Commission to Investigate the Nature and Extent of the Commercial Advantages To Be Derived from the Construction of the Baie Verte Canal (Canada) : The Commission to Investigate the Nature and Extent of the Commercial Advantages to be Derived from the Construction of the Baie Verte Canal was established under Order in Council P.C. 556, 16 June 1875, on the recommendation of the Minister of Public Works. No indication of the authorizing statute is given in the Order in Council. The Commission was mandated to inquire into the nature and extent of the commercial advantages to be derived from the construction of the Baie Verte Canal to connect the waters of the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The original Commissioners were: John Young, Chairman; William Pearce Howland, and Joseph Wilson Lawrence. In July 1875, Peter Jack was also appointed a commissioner (Order in Council P.C. 691, 5 July 1875). The Secretary was Frederick Braun.
Since the 17th century there have been several proposals for cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Chignecto which divides Cumberland Basin, at the head of the Bay of Fundy, from Baie Verte, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The canal has been the subject of several reports and engineering surveys over the years, but to date it has not been built. The first proposal for its construction occurred in 1822, when Robert Minnittee did a survey for the Government of New Brunswick. He recommended construction of a canal of small depth to be fed by fresh water. In 1825 Francis Hall also recommended its construction in a report to the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. Thomas Telford, who revised Hall's report a year later, recommended construction of the canal as well. But in 1843, Captain H.O. Crawley submitted two reports to the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick in which he considered the plan feasible but impracticable. Later, in negotiations leading toward Confederation, the delegates discussed the canal project. Apparently, some Maritime delegates believed that if they favoured Confederation the canal would be constructed.
In 1869, John Page issued a report to the Department of Public Works in which he recommended that further surveys and examinations relating to the proposed canal be undertaken. Finally, a Royal Commission to consider the improvement of the water communications of the Dominion, which reported in 1871, recommended construction of the Baie Verte Canal.
Further surveys were ordered because of this report. But delays occurred as disputes arose between departmental engineers on one hand, and engineering experts of the royal commission on the other. The Mackenzie government, which came to power in 1873, included money in the parliamentary estimates for construction of the canal. As the depression of the 1870s grew worse, however, the cost of its construction became the subject of constant debate. With opposition to the project increasing, the government decided to reconsider the scheme and in 1875 appointed yet another commission to inquire into the feasibility of the Baie Verte Canal project (see Department of Public Works, General Report of The Minister of Public Works, 1867-1882, Ottawa, 1883, pp. 830-832; House of Commons, Sessional Papers No. 54, 1871; House of Commons, Sessional Papers, No. 10, 1883; House of Commons, Debates, 2 March 1875 and 8 April 1876, pp. 434-447 and 1143-1146; and The Story of the Chignecto Barrier, Chignecto Canal Committee, Sackville, New Brunswick, n.d. [c. 1950]). Hearings of the Commission were held in Charlottetown, Summerside and Alberton, Prince Edward Island; Dalhousie, Bathurst, Newcastle, Chatham, Sackville and Saint John, New Brunswick; Pictou, Amherst, Baie Verte and Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Quebec City and Montreal, Province of Quebec. The Commissioners also visited Gloucester and Cape Ann in the United States. RG33-7 General Inventory
