The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1968, Page 20

18
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Spring 1968
portation and communication facilities
are excellent. We must aim for this
new market. Our firms must have the
necessary products, well designed and
packaged, produced with the scale and
specialization necessary to compete in
the United States.
This is no easy task. But the tariff
changes, for the first time, will allow
much of our industry to penetrate this
market. And the tariff changes in turn,
at this moment in our history, with the
growth of our manufacturers, zeroes
in on the opportunity of a mid-wester n
market. And in this market lies our
greatest hope for future economic
growth.
It is too early to tell what concrete
results will flow from the Business
Development Summit Conference. We
know that the response was overwhelm-
ing. Industrialists, many of them heads
of corporations of Manitoba, and
financiers from all over the continent
attended. We are all hopeful they left
here seeing Manitoba in a new light
and with renewed interest as a prov-
ince of new opportunities.
Our own Manitoba people respond-
ed enthusiastically.
The intangible benefits of the Con-
ference are difficult to pinpoint—but
if they appear as a result of the Con-
ference, we have accomplished our
objective and more.
One such intangible is community
spirit. The community is Manitoba-
all parts of it—working together in a
spirit of optimism and confidence in
the future that lies in our own hands.
Economic development is the means
to a better life for the people in our
province—a way of providing the bet-
ter things of life for our citizens. This
better life is what counts—not just the
economic changes that help to bring
it about.
Manitoba needs a well-balanced
economy. And a well-balanced econ-
omy means one balanced between the
city and the country. The Province
needs both—one helping the other.
After all, Manitoba still depends on
agriculture as one of its main natural
resources. We are developing our water
power, digging up our minerals and
farming our forests. But agriculture
is still a very large part of our Prov-
ince’s overall economy. Last year agri-
cultural production was over half a
billion dollars—its biggest year ever!
And ;in manufacturing, as I have al-
ready indicated, a large portion is de-
voted to the handling and converting
of our farm products.
Every province has its own peculiar-
ities. Every one is different, grew dif-
ferently, and faces problems peculiar
to itself.
Manitoba is different in that it is
the only Canadian province with half
its population concentrated in one
large urban centre.
This happened, not by design, but
through historical process. Had the
railways gone through Selkirk instead
of the settlement of Winnipeg, a settle-
ment based on the fur trade and a
junction of two rivers, our province
might have evolved differently.
But the raikoad did run through
Winnipeg and Winnipeg did become
the distribution and manufacturing
centre for the Western prairies. Its
growth was reinforced by the migra-
tion of rural people to the city due to
changes in farming methods and in
transportation.
A continued urban growth centred
in only one community would not be
the maximum benefit of our province,
either economically or sociologically.
The location of catalytic growth
industries in Brandon — industries
whose by-products are other firms’ raw
materials—has helped to attract in-
dustry to a second city.