The Whitehorse Star, March 13, 1953

$2 Billion project to flood city

Details of plans of an Eastern Canadian industrial empire to change the entire map north of the B.C. border:

Included in the plans of the giant Frobisher Ltd., for the $2 billion enterprise - which would dwarf the huge Kitimat and Ungave development - were:

Mammoth dam on Lac Laberge and creation of a lake, 100 to 200 feet deep and covering thousands of square miles.

Moving of the entire town of Whitehorse with its huge Orient route air base.

Relocation of the towns of Carcross and Champagne. (All three centres would be flooded by the artificial lake.)

Changing the route of warborn Alaska highway.

Rerouting of the White Pass and Yukon Railway.

Construction of the three big hydro plants in the vicinity of Kluane Chilkoot Pass and Teslin. Estimated out - 500,000,000 horsepower - makes this the largest integrated power yield in the world.

Creation of a deepsea port on Taku River or north of Haines, Alaska, in Yukon territory.

SMELTING CENTRE

In conjunction with the hydro construction, plans call for erection of smelters and leaching plants to process ores from Frobisher holdings in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Greece and southern Rhodesia. Frobisher also has properties under development in Uganda, West Africa, Venezuela, Peru, Labrador, Montana, North and South Dakota.

Details of the plan - official permission for preliminary surveys has already been given - came to light recently and followed by a month rejection of a United States bid to harness the Yukon River system, of which Lac Laberge is a part.

At that time Resource Minister Winters intimated that development of Canadian resources in the area should be left to Canadian enterprise - Frobisher is owned by the gigantic Canadian industrial empire, Ventures Corporation.