Pulp fictions : the CCF government and the promise of a pulp industry in Saskatchewan, 1944-1964

• Main Author: Novosel, Tom Goran
• Other Authors: Waiser, William A.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: University of Saskatchewan 2007
• Subjects: comparative costs; profits; timber; freight rates; bond guarantees; capital; conservation; regulation; depletion; crown corporations; socialism; investment; monopoly; incentives; concessions; assistance; market access; Ross Thatcher; Clarence Fines; Mike Kalmakoff; Don Black; dependent; diversification; provincial treasury; vulnerability; forestry; Joe Phelps; boom-bust cycles
• Online Access: http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-06082007-100357/

This thesis brings together for the first time, in an organised account, Saskatchewans search for a pulp industry. This thesis will show that, in a fundamental tension between goals of fiscal prudence and of economic growth, fiscal prudence won out again and again, to the point that the CCF governments could be characterised as risk-averse where pulp production was concerned. The cautious approach is in contradiction both to the activist reputation of the CCF governments and to their aggressive development of other resources, notably mining. Pulp offers an example of the contradictions that plagued the CCF governments and their policies for the north, contradictions that included disagreements between moderates and radicals over the roles of public and multinational enterprise, colonial attitudes towards the north, and risk aversion despite bold rhetoric and announcements.<p>The methodology used in this thesis has generally maintained an economic policy and political discourse, and incorporates mostly a top-down governmental approach. The personal papers of Tommy Douglas and Woodrow Lloyd provided CCF government correspondence and departmental memos that included premiers, ministers, deputy ministers, and departmental directors involved with the Department of Natural Resources, the Timber Board, the Industrial Development Office, and the Economic Advisory and Planning Board, and with pulp company officials. Furthermore, pulp reports, surveys, and studies helped contextualise all of the interrelated correspondences. To supplement government discourse I utilised the Prince Albert Daily Herald to gain an understanding of what issues the public was debating and found to be most important.