THE BRITISH COLUMBIA RAILWAY AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT by ELLSWORTH PAUL GAMBLE B.A., University of Washington, 1969 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the School of Community and Regional Planning We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April, 1972 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Community and Regional Planning The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date April 28f 1972 ii. ' ABSTRACT This thesis considers the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, the British Columbia Railway as of April 1, 1972, a Provincial Crown corpor• ation, and the implications of its extensions upon regional development. The indicators of regional development studied are population and indust• rial profiles. The time framework of the thesis is from 1952 to 1972, the period of the P.G.E. extensions. Two perspectives of the implications for regional development are examined. Chapter Two treats with the Provincial Government agencies whose policies have had the most effect in the study area. The financing, safety, and freight rate implications of the P.G.E. are discussed. In addition, general policies and inter-relationships with the P.G.E. of the following Provincial agencies are considered: B.C. Hydro, the Department of Highways, and the Forest Service. The third through sixth chapters consider the regional development of four regions: Squamish-Cariboo, Prince George, Peace River-Liard, and Omineca-Stikine. These regions, in turn, are broken into areas—usually to correspond with a central P-.G.E. railway station and its commodity car- ' loadings. The development within each area is studied in respect to pop• ulation changes and industrial expansion since 1951. The P.G.E. commodity carloadings from 1966 through 1970 are used as indicators of regional development. The fluctuations of the carloadings of certain commodities, such as woodchips, lumber and veneer,^merchandise,.^and machinery and parts, have been used to show the level of regional indust• rial development. Alone, the P.G.E. commodity carloadings are of little use. How• ever, they take on more meaning in light of the policies of the Provincial Government agencies. The usefulness of the data takes a quantum leap when individual shippers indicate how"much they ship, its routing, and its final destination. A limited attempt at this later refinement is provided by the respon• ses of about fifty company and government officials to a single page, open- ended question letter. Most of these responses are in letter form although those companies with offices in Vancouver are interviews. A limitation of the technique used in this thesis to determine regional development is the inability to estimate the importance of the ser• vice sector. The obvious weight is given to the resource extraction and ii'i manufacturing sectors since these are the sectors which generate railway carloadings. Only when there is a significant population and the total carloadings are relatively low, are there suspicions of a large service sector or the possibility of significant truck shipments. The general conclusion to this thesis is that the Pacific Great Eastern Railway has stimulated regional development in the areas it serves directly. However, this development has been primarily in the forest products industry, in conjunction with Forest Service policies and tech• nological improvements. The development of this industry has then provided a stimulus for maintenance and repair services and a more stable population base, which has helped to establish a need for improved highways. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES ". vi LIST OF FIGURES vi PREFACE •. vii Chapter ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 TWO: THE PROVINCE 13 Financing ..." 14 Freight Rates 19 Service 21 Safety 24 BlC. Hydro 25 Provincial Department of Highways 27 Provincial Forest Service 29 THREE: SQUAMISH - CARIBOO ~~37 Squamish 39 Pemberton 42 Lillooet 43 South Cariboo 45 Williams Lake 46 Quesnel 48 FOUR: PRINCE GEORGE 53 FIVE: PEACE RIVER-LIARD 62 Mackenzie 65 Chetwynd 67 Dawson Creek '. 68 Fort St. John - Taylor 71 Fort Nelson ; 75 SIX: OMINECA-STIKINE 79 SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS ' 89 V Page BIBLIOGRAPHY AND APPENDICES I-IV 101 BIBLIOGRAPHY 102 APPENDIX I: LETTER & INTERVIEW RESPONDEES 105 APPENDIX II: LEASE - HOLDERS ON P.G.E. INDUSTRIAL PROPERTIES 108 APPENDIX.Ill: MAJOR COMPONENTS OF PGE FREIGHT IN THOUSANDS OF TONS, ANNUAL, 1951-1970 113 APPENDIX IV: CONSIDERATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 119 vi; LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Quadrennial Rail Revenues by Company in $ Millions and % of Annual Total 5 2. Liabilities, Capital and Retained Income . 16 3. Exhibit "B" 18 4. Rolling Stock, 1970 - 1971 21 . 5. Commodity Carloadings at Squamish, 1966, 1968 - 1970 40 6.. Commodity Carloadings at Pemberton, 1966, 1968 - 1970 ..... 43 7. Commodity Carloadings at Lillooet, 1966, 1968 - 1970 44 8. Commodity Carloadings at 100 Mile House, 1966, 1968 - 1970. 45 9. Commodity Carloadings at Williams Lake, 1966, 1968 - 1970.. 47 10. Commodity Carloadings at Quesnel, 1966, 1968 - 1970 49 11. Commodity Carloadings at Prince George, South, 1966, 1968- 1970 : 56 12. Commodity Carloadings at Prince George, North, 1966, 1968- 1970 57 13. Commodity Carloadings at Kennedy, 1966, 1968 - 1970 66 14. Commodity Carloadings at Chetwynd, 1966, 1968 - 1970 68 15. Commodity Carloadings at Dawson Creek, 1966, 1968 - 1970 .. 70 16. Commodity Carloadings- at Fort St. John, 1966, 1968 - 1970 . 73 17. Commodity Carloadings at Fort St. James, 1968 - 1970 85 LIST OF FIGURES Figure I'Page 1. % Sign of B.C. Rail Tonnage Loaded by PGE, Annual 1951 - 1970 3 2. Millions of Tons Originated by PGE, Annual 1951 - 1970 4 3. Annual PGE Tonnage Originated by Commodity, 1951 --1970 ... 30 Map Status of Sustained r? Yield Forestry Programme as of December, 1971 32 vii PREFACE On April 1, 1972, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway was officially renamed the British Columbia Railway. The information I have provided in the ensuing pages is labelled "Pacific Great Eastern" (PGE) to avoid con• fusion as almost the entire time frame for this thesis is prior to the change of name. There are some obvious data failures in this thesis. I am not satis• fied with the quality of the historical employment statistics. I found the generalised categories used by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (Statistics Canada) to be of little direct application to this thesis. This was due to the lack of correlation to industries or companies and the availability of these statistics only for larger incorporated places. In addition, B.B.S. population-related statistics are based upon artificially defined census div• isions, which made data breakdowns difficult-. Industrial Expansion in British Columbia by Census Divisions could be a very useful publication. Currently, it is compiled by the Economics and Statistics Branch of the Provincial Department of Industrial Development, Trade, and Commerce. Its present limitation arises from the fact that it is a survey. Therefore, it does not embrace all industrial expansion, although this data is improving markedly with time. The PGE carloadings are helpful, provided that the person using them realises that they are only freight originating, and within about a 25 mile circumference of the station, identified. It would have been much better if car-unloading data was available. The reason for the carloading data begin• ning only in 1966 is simply because the PGE did not collect this data until then. Owing to the limitations inherent in thesis at the Master's level, it was not possible for me to visit, the various regions to study their economic geography in person or to interview individuals outside the metropolitan Vancouver area. In order to get a better feel for the subject, I sent out about 150 letters $0 industrial managers and presidents, elected officials, and planners. I made no attempt to make this a representative sample of any industry. The letter was very general as I had few preconceived notions about how people related to the PGE. The quality of the responses of those people who bothered to answer the letter was overwhelming. Ideas and personal opinions came forth on subjects allied to the PGE that I did not realise existed. It is impossible for me to single out any particular respondants as viii each, in his way and with his particular interests, helped me. All I can do is to thank those who did respond. The following thesis was conceptualized with Prof. Gordon Stead's assistance in September, 1971. At that time, I hardly realised the vast- ness of the subject. If I were to,do it all over again, I would limit myself to one of the economic areas, instead of the four. Appendix IV is a letter from Martin von Riedemann of the Cariboo Cattlemen's Association. Anyone wishing to examine further the inter-relationships between this rail• way, the Provincial Government, and regional development should be prepared to take interviews in the area selected. I had too.1? much area to cover. However, Mr. v. Riedemann's letter gives the person interested in the Cariboo an adequate set of people for initial contacts. John Dawson of B.C. Hydro helped me to further crystallise my ideas of the Provincial Government and the PGE interworkings. Our conversations were, especially helpful towards my thought development concerning the PGE.