Lost beneath the waves of the St. Lawrence
FRANCIS RACINE francis.racine@eap.on.ca
July 1 st 1958 is a date still marred by infamy, a time when whole communities wept for their culture and heritage. It was on Canada’s 91 st birthday that thou- sands of residents lined up the St-Lawrence River to witness what was considered the most amazing engineering feat ever under- taken by man, the St-Lawrence Seaway. But in order to create such a grandiose project, whole communities had to be obliterated in the name of progress. Consisting of small villages and ham- lets, the Lost Villages, a term coined by Fran Laflamme, the Lost Villages Historical Society’s first president, was a string of communities located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.Theymade up the front of the townships and were the first to be settled in 1784 by Loyalists seeking safety and ref- uge for their family, following the American Civil War.These villages included Aultsville, Dickinson’s Landing, Farran’s Point, Maple Grove, Milles Roches, Moulinette, Santa
Cruz, Sheek Island, Whales andWoodlands. In her book titled Voices from the Lost Villages , Rosemary Rutley explains that “most of the first settlers were disbanded soldiers of the 1 st Battalion of Sir John Johnston’s Corps, The King’s Royal Regiment of New York .” The hardworking settlers cleared the dense forests and created small communities that all bordered the St. Lawrence River. The idea to develop the St. Lawrence River had always been present in the re- gion. William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto’s first mayor and an influential leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, stated that one of his first endeavours as states- man was “the opening of the St. Lawrence to the trade of the world, so that the largest ships might pass up to Lake Superior, and the distribution of the wild lands of the country to the industry, capital, skill and enterprise of worthy men of all nations.” Destruction in the name of progress and manufacturing
Following the end of the Second World War, Ontario was revolutionized and changed from an agricultural province to one of the foremost manufacturing centres of the world. In addition, spending was at an all- time high, creating a strenuous demand for manufacturing. The Canadian government was therefore faced with a need: to create an abundant source of hydroelectricity. In addition, the booming need of manufactur- ingmeant that inland ports were busier than ever, shipping goods and receiving them from all over the world. In 1933, the value of manufactured prod- ucts totalled $958 million. In 1950, it had jumped to an estimated $6.5 billion. The Seaway project therefore served the twofold purpose of providing the much needed hydro resources, asked by the gov- ernment, as well as deepening the water levels in order for ocean ships to gain access to the many ports along the great lakes. But the feasibility aspect of such an
undertaking did not begin in 1958. Several Ontarians, prior to the event, had wrestled with the idea of creating hydro energy from the St. Lawrence River. The Ontario Legislature passed the Power Commission Act in 1906 and created the Hydro-Electric Power Commission (HEPC), chaired by Sir AdamBeck.The Hamilton born man, who boasted hydro-power for most of his latter life, is described by The Dictionary of Canadian Biographies as “(theman who) brought the inestimable benefit of cheap electric light and power to the citizens of Ontario through the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. He had to fight continuously to build Hydro, as it came to be called, but supported bymunicipal allies he succeeded in creating one of the largest publicly owned integrated electric systems in the world.” Several years following the death of Beck, another influential figure and chairman of the HEPC renewed the fight for what he
Le Journal, Cornwall
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Le mercredi 11 novembre 2015
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