1551 [COMMONS] 1552
NORTH-WEST ASSEMBLY RESOLUTIONS.
Copies of all resolutions and memorials passed by the
North-West Assembly at its last session and addressed to
the Government.
He said: Mr. Speaker, some of these resolutions
relate to matters that I think have been already
satisfactorily dealt with by the Government, but
there is one resolution in regard to immigration
that I wish specially to press upon the attention
of the Government and upon the attention
of this House. Any one who reviews the history
of the proceedings of this Government and of the
Government that preceded it, will, I think, come
to the conclusion that they have not erred in over- zeal for the promotion of immigration.
Several
things have undoubtedly combined to that effect;
the principal of which is, that there has been in
the cities a strong and influential party influencing
elections, who were opposed to assisted immigration. Well, Sir, the time came when
a wise policy
was adopted by the Government of Canada, and
that policy was this: Only to pay for results; but,
in my opinion, that policy has fallen short of what
was needed by the Dominion of Canada because of
unwillingness on the part of both sides of this
House to supply the money necessary for the pro
motion of immigration. The history of immigration in the United States has been that
immigration moved on from one basis: a basis
along the Pacific coast, a basis stretching
down the whole length of the original states
that broke away from England. Here in Canada
we have had to proceed upon a different basis.
First you had a short territory in what were called the
Lower Provinces; then you had Quebec, then you
had Ontario, and there you had the great lakes
stretching between Ontario and the territories,
and that has necessitated that in Manitoba and the
territories we should proceed upon a perfectly new
basis. That has made. migration difficult for us as
compared with what it was in the States. The
point, therefore, I make is this: that if you are going
to people Manitoba and the North-West Territories
as you ought to do, and as rapidly as you ought to
do, you must make you basis there and act from
there; and the little Parliament in Regina has asked that a sum of money should be
devoted to their
use to deal specially with immigration. Now, Sir,
what is done by the other provinces? Ontario,
New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, has each its
agent or agents who are all active in promoting immigration into these provinces,
and as a fact we can
state the amount of work that has been done in
promoting immigration into Manitoba by the very
energetic and able man who now controls immigration
for that province. You have that man with a number of agents in various parts of Ontario
for instance,
and they are doing work that he himself can measure.
He can tell exactly the amount of work they have
done, and show the money value which that province
has got from those agents. Now, what we in the
North-West say is this: Give us the means of doing
precisely the same thing for the North-West as has
been done for Manitoba. What we need to do, in
order to make Canada's position secure in the future,
is something large in the way of promoting immigration. There is no reason why, if
you bring in
20,000 immigrants, you should not bring in a million.
You have a vast field in Europe to draw from—in
Germany, in Scandinavia, in Scotland, in England,
in Ireland: and if that field is properly exploited,
there is no reason whatever why, in a year or a
couple of years, you should not bring a million of
innnigrants to this country.
Mr. DAVIN. I hear scornful cheers from hon.
gentlemen around me.
Mr. DAVIN. Are they not scornful? Then
hon. gentlemen agree with me. If that million of
men costs you $10,000,000, then the $10,000,000
are properly and fruitfully expended, because from
that moment you secure the future of Canada, and
I will tell you why. Suppose the bringing in of
the million men within a year or two should cost
$10,000,000, does it not strike every man of sense
that that money is far more fruitfully expended
than if you got a million of men in by the same
expenditure spread over ten or fifteen or twenty
years? The fact of getting them in within a short
time not only gains the result of the expenditure of
$10,000,000, but it secures for the country the best
immigration a cute we can possibly have, namely,
successful settlers. Now, Sir, in the past we have
been trop tard. As the Minister of Agriculture
knows, we have in the last two years been getting
1553 [APRIL 25, 1892.] 1554
most admirable settlers from Dakota, but with
reference to Dakota we have been
trop tard; if we
had begun there a year earlier we should have had
far better results. Now, what we want with
regard to Canada generally is a large immigration
movement. Without that, you cannot build up in
Canada what we all want, a nation; but with our
vast resources, and our magificent waterways
and harbours, there cannot be the least doubt
that if we make the same effort to secure immigration from the congested districts
of Europe that
the people of the United States have made, we can
make the future position of Canada secure, and
that is the only way it can be made secure. So
much for the general question. Now, in regard to
the particular question of the North-West, it is the
great field into which we want to pour the immigrants, because even Manitoba is getting
pretty
well filled, as well as the other provinces; but in
the North-West you have a country that can
sustain a hundred million people, and that country,
Sir, is the future backbone of Canada. Make the
North-West a success, and the future of Canada is
secured. I ask, therefore, that the Government here
should give the little Government of the North- West at once the means of dealing
with that problem, which is the great problem for Canada as
well as for the North-West. All the other problems will settle themselves; but if
we go on
without increasing in population, then failure will
be the doom of Canada. Suppose you gave the
North-West Government $20,000 or $30,000
this year to spend on immigration; why,
Sir, $100,000 would be fruitfully expended
on immigration to the North-West. Think
of our vast harvest of last year; how much
of the returns from that has flowed into the pockets
of the people of eastern Canada? Merchants who
do business with the west will tell you that their
best customers, those most certain in sending orders
and in meeting their bills, are the people of the
North-West; and I say that as a mere matter of
prudent investment, you cannot do better than
place a large sum in the estimates to be at the disposal of the Government of the
North-West in promoting immigration. On previous occasions I have
dealt with the other questions involved in these
resolutions, with regard to some of which I think
the Govermnent have already done their part;
but this question of immigration, as I have said in
this House, is the master question for Canada. It
is the question to which the statesmen desiring to
build up a great nation here will apply their whole
energy; and instead of frittering away our time
and spending a few thousand dollars a year upon
it, it is something on which we might well concentrate our attention and so build
up a great, a prosperous, and a united Canada.
Motion agreed to.
