Graduate Students

Robson, Robert - Ph.D

The Politics of Resource Town Development: Ontario's Resource Communities, 1883-1970 - Dr. Gilbert Stelter, advisor

         The development of an Ontario government resource town policy during the period from 1883 to 1970 was of secondary importance to the development of a resource based economy. As it was fashioned by the economy of resource exploitation, resource town development strategy generally deferred to policy initiatives designed to coordinate resource production. Although the resource community eventually became a major variable in the process of resource exploitation, its final configuration was dictated by the prerequisites of the resource industries.
         The provincial government's response to the industrialization of the resource frontier can be portrayed in three chronological stages. The first, 1883-1909, was essentially a transitional period which witnessed the rooting of industrial resource exploitation in the economy of the north. While the provincial government concentrated its efforts on the creation of the resource economy, community development during this phase was the prerogative of the resource companies. The second stage, which lasted approximately from 1909-1943, saw the government take a more active position on the issue of community growth. Coinciding with the reform era a, the second phase was one of greater government intervention. This was perhaps nowhere as obvious as in the government designed pulp and paper town of Kapuskasing. The increasing participation of the provincial government in resource town development was dramatically accelerated in the final, post. World War II stage. With the creation of two Cabinet Committees on townsite affairs in 1954, the provincial government firmly committed itself to a program of social design in the resource sector. This lasted until approximately 1960, when the provincial government re-evaluated its objectives and redirected its policy towards a rather broadly defined regional development scheme. With the implementation of a growth center concept of development, the provincial government finally admitted that the resource town was no longer a viable extension of the resource production process.
         The overall complexion of the 1883-1970 era is one of increasing co-operation between government and industry in the creation of resource communities. This co-operative spirit however, reached its zenith in the 1950's. Thereafter, as the provincial government concentrated its endeavours on maintaining a viable northern economy, co-ordinated efforts in the resource field became less frequent. In any case, resource community development continued to be based upon a pragmatic appraisal of the particulars of the resource economy.