Expanding Neighbor

Clarence Decatur Howe, Canada's normally fluent Minister of Trade & Commerce, was at a loss for adjectives when he delivered his annual review of Canadian business last week. He finally settled for a sedate understatement: "The year 1951 has been a good year for Canadian business at home and abroad."

It was not only good; it was the best ever. Canada's national product jumped from $17.8 billion in 1950 to $21 billion in 1951 (making it roughly comparable to the national product of France). Her foreign trade and cash farm income both rose an estimated 25%. Production boomed in all the country's traditional exports--newsprint, wheat, lumber, asbestos and nickel. But the most striking figure of all was the year's new capital investment of $4.6 billion ($800 million from the U.S.). That made 1951 far & away the biggest development year in Canadian history.

Few Canadians needed statistics to remind them that 1951 was a banner year. Evidence of the boom ran clear across the country, from the $9 million mining development to get more iron ore from under the Atlantic off Newfoundland, to the $27 million pulp mill built by Columbia Cellulose Co. (an affiliate of Celanese Corp. of America) near Prince Rupert in the Pacific Northwest. Other developments :

P: Aluminum Co. of Canada launched its $550 million Kitimat project in British Columbia, the biggest single industrial enterprise in the country. Work moved at a 24-hour-a-day pace on a ten-mile water tunnel through the Rockies, a 280-foot power dam, and the world's biggest aluminum mill to open in 1954. P: Iron Ore Co. of Canada got well under way on 360 miles of track through the wilderness of northern Quebec to its $200 million iron ore project in Ungava. P: A record $250 million was invested in exploration and development of Alberta oil, and another $300 million was lined up for 1952.

P: Canadian nickel companies, already producing more than 90% of the free world's nickel, pushed ahead with expansion plans involving more than $160 million. Canada also moved to dominate world production of titanium. After putting up $40 million, Quebec Iron and Titanium Corp. (owned by Kennecott Copper and New Jersey Zinc) began mining the world's largest deposits of titanium ore in Quebec.

Beneath each of her great industrial enterprises, Canada steadily developed a solid foundation for economic growth. A 25% expansion in output was begun by the country's steel mills, 881,250 h.p. was added during the year to Canadian hydroelectric capacity, with additional projects already under way to yield even bigger increases in the next three years. Canada's manpower increased along with her material resources. Postwar immigration and a steady rise in population have added a million workers to the Canadian labor force in the past decade. And the future looked sound. Said Trade Minister Howe: "Canada is in good shape, well able to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead, and to surmount any obstacles that may appear."

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