50 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



adoption of some such policy only the more urgent, for it is impossible 

 to deny that year by year in the larger cities amongst a great many 

 classes of the community the question of obtaining an abundance of 

 wholesome and at the same time cheap food is growing ever harder of 

 solution. Fish, Which is admittedly the peer of any animal food, has 

 never yet played its true economic role in the dietary of Ontario's popu- 

 lation, and unless something is accomplished very soon in the direc- 

 tion of effecting a change in present conditions, it would appear that it 

 would never have a chance to do so. 



There can be no question that the Canadian fisheries of the great 

 lakes are amply sufficient to-day to supply all the demands of the 

 Canadian population adjacent to them, and, in spite of an increasing 

 population, would be so for many years to come if the bulk of the supply 

 was not diverted to other channels, but they cannot withistand the tre- 

 mendous drain imposed on them to fill the insatiable demands of the 

 great cities of the United States. The longer the present unsatisfactory 

 condition is allowed to continue, the harder will it become to take the 

 necessary measures to redress it. 



In discussing the dual control in force over the Canadian fisheries 

 but slight reference has as yet been made in regard to their international 

 political aspect. It is plain, however, that this side of the question needs 

 as careful consideration as any in the formulation of a broad fisheries 

 policy. The situation which has arisen through the organization of an 

 American monopoly to control the Canadian great lake fisheries ren- 

 ders it as impossible to argue that any of the more drastic corrective 

 measures referred to in the previous sections of this report could be 

 introduced without raising a howl of protest from the interests directly 

 concerned, as without incurring considerable political opposition from 

 the United States, for the deprivation of many of the larger fish markets 

 in the United States of even a proportion of their accjistoilied supply of 

 Canadian fish would be quite sufficient to 6nsure this latter, even though 

 it is obvious that owing to the purely domestic nature of the measures 

 international interference would be an unwarranttable intrusion into 

 Provincial domestic affairs. Attention has been called to the fact that 

 an international code of regulations has been framed for the general 

 conduct of the great lake fisheries, and that the advantages to be derived 

 by both nations from a fundamentally identical system of administra- 

 tion Qf the fisheries are very considerable. It has also been noted that 

 the international code has not as yet been promulgated. How far the 

 determination of the Provincial Government to break the power of the 

 monopolies and to develop and exploit the Canadian fisheries of the 

 great lakes for the benefit of the citizens of the Province would tend to 

 further delay the promulgation of this code, or to produce modifications 

 in it, it is impossible to determine, but at least it is evident that, as both 

 parties to the code are greatly interested in its enactment, it would form 

 to a certain extent a political lever in the hands of the United States 



