38 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The following are the values of the fisheries and minerals pro- 

 duced in Canada in 1915:* 



Fisheries $31,264,631 



Minerals 138,513,750 



The total value of the forest products in 1915 is given as $172,- 

 880,000; the amount exported in 1915 is given as $42,650,683, against 

 which lumber, etc., of a value of $9,613,891 was imported. An un- 

 satisfactory feature is that more minerals are imported than exported, 

 the respective figures being $51,740,989 and $54,171,002. This is 

 due to the fact that the most thickly populated parts of Canada 

 rely for fuel on imported coal — this being responsible for no less than 

 $37,063,459 of the amount of mineral imports. How to lessen the 

 reliance of Canada on coal imports, and how to put its great water- 

 powers to more use is one of the great problems to be faced in Canada. 

 Recent events have shown how serious it is and how much more seri- 

 ous it might become. 



We thus see that rural development in Canada covers a much 

 wider field than is covered by agriculture and rural manufacturing, 

 and that regard has also to be paid to the important and rapidly 

 growing industries connected with the produce of the mines, the 

 forest and the fisheries. t 



New Developments of Rural Industries 



Particularly in connection with the mines, enormous develop- 

 ments are likely to take place in the future. New towns are likely 

 to be created and new demands made for more population. In the 

 past, mining operations have been carried on with too little regard 

 to the standard of comfort and living conditions of those engaged in 

 them. The housing conditions at Cobalt, Sudbury, and in the min- 

 ing valleys of the western provinces have hardly been satisfactory 

 from any point of view. One result of this is that fewer Canadian 

 or British born workers are attracted to mining than to other indus- 

 tries, and reliance has to be placed on a less efficient class of workers 

 than might be obtained if the employers were made responsible for 

 providing better living conditions. Compared with 72 per cent of 

 the workers engaged in agriculture, there are little over 46 per cent 

 of the miners born in Canada. This is both a cause and an effect of 



* Canada Year Book, 1915. 



t The resources of Canada in soil, in mine, and in forest, have scarcely been 

 scratched. The grasp of Canada upon their responsibilities has hardly been felt. 

 The time is coming, and is near at hand, when the Dominion will experience the 

 onrush of new and powerful energies that only a mighty struggle with self, and a 

 victory over self, could have awakened. — Christian Science Monitor, Boston, U.S.A. 



