RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 



IN CANADA 



CHAPTER I 



Introductory 



Old problems and a new perspective. Social problems that need empha- 

 sis. Conservation and development. Readjustment after the war. 

 Kind of results to be aimed at. Necessity for planning for the 

 purpose of proper development. British and Canadian condi- 

 tions. Land settlement in Canada. The object of production. 



Old Problems and a New Perspective 



A FTER the great war, European nations will need restoration 



AA and re-construction, but Canada will need conservation and 



development. There never was a greater opportunity for wise 



statesmanship — for the exercise of prescience and sound judgment 



by the men who lead in national affairs. 



The period of pioneer achievement is not over in Canada, but it 

 has entered upon a new phase, mainly because we see things in a dif- 

 ferent light after the crowded experience of recent years. We recog- 

 nize that, in the future, science and clean government must march side 

 by side with enterprise and energy in building up national and indi- 

 vidual prosperity. The problems we have to solve are old but our 

 perspective is new. 



We are at the opening of a new era of social construction and 

 national expansion, and the question is not whether we will grow but 

 how we will grow. The mistakes of the past must be ignored, except 

 as a guide for the future. On some things, it is possible, we have 

 spent too much of our wealth as a nation, and ©n other things we 

 have spent too little. Those things on which we have spent too 

 much are easy to criticize, because we see them and can count the 

 cost; those things on which we have spent too little may have caused 

 greater losses, but they are not so apparent. Economic loss may be 

 greater as a result of leaving some things undone than as a result o f 

 doing other things extravagantly. It is not certain that we would 



