Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 191S 



1733 



tain a special power speeder patrol 

 wholly at its own cost, permitting 

 co-operative inspection of fire pro- 

 tection work by the Dominion For- 

 estry Branch. On the Hudson Bay 

 Railway, on the other liand, the 

 necessary special patrol is maintained 

 wholly at the expense of the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch. This again ex- 

 emplifies the inconsistency and un- 

 fairness of the existing fire protection 

 situation on the Government Rail- 

 ways. 



This whole matter, however, now 

 bids fair to be straightened out in 

 due course. At the 1917 session of 

 Parliament, an amendment to the 

 Government Railways Act passed the 

 House, providing for placing the 

 Government Railways under the jur- 

 isdiction of the Railway Commission 

 with relation to matters in general, 

 including fire protection. This bill, 

 however, failed to receive considera- 

 tion in the Senate, because it was 

 contingent upon the enactment of the 

 consolidation and revision of the 

 General Railway Act (defining the 

 jurisdiction of the Railway Commis- 

 sion as to privately-owned lines), 

 which bill failed of consideration 

 in the Senate at that session. During 

 the 1918 session, the House and Sen- 

 ate failed to agree as to amendments 

 to the consolidation and revision of 

 the General Railway Act, and the 

 ciuestion was not raised of amending 

 the Government Railways Act to 

 give the Board jurisdiction over the 

 Government Railways. This mat- 

 ter has been strongly urged on 

 grounds other than fire protection, 

 and very likely will come up again. 



More recently, the suggestion has 

 been advanced that possibly the 

 Government Railways might be amal- 

 gamated with the Canadian North- 

 ern and with other lines which the 

 Government is considering taking 

 over, including the Grand Trunk and 

 the Grand Trunk Pacific; all to be 

 managed as one system, on what 

 would be practically a corporate 

 basis, by a Board of Directors to be 

 selected by the Government, pre- 

 sumably much along the lines al- 

 ready announced with reference to 



the proposed management of the 

 Canadian Northern System, the 

 stock of which is now owned by the 

 Dominion Government. Should this 

 action be taken, and should the 

 greatly enlarged Government Rail- 

 ways System be made subject to 

 the jurisdiction of the Board of 

 Railway Commissioners, as the Can- 

 adian 5s^orthern, Grand Trunk and 

 Grand Trunk Pacific are now subject, 

 the question of fire protection would 

 automatically become solved, through 

 the application, to what now com- 

 prises the Government Railways Sys- 

 tem, of the same regulations which 

 are now applicable to the other lines 

 over which the Board now has 

 jurisdiction. 



Provincially Chartered Railways 

 Fire protection upon provincially 

 chartered railways has very largely 

 ceased to be a serious problem, 

 except in the province of Alberta. 

 Here we have the Alberta Great 

 Waterways and the Canada Central 

 railways, still in the construction stage 

 and aggregating some 350 miles of 

 track. The Dominion Government 

 has no jurisdiction over such rail- 

 ways, except as to lines in forest 

 reserves, and there is no provision in 

 the provincial legislation for the 

 enforced adoption of preventive meas- 

 ures. Consequently, the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch is left to take what 

 measures it sees fit, at its' own ex- 

 pense, supplemented by whatever 

 action the Companies may see fit to 

 take voluntarily. The Commission 

 of Conservation, the Canadian For- 

 estry Association and the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior have made 

 urgent representations to the Alberta 

 Government to have this condition 

 corrected, on a basis consistent with 

 what is being done elsewhere. 



In British Columbia, the provincial 

 Forest Service has practically the 

 same authority as to fire protection on 

 provincial railways that the Railway 

 Commission has as to Dominion 

 chartered lines. Only small and rela- 

 tively unimportant lines come under 

 this category. The Pacific Great 

 Eastern has now been taken over by 

 the province. 



