Mr. Howe:

The difficulty has been that we cannot get the printing finished. If we are not able to get the printed report tomorrow, we intend to table a typewritten copy.

Mr. Green:

What is the position of the coal mining industry on Vancouver island, British Columbia? They have their problems too, but I think they are different from the maritime problems.

Mr. Howe:

It is in bad shape. I do not know that I could give any details, but mines in British Columbia are fairly well worked out and the situation is not good.

Mr. Hansell:

I notice that the amount of subvention, for both this year and last, is $4,500,000. Can the minister tell us what was actually spent last year of that amount?

Mr. Howe:

The amount is about $3,900,000 -a little more perhaps, but in that vicinity.

Mr. Gillis:

May I ask the minister this

question? The statutory vote for subsidy payments is for the purpose, as I understand it, of providing a drawback on imported coal used for metallurgical purposes. Why is there a decrease of $50,000 in that amount? What is the amount of drawback paid now on coal used for metallurgical purposes? Does the drawback apply to Canadian-produced coal as well as to American?

Mr. Howe:

This is a subsidy paid on Canadian coal used in making metallurgical coke. The purpose is to place an industry that uses Canadian coal on at least as favourable a footing as an industry using American coal. The only company to which that subsidy is paid, I believe, is Dosco.

Mr. Gillis:

What amount is rebated?

Mr. Howe:

It is 49} cents a ton.

Mr. Black (Cumberland):

I should like to ask the minister if he would answer my inquiry as to what has been done or is being done to provide a shipping port so that Springhill mines can ship, through the slack season in the summer, to central Canada points by water.

Mr. Howe:

Nothing has been done; but as far as I know, all the coal that is mined at Springhill is moved to market in central Canada. It has been for several years and I think it will continue to be. In other words, we do not intend to permit them to have any slack season.

Mr. Black (Cumberland):

This was an

announcement made by the president of the company, Mr. Forsyth, within the last few weeks.

Mr. Howe:

I shall be glad to look into the matter.

Mr. Green:

This is the first item for the

national research council. As the minister knows, these estimates have been reviewed by the special committee investigating the work of the research council, and I do not think there was any objection to them. What I should like to suggest to the minister is that he give some consideration to the salaries being paid to the research officers. If he will turn to page 281 of the estimates, at which are to be found the details of these votes, he will find that, apart from the directors and assistant directors, there are only 14 other research officers who are drawing a salary of $6,000 or more, and that there are 587 who are drawing less than that figure. If the salaries are sufficient to attract the best men in the country to this work, then of course there can be no objection to them. But I think it would be worth the minister's while to see whether the salaries, particularly in the middle group, are adequate to keep the best men in the country in this field. Personally I was greatly impressed by what we learned of the work of the staff of the research council, from Dr. Mackenzie down. They are doing a splendid job; they are doing work which is of the utmost importance to a young nation like Canada. Our university graduates seem to take naturally to work of this kind. With our natural resources and our comparatively small population, this research work seems to me to be as important as any other work being done in Canada. I would ask the minister to give some thought to the question whether these salaries are adequate.

Mr. Howe:

A good deal of thought has been given to that subject. I think I can say that the research council does attract the best young men in Canada.

Mr. Green:

I think that is true now. There is no doubt about that.

Mr. Howe:

My hon. friend perhaps has in mind that the salaries paid do not hold these young men permanently. I think that is a highly desirable situation. The worst thing that could happen to the research council would be for young men to come in there at age twenty and stay there until age sixty. A young man gives splendid work to the research council and in return he obtains splendid training from the research council. I believe it is highly desirable, in the interests of the Canadian economy, that after the young man receives that training and has been there for a few years, he should find a place in industry and continue his work in that field.

Mr. Green:

I have more in mind the men from thirty-five to fifty who are making a career of the research council work.

Mr. Howe:

Such men are carefully selected, and their salaries are better, we will say, than comparable salaries in universities. We can never compete with industry. If industry needs a man with particular qualifications, it will pay any price that it takes to get the man. For instance-and I am perhaps not telling tales out of school-recently one of the men was offered $25,000 a year plus a favourable retirement plan, but he decided to stay at the research council at a salary less than $10,000. If I give too many particulars, you might place the man. The work does attract first-class men. We think that the range of salaries is adequate to attract the kind of men that it is in the public interest to attract to the work of the research council.