This is an important day for Inland Steel Company. It marks the start of operations at what is our largest project at any place other than our main works at Indiana Harbour, Indiana. Here we have made an investment of approximately 10 per cent of our total capital resources. Why and how we took this important step will be explained to you a little later by Mr. Philip D. Block, Jr. But I should like to talk to you about this project as a symbol of what has been going on in recent years in respect to Canadian-American economic relations.

When I was in Canada as a vacationing tourist in 1947, I was delighted to get five cents back in change every time I exchanged one of my American dollars for one of your Canadian dollars. Today, as we all know, the shoe is on the other foot, and I have to send four pennies along with my American dollar in order to receive in return one of your more highly prized Canadian dollars.

Canada outstrips U.S.A.

In the United States, during the past decade, we have done our share of boasting about the gains we have achieved in industrial production, in gross national product, an din per capita personal income, and indeed, they have all been noteworthy. However, in all of these categories, the gains you have recorded here in Canada have been greater percentage-wise than ours.

Today, Canadians are producing more, earning more and exporting more than in any previous period of your history. Employment is greater than ever before, and so is your standard of living.

Vast Influx of Capital

What has brought about these impressive changes in this short period of time? Experts could, no doubt, go into lengthy dissertations on this question. I am no expert, but I will venture in one simple sentence to say what I think the answer is. The vast influx of foreign capital which is helping to develop your wonderful natural resources is, I believe, the clear answer.

The record indicates that in recent years some $20 billion of foreign capital has come into Canada to aid in the development of your natural resource industries such as petroleum, iron ore, natural gas and non-ferrous metals. And three-quarters of this capital has come from the United States. As sizable a project as Caland Ore Company is to its parent, Inland Steel Company, it is small, indeed, in the context of these figures as it represents only about one-third of one per cent of this vast sum of money.

I know that this question of the important part that foreign capital is playing in the economy of Canada is much on the minds of informed Canadians today. They are asking "Is this a good thing for Canada?" and also "Will it continue?". I believe the answer to both questions is strongly in the affirmative.

Caland is $66 million project

As proof of this, let us take a look at Caland as the symbol. We will invest about $66 million on this project, mostly on wages and materials purchased in Canada. Obviously these monies have been and will be spent by their recipients to stimulate other economic activity in Canada. As you know, we hope to operate this mine on a steadily expanding basis over the next decade until it reaches it rated annual capacity of three million tons. While we hope to recoup our investment over a long period of years in the form of profits, we will be sending each year millions of dollars to Canada to pay for the wages and other expenses involved in mining and transporting this ore. The bulk of the dollars that we will be sending to Canada will remain there for Canadians to use as they see fit, and we hope that they will see fit to use a good many of them to buy American goods. What has happened and what will happen here at Caland is indicative of what is going on in scores of other natural resource projects in your country.

It is interesting to note that, a mere ten years ago, Canadian iron ore was a very unimportant item in the diet of an American blast furnace. Back in 1950 American steel mills used less than two million tons of Canadian iron ore, and this represented only 1.8 per cent of all the iron ore used in the United States that year. Despite our very lengthy strike last year, our blast furnaces consumed more than 12 million tons of Canadian ore, a figure which represented 13.4 per cent of all the ore used in our country in 1959. Quite an improvement!

But this is only a harbinger of what lies ahead. With the development of this Caland ore mine, the growth of shipments from our neighbour, Steep Rock Iron Mines, the expansion of shipments from the Iron Ore Company of Canada and the developments of such important new projects as Wabush Iron Company in which our company is a partner, and Quebec-Cartier Mining Company, steadily increasing tonnages of ore are going to flow across the border year by year. Experts estimate that two decades hence the annual tonnages will be between 30 and 40 million tons. And again, I am sure that what is true in respect to iron ore is also true regarding your other important natural resources.

Manufacturing Passes Raw Materials

These developments have stimulated your entire economy, and Canadian manufacturing has made giant strides. Raw material sources are now a minor part of your growing business with other countries, and fully or partially manufactured goods represent 70 per cent of your export trade. They helped push your exports last year up to a new record in volume and value.

Canadian exports to the United States last year rose 10 per cent to a record value of $3.2 billion and the Canadian trade deficit with the United States was cut down to $625 million, which is about half of what it was three years earlier. You continue to be our biggest customer. We continue to be yours. I am sure that the interdependence of each country upon the other will grow as the years go by. All of these facts and figures must give great satisfaction to your people as they do to ours. They are symbolic of our growing neighbourliness and our strengthening ties.

Cooperation on Project

These desirable attributes of national relationship do not come only from treaties or laws; they grow more particularly as a result of person-to-person contacts. In the development of the Caland project, we have dealt with many Canadian government officials and corporations, and we have received the utmost in cooperation from every one of them. In this connection, I should like to mention briefly some of these agencies without whose cooperation this project could never have been completed on time:

• The Prime Minister, the Parliament and the Minister of Lands and Forests of the Province of Ontario from whom we obtained the License of Occupation which granted us permission for the removal of silt, the use of unalienated Crown lands, the taking of recharge water from Marmion Lake, and the construction of dams for the diversion of water from Falls Bay.


• The Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario which constructed a 115,000 volt transmission line from their generating facilities near the Lakehead to the project site, and is supplying us with our power needs.


• Canadian National Railways which constructed tracks, and is extending service to the loading point.


• The Ontario Department of Mines which reviewed and approved our mining plans.


• Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Department of Planning and Development, both of which were helpfl in developing housing facilities in the Town of Atikokan.


• The Ontario and Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company which cooperated in certain areas flooded by our water diversion program.


• The Ontario Department of Highways which aided in the construction of the highway between Atikokan and the project site.


• The Township of Atikokan which helped us develop housing facilities and construct roads and sidewalks in the housing area.


• And finally, deserving of special mention is Steep Rock Iron Mines Ltd., our lessor and friendly neighbour, whose help, cooperation and guidance aided substantially throughtout the entire development of the project.

Inland Steel Company prides itself of its efforts to be a good corporate citizen wherever it operates, and here at Atikokan we have constantly tried to carry on our affairs as a good Canadian citizen. Our people have played their full parts in the affairs of this community. We have purchased supplies and materials from Canadian sources, and have used Canadian know-how to the fullest extent possible. We now have approximately two hundred men on our payroll, only four of whom are U.S. citizens, two per cent of our working force. This percentage will, of course, decrease as our payroll grows. Indeed, it is our hope that eventually local management of the project can be completely turned over to Canadians.

Entire Economy Stimulated

Just as Inland Steel Company needs this fine Canadian site to assure its future success and growth, so do countless other American firms require your ore and other superior natural resources. And happily this influx of foreign capital has served as a catalytic agent to accelerate the development of the entire Canadian economy and to raise the standard of living of the Canadian people.

That this recent and highly important relationship between our two countries has brought us even more closely together is beyond question. With our geographical proximity, our joint seaway, our common democratic ideals, our mutual defense preparations and our economic interdependence, our relationship is unique on the face of the globe. But we should not stop here. Statesmen and businessmen on both sides of the border must direct their attention with increasing vigor to striking down any remaining barriers to the freest possible trade between our two nations. By so doing we will continue to expand our relationships, and we will strengthen further the ties that already bind us so closely.