The Canadian Paper Industry and Its Growth: Its Present Position and Its Future

The rapid rise to prominence of the Canadian paper industry has given Canada a remarkable advantage during a period in which upset economic conditions have brought many countries to the very brink of bankruptcy. But expansion in Canada's paper industry has absorbed business slack. It has created new wealth, a large part of which has ready demand in export markets. It has provided the incentive for power development and the extension of transportation, and it has contributed greatly to the progress of settlement. In short, paper manufacture has kept Canada profitably busy during a period of world-wide adjustment.But even a miracle industry may not be permanent. The tremendous importance of the paper industry to Canada's welfare, its interrelation with other industries and its place in the economic structure not only of Canada but of the British Empire demands the utmost permanency. The utilization of products of vast areas of land which otherwise might be barren, the conversion of the resources from these lands into export commodities of high value, and the extension of industry and settlement into otherwise undeveloped regions can not depend upon an ephemeral industry. Paper manufacture is the backbone of these movements at the present time, and their whole future course depends to a large extent upon continued expansion of that industry to the very limit of its resources and the subsequent maintenance of that expansion.Is Canada's paper industry permanent? Any answer to this question involves analysis of the factors underlying the place of the industry in national economy, its present position in foreign and domestic markets, and its present stability, as a measure of future permanency. The question of adequate pulpwood supplies in the future is of vital importance. Are Canada's present available pulpwood supplies sufficient to support current growth of the industry? Will they tide the industry over the transition from virgin to second growth timber? Can Canada grow enough pulpwood to meet the mill requirements which have been set up? Can these requirements be grown in competition with other countries? These and many other questions deserve careful analysis as a basis for private and public policy.These are among the more important, questions underlying the permanency of the Canadian pulp and paper industry. It is impossible to discuss adequately all phases of these questions in a paper of this nature. Particular attention will be devoted, therefore, to the problem of pulpwood supplies of the future. Other questions will be discussed chiefly as they may relate to the question of pulpwood supplies.