44 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



population with disfavour, as causing them added responsibility and 

 expense. Unfortunately they do not think it necessary to apply other 

 than rural standards of sanitation to the urban conditions thus 

 created. Properly organized, however, the movement should help to 

 increase production by bringing consumer and producer nearer to 

 each other, and if proper planning regulations were made and enforced, 

 unhealthy land speculation and improper sanitary conditions in con- 

 nection with these new developments would be prevented. 



CONCLUSION 



In conclusion it is contended that, notwithstanding the comparatively 

 sound lines on which distribution of population has proceeded in Canada, 

 there is abundant evidence that the settlement of considerable areas of 

 unsuitable or inaccessible land, and the absentee and speculative owner- 

 ship of large areas of fertile and accessible land, have produced serious 

 social and economic problems which urgently need solution; that while 

 there has been a satisfactory increase of population, production and wealth 

 in Canada, there has been an inadequate appreciation of the importance 

 of conserving and developing human resources, and that the great poten- 

 tialities of Canada, in respect of natural resources ; the tendencies which 

 are at work as a result of improved methods of transportation and the 

 opening up of new industries, and the prospects which these afford for 

 obtaining greatly increased population in the near future make it of vital 

 importance that there should be a national stock-taking of all resources 

 and a sound economic foundation laid on which to build the structure of 

 future development. 



