Report of Forests and Waterpowers Committee. 



97 



while, if properly regulated and conserv- 

 ed, it would suffice to irrigate from 

 sixteen to twenty per cent. Instead of 

 moving toward a system of proper 

 regulation of increasing the amount and 

 efflciency of the water flow, the forest 

 land, which alone can sustain the supply, 

 is being rapidly destroyed by fire owing 

 to the insufficiency of the protection 

 which is accorded. The officers of the 

 Department of the Interior who are 

 employed in connection with this work 

 are believed to be active and efficient, 

 but a larger and better organization and 

 a much more extensive staff is required 

 in order to cope effectively with the evil. 



Not only the water supply but the 

 fuel supply is involved in the effective 

 handling of this question. Western 

 Alberta is very rich in coal, and the 

 mining industry has passed the initial 

 stages and is no doubt upon the eve of 

 great development. A supply of timber 

 at reasonable cost is essential for econ- 

 omical coal mining and this timber 

 should be procurable from the territory 

 in the neighbourhood of the location of 

 the mines. If such a timber supply can- 

 not be procured it will add most materi- 

 ally to the cost of mining and therefore 

 to the cost of fuel. It is safe to say that 

 unless very decisive measures are taken 

 the supply of timber for mining purposes 

 will very soon disappear. 



In view of these facts, therefore, your 

 committee begs to recommend that im- 

 mediate action be taken to enlarge the 

 boundaries of the National Parks or 

 Forest reserves, and that a single con- 

 tinuous forest reserve be created from 

 the international boundary line to the 

 northern watershed of the Peace River. 



It is recommended that a competent 

 warden, with an efficient staff be placed 

 in charge of the reserve above indicated, 

 and that stringent regulations be pro- 

 vided for the purpose of as far as possible 

 absolutely preventing the destruction of 

 timber by fire, and for the further pur- 

 pose of carrying on a system of re- 

 forestation whenever possible. 



It is further recommended that an 

 accurate forest survey of the territory 

 included in the reserve, commencing at 

 the southern and more immediately 

 important portion, be carried on with all 

 convenient speed, and that it be a por- 

 tion of the allotted work of such survey 

 to locate and determine upon possible 



reservoirs for the storage of waters 

 within limits of the reserve. 



If it be regarded as too late in the 

 session to introduce legislation for the 

 purpose of giving effect to the recom- 

 mendations above set forth, your com- 

 mittee would suggest that by executive 

 action the reserve should, as far as 

 possible, be constituted, defined and put 

 into effect looking to the introduction 

 of the necessary legislation at the next 

 session of Parliament. 



The Evidence. 



Mr. R. E. Young, first taking up the 

 question of waterways, spoke favorably 

 of the possibility of a waterway from 

 Lake Superior to Winnipeg, and thence 

 to Edmonton, either by way of the Red 

 River and Lake Winnipeg and the Sas- 

 katchewan, or by way of the Assiniboine 

 and Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegosis 

 to Lake Bourbon and thence via the 

 Saskatchewan. The recent progress in 

 settlement in the West and its vast 

 possibilities made the question of water- 

 ways one of great moment and also gave 

 great importance. to the natural water- 

 ways in the north coimtry which led to 

 the Arctic Ocean, two of which — that 

 to the Arctic Ocean by way of the Atha- 

 basca, Peace, Slave and Mackenzie 

 rivers and that from Fort Churchill to 

 Baker Lake and into the Thelon river — 

 he took up at length. He gave the 

 following figures, compiled by the Rail- 

 way Lands Branch of the Department of 

 the' Interior, in regard to the water 

 powers of Canada: Yukon, 470,000 

 horse power; British Columbia, 2,065,- 

 500 h.p.; Alberta, 1,144,000 h.p.; Sas- 

 katchewan, 500,000 h.p.; Manitoba, 

 504,000 h.p.; Northwest Territories, 

 600,000 h.p.; Ontario. 3,129,168 h.p.; 

 Quebec, 17,075,939 h.p.; New Bruns- 

 wick, 150,000 h.p.; Nova Scotia, 54,300 

 h.p. To these, water powers on the 

 proposed Georgian Bay Canal would add 

 1,176,310 h.p., making the total 2-=?,692,- 

 907 h.p. Of the Quebec water powers 

 the Grand Falls on the Hamilton river 

 gave at least 9,000,000 h.p. Of all this 

 energy onlv 486,887 h.p. were at present 

 in use. The unused 25,206,000 h.p. 

 (assuming that 5 lb. of coal per hour 

 were needed to generate one horse power 

 of energy) would be equivalent to 

 5 52,011,800 tons of coal per annum. 



Mr. Young believed the merchantable 

 forest area of Canada to be much le 



