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