the Steel
Works of Canada in Hamilton—
a private firm—get the advant-
age, so long as we have private
enterprise, and I would sooner
see it develop the steel industry
in this country. So do not heckle
me.

Here they have iron ore only
about 40 miles away, so close,
they could almost bring it in on
a belt, at the lowest possible cost
of transporting the iron ore.

I say it is wrong. I say it is a
wrong policy for a minister of
mines in a case like that, to fail
to make the informatibn public,
and urge Canadian coporations
to step in and utilize the ore, and
I should have thought the first one
to be notiled, would be Stelco, be-
cause they are the closest to this
iron ore.

I think this is not in the best
interest of this province.

I want to go back and say that
it would be bad, I think — and
Mr. Drew says it would, too—in
the long range, and would be
against the interests of this prov-
ince, to have thisi iron ore of Nor-
folk County picked up. and ship-
ped out, rather than utilize it
here, ;

But, Mr. Speaker, we have no
guarantee that they will do that.
The United States Steel Corpora-
tion is securing iron ore, deposits
all over the world, wherever it
can find it, not necessarily for im-
mediate exploitation, but for re-
serves to use if and when it so
desires, as a means of withholding
those national deposits from com+
petitors in the very ‘country in
which they are located. You know
that is so.

The United States Steel Corpor-
ation can decide to pick it up
and take it away, and the Steel
Company of Canada: will be then
obliged to bring iron ore a dis-
tance of perhaps a thousand miles.

Or the United States Steel Cor-
poration can. decide to let the ore
lie in the ground for 50 years, if
its other deposits elsewhere
suffice for its need for the de-

Prospecting for iron ore in northern Ontario,

I, as one member of this House,
want to protest against such be-
havior and this policy if it is in-
deed the policy of the government
of Ontario. .

I think it calls for a reprimand,
and I think the government
should assure the people of this
province that it will not occur in
the future.

Hon, Mr, Frost: Let me point
out, Mr. Speaker, that the Steel
Company of Canada, as far as I
know, is not ajmining corporation.
They purchase ores which they
need from concerns and companies
which can sel] them. They blend >
them. .

Now, Mr. Speaker, I may point

out to my friend that, as a matter

of policy, some four or five years

ago we started magnetometer

surveys in the province of Ontario,

We also started seismographic

surveys, having to do with the

reaction of underground explo-

sions on certain instruments to

indicate the presence of gas or

oil. If my good friend minister

of lands and forests (hon. Mr.

Gemmell), when ‘minister of

mines, extended an invitation to

the United States Steel Corpora-
tion, I am delighted, because I

did the same thing myself when
I was minister of mines. I ex-
tended an invitation to the Inlang

Steel Company, and that com-
pany’s representatives came over
to see us, and today they are de-
veloping an important ore body
at the Steep Rock Mine. We have
also had the pleasure of discuss-

ing matters with the Bethlehem

Steel people, who are spending
$10,000,000 in Eastern Ontario

in developing properties there;

and others are interested.

We are very glad to have Am-
erican money; we are very glad
to have American interests and
American industries come into
this province, The more we have,
the better. ;

Some Hon.
hear.

Mr. Salsberg: I have completed
my remarks on the question. The
declaration the premier has now
made is. one that I do not favor,
but it is a declaration of policy,
and it is something which will be
followed up and, I am sure, dis-
cussed publicly ... and may con-
front your national leader at
every turn when he begins speak-
ing about the utilization of the
natural resources of this country.

Do not be surprised if citizens
take up the declaration which the
premier made a minute ago and
ask why you take one line when
you are in opposition, and another

Members: Hear,

able for improved production, and

‘25, signed by Mr. Hilton, ad-

Corporation will begin to exploit

velopment of the steel industry.

line when your party is in power,
as in the case of Ontario. ...

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 31, 1952 — Page 11