Turner Valley—Its Resources and Possibilities
- Publication
- The Empire Club of Canada Addresses (Toronto, Canada), 10 Feb 1938, p. 227-244
- Speaker
- Campbell, W.S., Speaker
- Media Type
- Text
- Item Type
- Speeches
- Description
- The production, development, marketing and transporting of Canadian oil to Canadians. The supply of oil. A description of the extent of the oil field and the potential of approximately 500 million barrels of oil. Evidence of the recovery that could be obtained. Discovering the value of the oil. Securing the rights of access, a pipe line accommodation at the Valley. Dealing with gas conservation. Securing markets in Eastern Canada and the Empire as well. The history of the discovery and development of oil in Canada. Development in the Province of Alberta, in detail, with physical facts and figures. Problems encountered due to rapid development. A picture of the world situation with regard to oil production, reserves and accessibility, particularly in the United States and Great Britain. What oil development means not only to Canada but to the Empire as well, especially when considering the need of the British Navy. A consideration of markets in Western and Eastern Canada. The pipe line. Railway transportation. The need to plan carefully today for tomorrow, when Canada will be one of the large producers of oil and gas. The speaker poses several questions with regard to the development of oil production in Canada. Canada's contribution to the Empire. Some words on interprovincial friendship and international friendship. Creating a unity between the provinces of Canada and between Canada and the Empire and between the Empire and the nations of the world.
- Date of Original
- 10 Feb 1938
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- English
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- Full Text
- TURNER VALLEY--ITS RESOURCES AND POSSIBILITIES
AN ADDRESS BY W. S. CAMPBELL
Thursday, February l0th, 1938PRESIDENT: Gentlemen: It does not seem many years since we in the East thought of the Canadian. West, or I should say the Middle West, in terms of cattle and wheat, but of late years we have heard a great deal about a new discovery of major importance to Canada and the Empire-oil in Alberta.
Canada's natural resources are many. Our past and present prosperity have depended on these resources and our future depends on Nature's bountiful gifts to this Dominion and our proper use of them.
We listened with great interest to the address by the Honourable Mr. McCrea on Canadian minerals in peace and war. Last week Mr. McGeer in his address spoke of the wealth of our natural resources and the East and the West knowing more of each other. Believing that we should know more of this new found wealth in Turner Valley we invited Mr. Walter S. Campbell, President of the Alberta Petroleum Producers' Association to address us and we are indebted to him for breaking his journey home and being with us today.
Much has been written on the urgent need for Empire oil in peace and war. Can Canada supply it? No one is better qualified than our guest-speaker to tell us the history and the actual conditions in the Turner Valley as they are today, of the future as to its longevity as a producing field and the prospects for future fields in Canada. To our guests, the Members of the Empire Club of Canada, and our radio audience, I have much pleasure in introducing Mr. Walter S. Campbell, of Edmonton, Alberta. The subject of his address--"Turner Valley--Its Resources and Possibilities." Mr. Campbell. (Applause.)
MR. WALTER S. CAMPBELL: Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen: May I at once thank you very kindly for the invitation to appear here today on behalf of the Petroleum Producers' Association, and to address this very splendid audience on the subject of oil for Canada and the Empire. May I express, too, my grateful appreciation for the kindnesses and courtesies that have been extended to the members of our party during our visit to Eastern Canada and those memories we shall take home with us, not soon to be forgotten.
May I, if time permits, deal with the production, the development and the marketing and transporting of Canadian oil to Canadians. As you know, we have appeared here before, or in Ottawa rather, before the Tariff Board of Canada, for the purpose of doing four or five things. First, we must set the foundation upon which all other things must be built, that is the supply, and we brought with us from the United States, experts to estimate that supply and, also, the percentage that may be recovered from that horizon, which I shall deal with in a few moments.
May I say, without breaking faith with anybody, because this enquiry is not quite concluded, that the evidence given before that Board was that this field that you see on the wall here extends fifteen miles in length, from the north to the south, about one mile in width, and has a potential reserve of approximately 500 million barrels of oil.
One of the world's experts, Mr. Shaw, gave evidence as to the recovery that could be obtained from that structure. He pointed out that he had taken himself from 25 to 95 percent from limestone horizons in the United States and he estimated 40 percent from Turner Valley structure. That estimate was not large because we had very little knowledge at that time of just what the velocity was and what the permanent ability was in that particular limestone foundation.
Now, the next thing to do after having discovered from those experts the maximum of recoverable oil was to find out what the value of the oil was--I shall deal with that a little later--and to secure from our good friends to the right here, a pipe line accommodation at the Valley, which of course was very generously granted, and to deal with gas conservation and to secure markets in Eastern Canada and the Empire as well.
Now, may I very briefly touch upon the history of the development of oil in Canada. This is the first address I have made on the Turner Valley situation. I am not particularly accustomed to public speaking but I shall do the best I can.
Oil was discovered in Canada and in the United States very nearly the same year. It was discovered in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in the United States, and in 1861 the oil springs in Lambton County in the Province of Ontario were discovered. The development in the early days of the Ontario field was very rapid and some of the wells ran as high as 5,000 and 10,000 barrels, and the highest production, I believe, reached somewhere in the neighbourhood of 900,000-825,900, in the year 1884. Gradually it was reduced until in 1903 it was half that amount and in r gob there was 165,000 barrels production in the Ontario field.
Now, it is interesting at this point to just make one reference to a remark that was made in the House of Commons on May the 5th, 1890, by Sir John A. MacDonald. On that day there was a debate dealing with the Edmonton and Calgary Railway charter and it was before the House and was being discussed as to what should and should not be done in regard to grants. The Honourable David Mills had taken part in the debate that day. Sir John A. MacDonald, in speaking of that particular territory, which is now developing and has produced oil, said, "There are indications of large deposits of petroleum in that country that will some day be of great value to the Dominion of Canada." So this day has arrived when it wild be of great value not only to Canada but to the Empire as well.
Now, for the development in the Province of Alberta. There are about 250,000 square miles in that Province, and it is estimated by experts that there are 100,000 square miles of potential oil land. Before I come to the development of the Turner Valley itself, note that the discovery of oil is not bounded by .the boundaries of Turner Valley. There are thirteen or fourteen other places in the Province of Alberta where oil has been discovered, of varying gravity and of varying amounts, that is crude oil, and there isn't any doubt in the world that these fields will be proven up in the next year or two, large blocks and structures, from the boundary straight through for 700 miles, you can find the same structures as are being developed today in the Turner Valley.
There has been in the neighbourhood of $75,000,000 spent in Turner Valley development. Now, Turner Valley and I want to keep of as broad as I can because it is not confined to the Valley itself, is a Canadian, a national development. It is your development and our development. It lies in the Valley, about 40 miles south and west of Calgary and as I said a moment ago it extends today as a developed area from the point at the north to the point at the south, about fifteen miles. There are 10,000 acres in that, going from this point -to that point, and that contains about 50,000 barrels per acre, based upon 15 per cent. velocity and about 100 feet in thickness, as far as the producing horizon is concerned.
Now, in part of that field there are two horizons, one over 100 foot, and the other about 100 foot, so in making the estimate they were fairly conservative, I think, because they estimated 100 foot over all. There are wells drilling to the north, wells drilling all the way, some seven miles to the south and others ten miles further south, and well to .the west. Those wells will be drilled in the coming summer, some .are drilling now, and if those wells come into production and I am inclined to think they will, then that field will again be doubled and trebled within a very short space of time.
The structure, as you will notice, runs off about 20 degrees west. Until it gets very near the southwest, the most highly developed part from the crude oil point of view, it runs practically north and south.
Dr. Hume gave evidence before the Tariff Board, and Dr. Hume is, I think, the outstanding Canadian authority on that structure, and he pointed out as the anticline went south of High River (?), which I am pointing to now, instead of having a fault to the east (you axe looking north now) with a fault to the west, this fault here would come more in the natural anticline and we would not only have a west flank, in his opinion, but we would have an east flank, as well. So you will see exactly the opportunities there are to double and treble the present estimate.
Now, from the surface down to the gas which we will speak about later, is approximately 6,500 feet in depth, and over on the west flank, the wells run about 7,500 feet. As I said, the limestone itself is about 4.50 feet, on the average, and there are two producing horizons in the 4.50 feet, totalling somewhat over 200 feet.
Now, the pressures vary. I will just pass on-perhaps it is not of interest to you but it is to those who develop for oil. The pressures in the south part of the field and in the southwest part of the field are almost the same as when that field came in, along in 194 and again in 1924They run as high as 2,300 to 2,500 pounds, bottom hole pressure. There have been in the fifteen miles by one mile area, some 250 wells drilled, and 14.4 have been completed. Of that 14,497 are capable of producing wet gas. 9,000 permits have been issued, and 5 have been shut down. There are 20 wells drilling on the flank and 36 crude producers have been brought into production.
When you stop to think you realize that it was in June, 1936, or July, when the first crude well came in, and in December, later on, in the southern area another crude well came in, and practically all that crude oil development has taken place in the short space of one year, and we have today approximately 30,000 barrel potential in that field.
Now, due to that rapid development, and I don't criticize anybody in particular, we became faced with a problem, and this is a problem that must be faced calmly, and we, on one side, and the producers, my good friends to the right, the refiners, must deal with that in a sensible way. It came on rather suddenly, we were so tied up with pipe capacity, and proration became effective on September 12th, to 65 percent of the potential of that date. Then, again, on November 1st it was reduced to 45, and on November 15th, to 35. Then our pipe line capacities were increased again on January 5th, 1938, increased to 24 percent, and we have the assurance of our good friend, Mr. Le Sueur (?) , in Ottawa, that that pipe line will be laid, the 6-inch line to Calgary, and that the pipe line capacity increased to some 24,000 barrels by springtime or thereabouts. I think that is fair to say that.
Now, proration has been discussed by many men in many places. We think that proration for the purpose of controlling markets or prices is wrong. We believe that the main thing right now, and I think you will all agree, the main thing right now is to get sufficient revenue from the field, without injury in any way, to continue on a fairly rapid development, in order that we can deal with railway transportation and pipe lines and that sort of thing. We believe there should be proration, if there is a wilful waste, if the sales are below cost or if there is destruction of the field or some chaotic condition that would, say, reduce the oil to far below the cost of production. We think that proration, and perhaps it cannot be avoided at the moment, I am not saying it can, we think it destroys public confidence and retards the development of that field. That is one reason why we want to get away from it as rapidly as we can.
May I, before I go into the markets in Western Canada and in Eastern Canada, say a word to you, and place the picture before you, of the world situation. In 1937 the world production was 2,000 million barrels or thereabouts. The United States produced 1,600 million barrels, or 62 percent of that total, and in the world today, or at least in the United States today, there is estimated by competent authorities to be approximately 12,500 million barrels, or eight or ten years supply. Just in that connection might I read to you just a short quotation from Dr. Hume's 193'7 reference to the world conditions on oil. He says
"There is some fear in United States that this great production cannot be maintained, and although the oil industry is only beginning to catch up on overproduction it is well known that oil reserves have been steadily decreasing in spite of very intensive work to discover new supplies.
"The value of petroleum exported from the United States at present amounts to one-eighth the total value of all exports, and is exceeded only by cotton. Since 1933 the exports of oil have been increasing, but it is becoming apparent that this cannot continue. It is estimated that in 1934 the average cost of producing a barrel of crude oil in the United States was 77.5 cents, and the selling price was 98.4 cents."
And, Mr. Bignell, who is the petroleum engineer of the Oil and Gas journal, has this to say.
"During 1937, production is indicated in the United States of 1,2'76 million barrels of crude. The total output of the world for 1937 is set at 2,000 million barrels. Under the ever-expanding needs of the industry this huge volume may be surpassed in 1938.
"Estimated oil reserves of the United States at the beginning of 1937 were 12,500 million barrels, or to years' supply at the rate of consumption indicated for 1937.
"This oil cannot be produced during the next to years from the present known fields, and it is therefore necessary to add to the oil reserves each year more than a billion barrels of new crude.
"While it is true as much new crude oil was discovered during the year 1937 as had been consumed in that period," Mr. Bignell points out, "to maintain the reserve has required the drilling of about 33,000 new oil wells. To continue drilling at this rate in the future will require the continual discovery of new prospective areas in which fresh fields may be developed."
That gives a picture of what is happening in the United States today in the matter of crude oil. From that source, as I have just read to you, we get 70 percent of our oil in 1936, and from South America, approximately 26 percent, and from Canada, in 1936, approximately q, per cent. Now, let us deal, before I pass on, with Britain's supply. Great Britain gets most of her oil outside of the Empire. Less than 2 percent of her requirement's are on British soil. I should like to read to you just a reference that I made to the Tariff Board on that situation. Here is an article that appeared in the "London Oil News"
"Attention is called to the serious fact that an Empire, covering a quarter of the surface of the earth, produces less than 2 percent of the world's oil. To assume that this area, some 14,000 square miles, has been specially selected so to speak, as one almost barren of petroleum, is to suppose an absurdity. Year after year passes by and very little extension takes place of the meagre areas in which British oil is found, or of the total production from those areas. Of the 200,000,000 tons of oil which the world produces annually, only some 3,000,000 tons is got on British soil. Let a great producing country or the union of two or three great oil groups decline supplies and our whole political and business existence would be in danger of collapse. The remedy is to explore the unexplored areas. Take for example, Western Canada. To suppose that we know all we are likely to know about the oil resources of that part of the Empire is like a supposition already mentioned, an absurdity. There are probably 200,000 square miles there in which, on present evidence, an intensive geophysical search is warranted. True, this would require time, money and talent. The fast named we have; the first is (within limits) what we make it. The second is the only pressing need. But the combined resources of the Dominion and the Mother Country should be equal to the demand-the Dominion of Canada, which has so much to gain from the discovery of first magnitude oil fields--the Mother Country which is almost entirely dependent on oil supplies from overseas."
Lord Curzon is reported to have remarked a short time ago, "The Allies floated to victory on a sea of oil."
Here is an article, a short one, that deals with France's supply; and which is taken from Dr. Hume's report.
France today has an oil supply of about one single well in Turner Valley, a well like one of those that produced, say, 1,500 barrels a day. France's total supply is in the neighbourhood of half a million barrels a year.
Dr. Hume goes on to say
"The lack of a domestic oil supply, oil reserves, and an established oil industry is a deficiency which possesses a serious national sand international aspect. Oil derived from foreign sources is always subject to international complications, embargoes, foreign price control, whims of changing foreign governments and, in time of war, to blockade, attack and reprisal. It thus becomes the patriotic concern of the national government, backed and seconded by the Provincial Governments, to promote exploration, discovery and development of Canadian oil resources in order to render the Dominion less vulnerable in this respect if a time of international stress or foreign oil shortage should come. And the latter, if not the former, is bound to come. Oil cannot be discovered and a producing industry cannot be built up over night." I just read those to you to give you some idea, because just in January of this year an article appeared in the London Times-many of you gentlemen may have read it-and there the discussion is ever-recurrent of whether the British Navy should go back to dual firing and it was pointed out by the Government representatives that if it did they would still have need of coaling stations abroad. As you know, half of the British merchant marine are oil burners today.
So, when you stop to consider what the oil development means not only to Canada but to the Empire as well, you can readily see how anxious we are, and I think you are, to have this field developed.
Now, in the West, let us deal with markets. There are, from the eastern boundary of British Columbia, taking in a portion of the eastern boundary of British Columbia to Rainy River on the east, approximately 17,000 barrels per day and deducting from that the oil that must come in for asphalt purposes and other purposes, you have about 14,000 barrels per day. We have a potential of 30,000 barrels a day and it was estimated by Mr. ? ? ? ? ? ?, the Provincial Geologist, that by the end of 1938 there would be a potential of around 50,000 barrels per day. So you see we have not only enough to supply the 14,000 barrels in Western Canada, but we have, we believe, a supply sufficient to supply a small portion of Ontario's requirements immediately.
There are in Canada today some 54 large refining plants, producing in the neighbourhood of 86 or 87 million dollars in value of gross production. When you realize that 1,286 million gallons of crude oil are processed in Canada, and about 624 million gallons of gasoline are sold in Canada, which includes some 58 million gallons imported, you can readily see what it means in Canada in so many ways to have our industry developed. If you take 30,000 barrels a day-it is true we do not produce all-you have 30,000 multiplied by 300 days-you have 624 million gallons of gasoline sold today-and on a 42 per cent basis you would.
So, if we only move a small portion to start with it would at least be getting Canadian oil down here 'and once it started it would never stop.
Now, the next thing was to determine by men who were competent to judge, what was the value of our oil as compared to imported oil in the West. In Montana, there is the field, and to the south and the west, the Mid-Continent fields, and then there are the Oklahoma and the Texas fields. The situation is simply this: It just so happens that the oil today is $ I .3o in both cases. The gravity is slightly higher in Western Canada and in the Mid-Continent field. Well, a few cents difference is not very great and I think I can say to you in fairness, with one or two cents, one way or the other, the Turner Valley oil refineries in Toronto are producing oil at approximately 25 cents per barrel more than imported oils that you are getting from Oklahoma. Really, in a nutshell, the situation is this. Oklahoma is a distance of 1,100 or 1,200 miles from Sarnia. The oil field is supplying you, no doubt we'll. I don't think there are any large contracts to block progress. Over in Turner Valley in Canada you have another oil well that is your field and to Fort William is approximately 1,200 miles, too. We are assuming that Canadians can carry by pipe line, rail or lake and rail, oil as cheaply on this side of the line as they can on the other side. So, if we brought those two oils, one to Sarnia and the other to Fort William, at $I-3o a barrel, in both fields there is still 25 cents a barrel left to carry oil down the lakes or by rail down to Sarnia from Fort William.
Now, I think you all know that the freight rates coming from Halifax westward are based rather on the water competition. If that is fair and that is just, then we believe it should be on the same basis coming eastward from Fort William, down to Sarnia. However, that is a matter that will be discussed next week, and perhaps that is the best time to put up those arguments.
Now, let us take the pipe line--just a reference as I pass along. In Turner Valley there are some 50 miles of gathering lines and there are today-thirty, sixty, seventy-five miles of trunk lines, two four-inch lines and one six-inch line, about half way.
Now, those lines will shortly be placed under the Public Utilities Commission and rates will be set, as to what is fair and just to all concerned, and we may have a few cents to help'to move a little further cast when those decisions are given. There is no need for me to deal with that now, that is a matter that will come before the Commission and be dealt with in all its details.
We come to railway transportation and I say, frankly and fairly, from my correspondence with the officials of the railways and the heads of the railways, the Presidents, they are most anxious to do everything in their power to move this oil by rail and they have said so, because they realize that a great mistake was made in the United States some years ago when the railways decided to let the pipe lines handle the business and I think 'they wish today that the railways could have handled it all, and I think I am safe in saying, that I am fair in saying that the heads of the great refineries in Canada are more than anxious to move this oil to Eastern Canada if we can come within striking distance at all. The people of Canada and the Government of Canada have been very kind, not only to the oil industry in Canada for all these years, but to many other huge industries, like the textile industry, the fishing industry, the coal industry--and I am not having a word to say about that-they have been kind to help them, they have helped them to build up huge industries so they could stand on their own feet, so we have them today and they are a benefit to Canada because of that assistance that has been rendered.
Now, I speak to you, Gentlemen, today, because you are the leaders of industry in this country and you know these problems, perhaps better than I do. In all these cases that have been placed before Parliament and before tribunals of one kind and another, your friends have argued that it was beneficial to labour, that this assistance should be given, that it protected their investors and permitted reasonable earnings, fair wages and fair prices and the benefits of mass production and protection against chaotic conditions. All those arguments have been well and truly placed before the Boards and they accepted those arguments.
Now, I ask you this question. Can all those benefits be secured equally as well by producing Canadian oil as producing any other oil? I think it would be answered in the affirmative-every one of them. And, during the last short while, millions have been saved in Western Canada by price reductions in gasoline, by reason of this discovery in Turner Valley. There is no doubt about it, I think, there have been tremendous reductions. That has been of great assistance, and very badly needed, may I say, in Western Canada, as well.
I look back to the days when the railways were built across Canada, and let us view in retrospect what happened. We think of the courage and the energy of the men who built the ribbons of steel from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I wondered as I passed through the mountains and the prairies if they didn't think when they built those lines that some day they would haul the great resources from those mountains and from the hills--the minerals, the timber, the oil, the wheat and the cattle produced on those prairies.
While they only wondered, all can be answered in one word. The railways of this country, and I don't say this as a threat, don't take it in that way, in just one word if they don't get the tonnage they must face bankruptcy. There isn't anything else for it. Tonnage is the word. You can't make it by hauling people back and forward. You must haul tonnage on the railways. Now is the opportunity. If they don't haul the tonnage, pipe lines will haul it, and if pipe lines once start to move it, the railways will never haul it. There isn't any question about it.
These pioneers in the oil industry have the same spirit of adventure as had those men who built these railways, overcoming all the obstacles. You remember in 1914, when the first well came in, and then there was a lapse of about ten years, to 1924-the first was the Gingman No. 1, and then there was the Royalite No. 14, which came in in 1924, when there was a tremendous flow of wet gas, and really the development began following that. Those men never quit, and they thought when they discovered crude oil in Canada--it must be remembered it was also in their minds in the early days of Canada, that great assistance was given by the Government to the petroleum industry in Ontario. Three and a half million dollars was paid out in bounties to the producers of oil in Ontario, and when we got oil above the limestone in Turner Valley, those bounties were cut off and we had to stand on our own feet, so to speak. Those men, when they developed oil, thought they would sell it to you. They thought it would be hauled by the railways to Eastern Canada. They never dreamed for a moment that they were going to be confined to 14,000 or 15,000 barrels on the Western prairies. That was the last thought in their minds.
Now, we say that these resources are a blessing, properly controlled and regulated. No doubt they are. I say to you, now that we have it, let us plan carefully today for tomorrow, when Canada will be one of the large producing countries in the world. We, as you know, have a gas field out there. Many of you men have come out there; other people have come in thousands from other parts of the world to see that gas field alight at night. We propose now, it has been talked over and I think in ninety days the solution will be found and the field closed in. We have 250 wells producing around 250 million feet in the air a day. There are 73 of those wells which produce 177 million feet, and have a gross return of $1,600, and a net return of about $1,000 a day.
Now, it is our idea, and we believe workable, that we will compensate those men 100 percent of the net return on those wells. They will be compensated by the crude producers. We had several meetings while here and I think the Minister of Lands and Mines, Mr. Tanner, has gone home to draft the legislation in that connection.
The oil industry in Canada, as you know, is an exotic industry, largely if not entirely up .to a short time ago, dependent on its resources from abroad. As I said before the rapid development has brought us face to face with a very complex problem that must be faced in a calm and constructive way.
I am going to ask you these questions and you see what you think about them. We say this development is vital to the national security, that it is essential to industrial development, that it is in the interests of the consumers and beneficial to them. It is a benefit to the railways in producing large revenues. It will increase employment and if we can get the water rates and the pipe line rates they have across the line, there is no reason why we cannot compete on an economical basis. We say it is a godsend to the Empire, and we believe that Canada can contribute in many ways to the safety and security that she has enjoyed for so many years. Now, then, you will say and I have heard them say, "O, but a nation receives exactly what it gives," and I think this is a sound statement. It does. It must balance, but in that exchange, and that is all it is, in that exchange there is nothing but human energy in the products that are exchanged and if we can benefit by producing a product with an equal amount of human energy in it, we gain by that exchange. We gain by producing it at home. On the other hand, let us see if all the advantages are not on our side.
Here, supposing, gradually, you see oil as the greatest single import into Canada; if, over a period of six or eight or ten years you gradually change that, bring oil into Ontario and change that flow, perhaps in ten years having it flow the other way, surely that is going to be beneficial to Canada in every way in that matter of exchange.
Now, then, the depth of vision we use will determine very largely the future of this industry in the years to come. Gentlemen, public opinion, and you are public opinion, is a powerful influence in determining these policies and after all the policies are just the minds of men put down on paper as a means to a certain end and I am sure you will assist us whenever you can in helping to determine those policies that wild be beneficial to Western Canada. '
Let our selfish interests disappear. I want you to understand we are not here seeking any sectional advantage from the rest of Canada. We are not here as paid employees of any particular company or of the industry as a whole. I think I can say for all who attend, including myself, we have paid our own expenses and for some eight months we have given our time as citizens of Canada, having a stake in our country, believing this is the right thing to do as citizens of Canada in the interests of Canadians. (Applause.)
Canada's contribution can be made in many ways to the Empire. We have our railways--the Canadian National is owned by the people of Canada--and in these two railways we have invested 3,700 million dollars, largely the money of the people of Canada, owned publicly and privately, and, surely this is a tremendous investment that we, in hauling oil to Eastern Canada, can assist to pay its way. I point out to you if they haul 20 million barrels a year to the protected waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific, it would be much more economical and much safer than to try to build one or two battle ships and operate and maintain them.
Now, my time is drawing to a close and I may pause here for a moment to say something to you, just apart from the oil development. I listened to a discussion the other night and it drew to my mind something even more important because, after all, of all the industries of Canada the greatest industry in Canada is the human industry. That is the greatest industry in Canada, the development of the human industry and I listened to two gentlemen the other night in the rotunda of the Chateau, discussing whether Ontario and Quebec should go their way alone. It dawned on me that I should say a word and bring a message to you from Western Canada to Eastern Canada and to offer grateful thanks to you and to take back ,the memories of this visit .and -the hope that you will do everything for us that it is possible for you to do. I think I should express to you our wish, the message I should like to leave is this: We in Western Canada would like to build up inter-provincial friendship, international friendship, as well, to have each province become more interdependent upon the other and build up a friendship that will remain unbroken for all time, and to help to restore that confidence that has been baldly shaken, we must admit, but let us create a unity, a unity between the provinces of Canada and between Canada and the Empire and between the Empire and the nations of the world. That, it seems to me, is the wish of every thinking Canadian, and more important than the development of the oil industry or any other industry.
Now, I have pleasant memories. It is very nice to come back home after 34 years. I left this city just 34 years ago, to open up business for myself in Western Canada, and to come back and renew acquaintances and meet your brothers and sisters is a glorious feeling.
Now, there is just one word, and three minutes to go, so I shall go along. I realize from business conditions, not only in the oil business but other businesses in which we are interested, that many times a thousand miles divide the East and the West, and we have our differences on the problems that come before us, yet we have our similarities as well, and our interests are much greater than our differences. It is in the consideration of those differences and similarities that we really appreciate our joint and several contributions to the problems of this nation.
I know you will agree with me that it would be ruinous for Canada for the provinces, after seventy years of a march of progress perhaps unequalled in the history of the world, now above all other times, to seek to plough the lone furrow, so to speak, and divide our interests, which can lead to no place but a wilderness of misery and despair. So I say to you, Gentlemen, who have the pulse of industry in your hands and who form public opinion and help to direct these affairs, I ask you to join hands and let us go along, each sharing each other's successes and failures and trying to build up the standard of life and living in Canada higher, and higher and make this country, Canada and the Empire, greater than ever before. I thank you. (Applause-prolonged.)
PRESIDENT: Mr. Campbell, as I said in my introduction, we are indebted to you for coming to Toronto and addressing us today. Thanks to you, we have a greater knowledge of this new wealth being developed in our West, so essential to Canada and the Empire. On behalf of the Empire Club, I thank you.
(Applause.)