Reconstruction and recovery in the hinterlands: Resources, industry and infrastructure in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, 1945--197

This study traces economic, political and infrastructure development in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan from 1945 to 1970. The focus is on resource exploitation, state-sponsored industrial development, electric power and highway systems in Canada's hinterland. It suggests how little influence underdeveloped provinces have in determining their own economic fate. It examines five provincial administrations--J.B. McNair's Liberals, Hugh John Flemming's Conservatives and Louis Robichaud's Liberals in New Brunswick, as well as T.C. Douglas' Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and Ross Thatcher's Liberals in Saskatchewan. These offer a variety of ideological perspectives from which to approach the problems of governing a 'have-not' province.;A century and a half of laissez faire tradition influenced forestry and mining in New Brunswick. Both McNair and Flemming seemed reluctant to interfere beyond providing an amenable climate for extra-provincial capital. Robichaud sought to exercise more local influence by including K.C. Irving in the province's base metal industry, but had to invite mining giant Noranda to salvage the project. New Brunswick's coal industry thrived briefly in the late 1950s with the expansion of thermal electrical capacity, but was on governmental life-support by the late 1960s. The federal government took the lead in the fisheries sector, but the province was a willing participant in a 'more and bigger boats' philosophy which led to a crisis in this industry by the early 1970s.;In Saskatchewan, the CCF wanted to turn natural resources into social programs, but a lack of capital and expertise limited options. The socialists could not control the pace of development in the three leading resource sectors; oil, uranium and potash. Imperial Oil used the boom in neighboring Alberta as clout against the CCF's plans for public involvement. The CCF shelved its plans for publicly developing the province's rich potash deposits when the federal government refused joint participation, and instead settled for terms dictated by a cartel of New Mexico potash companies. Although not interested in helping Saskatchewan control its potash industry, Ottawa deemed the province's uranium deposits 'in the national interest' and expropriated them for the benefit of the federal crown corporation Eldorado and the international arms race. The province enjoyed more success in lesser sectors where industry resistance and technological hurdles were minimal. In forestry and sodium sulfate the CCF created crown monopolies that were both profitable and sustainable. The government also won a protracted battle with established interests for control of provincial coal reserves. Ross Thatcher discarded 20 years of careful resource stewardship when he declared Saskatchewan 'Open for Business' in 1964. He rescinded provincial monopolies, sold off reserves of natural gas, and initiated a glut in the potash industry that evoked a protectionist response from the United States.;New Brunswick moved slowly into the field of state-sponsored industrial development, but by the late 1950s had assembled the basic tools of promotion and was beginning to score some successes. Robichaud revealed an enthusiasm for industrial promotion, but launched most of his projects for their political visibility rather than their viability. Despite squandering millions of public dollars on ill-conceived schemes, he learned little by the time he was turned from office in 1970.;The CCF moved quickly to create crown manufacturing ventures and paid a political price for its impetuosity. Theses early failures tempered the government's enthusiasm for a time, but by the late 1950s it was confident enough to build, with private sector involvement, a steel mill at Regina. Whatever expertise the CCF acquired promoting industry over 20 years left office with the socialists, and Thatcher, like Robichaud, carried on a one-man development program, with similar results.;While resource and industrial development garnered most of the headlines in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, much of the governments' efforts in both provinces was directed at infrastructure. Both New Brunswick and Saskatchewan moved quickly after 1945 to copy the success of Ontario Hydro. Through expropriation and construction both built integrated monopoly public utilities and carried out extensive rural electrification programs. They also spent enormous sums building functional highway systems, although New Brunswick's effort was intensified by the need to promote trucking in competition with the railways.;Arguably the most important element in both provinces' reconstruction programs was the lack of federal assistance.;Ultimately, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan were forced to expend much of their reconstruction efforts in repairing the damage done in the pre-war years, and in building the power and road systems necessary for a modern industrial state. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).