WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1920, Page 4

WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT.

FURTHER, PARTICULARS OF CANADA’S REM All K ABLE PROGRESS.

the i;raiime PROVINCES

The following further particulars of hydro-electric [rower development in Canada are extracted from a late Governmerit publication:— | The Dominion of Canada has been j most liberally endowed with a richness of natural resources possibly unrivalled in any country of the globe. The wealth of the land, the forest and the mine has a world-wide, reputation j the neighbouring oceans, the lakes and the streams, for their transportation routes, their fisheries, and.their water powers are equally well known. The commerce and industry created by such a fund of resources lias as one of its greatest eelmonts of success the proximity of water powers to the power consuming market. Electricity, as the intermediary between the power of the waterfall and the power available at the consumers’ machinery, has been the greatest stimulus to water power development and to the rapid progress in manufacturing indiistrp. The capability of generation in large units converting the mechanical power of the water turbines to electrical energy, the economical possibilities in transmission and distribution, and the multitude of its applications, establishes electricity as the foremost power medium":

tV bile' the source of electric power for commercial purposes is motive produced by •steam, oil, gas or water, in Canada it is notal|le that without exception all cities are now supplied by or are within the economic distribution zone of hydroelectric sources, and further, commercial conditions are such that power from these sources is available to the consumer at very attractive rates, and it is apparent that the future.of power consuming industries lias its foundation in the bountiful and widespread water power resources of the country.

The North-west Territories, the vast northern portion of Quebec and the greater part of the Yukon cafinot he considered, within our generation, to be factors in the industrial field. The possibilities from the standpoint of natural resources are not as yet, with the incomplete investigation up to the present, capable of appreciation ; water power is plentiful, but so remote from any present market that the capacities of the thousands of known water power are not included in statistics; within a limited area the Yukon is an exception. In the provinces of Novia Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, •Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, power is available in great abundance. The Prairie provinces of Canada are essentially agricultural. Red Fife and -Marquis arc names to be conjured with in-tihe wheat markets of the world. The deep rich prairie soil is a. mine available to hundreds of thousands of fanners whose dividend of golden grain is never failing. The settlement of the great west has been fabulously rapid and the industrial development has far from kept pace, with the agricultural requirements; the industrial era has however, dawned, and it is to he expected that in the near future the- local consuming market will be of ;i great .extent satisfied by local manufacturers.

The several, millions of horse power available within tin* economic zone of transmission in the provinces, and the 100.000 horse power now developed for the population of 1,500,000, are conditions indicative of the future demand and future possibilities of water power.

The uses of electri.c power in lin agricultural country are threefold : First, directly applied to tlie production, operation aml ..marketing of the products and natural resources'; second, for manufacturing purposes in the supplying of the market created by the people of such a country; and, third, in the community life, the public utilities and transportations.

It is' not hard to predict the future of electric power under such conditions. The enormous strides of the past twenty years, in reality the period since the cs, tablishment of the first commercial electrical transmission system, has developed established loads necessitating in United States and Canada, alone, the development of witter power plants aggregating nearly 10,000,000 horse power, the last ten years more than doubling the first ten years in the rate of growth. With"the tremendous industrial progress now under way is it not fair to say that the power demand will he doubled again in the next ten years? The load curves showing the growth in power requirements from ear to ear in each of the large cities of'Canada show an increase from very small dimensions of from five to ten years ago to enormous demands, and at a rate of doubling in from one to three years, and with the curve of the load diagram .indicating most vigorously similar increases in the years to come. While it is quite apparent that the great est portion of these loads is consumed in the older districts in the Great West, the population and the quantity of output is, too, increasing very rapidly, adding a new factor of growth to the swelling power demand the combined effort pf which is readily borne out by the evidence of the respective records. The water powers of Manitoba, Saskatehowan, Alberta, t,ho North-west Territories and the Yukon are under control of the Dominion Government. The Dominion Government water power policy, as administered by the Water Power Branch of the Department of control of rates, affords every reasonable protection to the public as to rentals, periodic revisions, control of rates, limited grants, etc, and at the same time fosters legitimate private enterprise to return reasonable profits. Regulations are in force affording all possible assistance to the development of water powers which have every reasonable assurance of economic utilisation and further, before the authorisation to proceed with developments is given, complete investigations are undertaken to prove the economic features of design, capacities and costs, and eventually supervision is carried out during construction and maintenance of all developments in the only safe method of intelligently initiating construction and maintaining all adequate system of river improvement, for power purposes.