Ontario Should Rejorrst. 



' 19 



value which could be obtained from 

 our water-powor drvlopmcnt were 

 it utilizfd to its full cnparity. We 

 boast of the vvoiulrrful wheat erop 

 of our preat and ever-expandinif 

 West, but in our provineial water- 

 falls we have a Goleonda capable of 

 ])n)(hicinj? each and every year, for 

 all <ime, an amount of power worth 

 nearly double the present annual 

 value of our western wheat crop, 

 enormous as that now ai)pears to 

 us. 



Present Saving to the Province. 



The ligures j^'iven above are, as 

 already stated, l)as(Ml upon the full 

 development of our Avater powers, 

 and the ol)jection may be raised 

 that at the present time but very 

 few of them are developed, and that 

 therefore the estimate of the amount 

 of i)ower which may be obtained 

 from them is merely theoretical and 

 of little practical value. 



As I have already pointed out, 

 the greater part of the power at 

 present used in this province is gen- 

 orated from steam, produced from 

 coal imported from the United Stat- 

 es at an annual cost of over $16,- 

 000,000 in good Canadian money. 



Even if the utilization of all of 

 our water-powers could not produce 

 more electric power than would off- 

 set this $16,000,000 now paid for 

 steam coal, would it not be a wise 

 as well as a patriotic policy to try 

 to keep this vast amount of money 

 in Canada, where it would be used 

 for the purpose of paying our own 

 artizans and engineers in order to 

 utilize water powers which would 

 otherwise go to waste, instead of 

 sendinfir it to swell the pay roll of 

 X'^nited States coal miners or fill the 

 coffers of the coal barons of that 

 country ? 



As I have already pointed out, 

 the potentialities of our pro- 

 vineial water-nowe's are so great 

 as to eventuallv effect a saving ten 

 times larger than our present coal 



consumption, large as that may look 

 to us just now. 



In my opinion, the day is not far 

 distant when hydro-electric eneri^y 

 will be generally used throughout 

 this province for every purpose for 

 which power is required. Even our 

 present steam railways will be 

 transformed into electric roads, and 

 thus become the largest customers 

 for hydro-electric power instead of 

 being the largest consumers of im- 

 ported coal, as they are at present. 



Power Must Be Publicly Owned. 



The effect upon the province of 

 Ontario when the government's p«)l- 

 icy of cheap hydro-electric power be- 

 comes fully realized, must be very 

 beneficial to the great mass of our 

 citizens. Not only will they have 

 cheaper light for domestic and pub- 

 lic use, cheaper water, cheaper 

 street car service, purer and health- 

 ier air in their dwelling places and 

 workshops, but we will have cheap- 

 er power for our manufacturers, 

 which w^ill mean more work and 

 higher wages for our artizans. 



The future of Ontario as a manu- 

 facturing province is larjfcly bound 

 up with the power question. If we 

 are to maintain our present position 

 as the manufacturing centre of the 

 Dominion, let alone improve our 

 lead on the other provinces in this 

 respect, we must not only utilize our 

 splendid water-powers to their ut- 

 most capacity, but we must also take 

 full advantage of the Government's 

 policy of publicly-owned power, 

 power owned by the people and dis- 

 tributed amongst them at as near 

 its actual cost as possible. 



The importance and value of our 

 great water-powers is strikingly 

 emphasized by the efforts that pro- 

 moters and monopolists are making 

 to secure them before the people be- 

 come alive to their real value and 

 importance. 



On every hand, from the St. Law- 

 rence to the extreme west of On- 

 tario, we find grouns of capitalists 

 eudeavoriri? to jret their erip upon 



