BANFF SPRINGS HOTEL, BANFF, ALBERTA

The Canadian Pacific Railway Hotel, to which was added, in 1926, a new fire-proof wing costing $1,500,000;

a duplicate wing to be constructed during 1927-28

Premier Brownlee, in his speech in the Budget debate, took up the comparison with Saskatchewan. Alberta and British Columbia, he said, had railway commitments, Saskatchewan had none. Saskatchewan had only a small telephone system, capitalized at $10,000,000. Alberta had planned to put the telephone in every corner of the Province. Saskatchewan as a Province had only a small system, but the taxpayers locally had to pay very high taxes because of their local telephone systems. Saskatchewan was a rural Province, with little diversity of interest. Alberta had coal mining and a topography that meant maintaining thirty more provincial police than in a Province having the terrain of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan, because of 200,000 more people, got larger grants from the Dominion Government, and payments on account of school lands amounted to 100 per cent. more than Alberta's.

Mr. Brownlee analyzed the increase in debt of $27,000,000 which had taken place under the Government. $9,000,000 had been spent on northern railways. The Lethbridge Northern Irrigation Project had taken another $1,300,000. Alberta's debt was $84,000,000; less railways, $20,000,000, and telephones, $22,000,000, but inclusive of irrigation, the total was $43,000,000, which put it on a fair basis with Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan's per capita was $75, and Alberta's, $138.90. With exclusion of the services not included in each Province the per capita was: Saskatchewan, $61.50; Alberta, $72.25.

Mr. Reid, in closing the Debate, presented a table showing increases and decreases in expenditures analyzed as follows:

STATEMENT of controllable, semi-CONTROLLABLE, AND UNCONTROLLABLE EXPENDITURES (INCOME ACCOUNT) FOR

The Northern Railway Question.* On Mar. 5, 1927, Premier Brownlee tabled in the Legislature agreements, documents and correspondence relating to negotiations with respect to the northern railways. These showed that up to Nov. 4, 1926, correspondence had been continued with the Canadian Pacific Railway on the subject of a further lease of the lines, and that the

NOTE* See Transportation Section in this volume, pages 197-199 for a more detailed account of the situation with respect to Alberta's railways.

Railway company had also made offers for a traffic interchange agreement. The fyle also included a letter, dated May 21, 1926, from Hon. Charles Dunning, Minister of Railways and Canals in the Dominion Government, rejecting the offer of Alberta to sell the E. D., and B. C. Railway to the Canadian National Railways on the following terms: The Dominion to assume liability for payment of the guaranteed bonds, amounting to $9,420,000; to issue debentures, payable on agreed terms, of 50 per cent. of the $9,338,456.93 advanced by the Province; and to assume the obligation to the Royal Bank of Canada. Mr. Dunning had also rejected certain other alternatives such as the making of grants to the Alberta roads as colonization lines, and the operation of the provincial lines by the C. N. R. as colonization lines, with reduced colonization rates.

A summary of the Alberta railway situation was given by Mr. Brownlee on Apr. 8, 1927, when he appeared before the Railway Committee of Parliament at Ottawa to urge that the Alberta lines should be taken over by the Canadian National Railways. He said there that the outstanding question in the public life of Alberta at the present time was the railway problem. The Province had an annual income of only $12,000,000 and the deficit on the annual operation of its railways left only $9,000,000 for education, health. and other Government services. The total obligations in connection with the railways owned by the Province were $42,000,000, and each of the three railways, the E. D., and B. C., the Alberta and Great Waterways, and the Central Canada, was a colonization line.

Natural Resources Question.

On Apr. 20, 1927, the Supreme Court at Ottawa handed down a decision to the effect that section 17 of the Alberta Act of the Dominion Parliament was not in whole or in part ultra vires of the Parliament of Canada. The question arose during the dispute, in May, 1926, between the Alberta Government and the Dominion Government with respect to the terms of the proposed Bill for the transfer of the Province's natural resources to Alberta. An agreement had been reached between the two Governments, but subsequently, in connection with the proposed insertion in the agreement of provisions respecting the transfer of school lands, the question of constitutionality of Section 17 of the Alberta Act was raised, and the Dominion Government decided not to proceed in the matter until a decision on this point had been obtained from the Supreme Court. This Section 17 dealt with education in the Province and varied the provisions of Section 93 of the B.N.A. Act by declaring:

"Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially affect any right or privilege with respect to Separate Schools which any class of persons have at the date of the passing of this Act under the terms of Chapters 29 and 30 of the Ordinances of the Northwest Territories, passed in the year 1901, or with respect to religious instruction in any Public or Separate School as provided in said ordinances."

The Attorney-General of Canada, represented by counsel, fyled a factum maintaining the validity of the Section of the Alberta Act, and the Court requested F. H. Chrysler, K.C., to argue the case in opposition. The Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were invited to appear. Both declined to present arguments, although represented in Court. The case was argued early in March.

By the time the Court's decision was handed down the Session of Parliament had been prorogued, so further action on the Natural Resources question had necessarily to await the next Session of Parliament.

Liquor Control Board.

The Alberta Liquor Control Board, in control of all Government liquor stores and the issuing of liquor permits, reported gross sales for 1926 totalling $4,268,586.25, with a net profit for the year of $1,803,552.55. A total of 152,000 permits were issued, bringing a revenue of $131,127.75. A total of 349 hotels had beer licences, as well as 49 clubs and 14 canteens in the Province. Beer comprised 94.07 per cent. of total sales of liquor, wines 2.55 per cent, and spirituous liquors 3.27 per cent. with alcohol .11 per cent. A total of 3,756,000 gallons of beer was sold by brewers. Eleven local option plebescites were held during the year, of which four registered in favour of sale of beer within the area concerned, and seven registered against it.

Public Health. An encouraging feature of the Report of the Public Health Department for 1926 was the great improvement in the diphtheria situation brought about as a result of the use of the toxoid. In Lethbridge alone the annual number of cases had been cut down from 80 to 8. In foreign districts, 3,155 persons had been given this treatment. A total of 18,350 people were given vaccine during the year. The Nursing Branch had 130 schools under inspection during the year, in which 2,091 first inspections and 1,194 re-inspections were made. Home visits totalled 335, and 13 child welfare clinics were held in rural districts. In the three cities of Edmonton, Calgary, and Medicine Hat, 200 clinics were held, with a total attendance of about 10,000. The district nurses in the frontier districts made more than 1,000 calls during the year, with attendance on 547 medical cases, 164 surgical cases, and 33 obstetrical cases. The travelling clinic, which visited outlying districts, examined 746 medical cases, with 212 operations performed for tonsils and adenoids, and 321 dental treatments. The scope of these clinics was to be extended in 1927.

Four new municipal hospital districts were created during the year, and all districts were in good shape financially. The total number of approved hospitals in the Province was 75, including city hospitals, and 75 private hospitals. The vital statistics Report showed 13,893 births registered for 1926, with further reports expected, 4,473 marriages-an increase of 219; 154 divorces-an increase of 53; and 5,125 deaths-an increase of 724. During 1926 there were 886 patients in the mental hospital at Ponoka, an increase of 68. There were 313 admissions during the year and 177 discharged, of which 78 were cured, 63 improved, 15 not improved, and 21 not insane. The recovery rate was 29.76 for males and 28 per cent. for females. At the Oliver Institute, for feebleminded, there were 215 in residence, and at the training school for mental defectives at Red Deer, there were 137 patients.

Public Works.

Construction of main highways was continued in 1926, with the result that the Province had at the end of the year 285 miles of sub-grade completed to main highway standard, of which 189 miles had been gravelled. The total earned to end of the year on the Federal highways grant was $1,191,223. On market roads $246,442 was spent during the year and on district and local roads $244,276.

At Fort Saskatchewan gaol, there were 133 inmates at the end of the year, with a daily average population of 188. At Lethbridge gaol, there were 122 at the end of the year with the daily average for the year at 124.

Educational Affairs. During the year 1926, 39 new school districts were erected in Alberta compared with 25 in 1925. Three rural high schools were also created-a total of 5 in operation-at a cost of $6 per quarter-section. There were 3,041 school districts in operation in the Province. The total enrolment in public and high schools of the Province for 1926 was 159,526, compared with 147,794 in 1925. The daily average attendance was 110,927. The rural schools were able to keep going 184 days in 1926 compared with 178 days in 1925. The new grants, provided for rural schools under certain conditions, brought benefit to 667 one-room schools.

There was a growing demand for secondary education, especially in rural schools, where 62 per cent. of those in Grade 8 took high school entrance exam