101-537: Canal Flats is a village municipality in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia . This Columbia Valley community lies between the southern end of Columbia Lake and the northwest shore of the Kootenay River . The locality, on Highway 93/95 , is by road about 83 kilometres (52 mi) north of Cranbrook and 165 kilometres (103 mi) southeast of Golden . The Ktunaxa Nation has occupied
202-626: A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance. At first, the decline in the U.S. economy was the factor that triggered economic downturns in most other countries due to a decline in trade, capital movement, and global business confidence. Then, internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. For example,
303-418: A silver standard , almost avoided the depression entirely. The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries . This partly explains why the experience and length of the depression differed between regions and states around
404-525: A 24-metre (78 ft) Queen truss, and four 6.1-metre (20 ft) pile bents. In 1897, the 10-kilometre (6 mi) tramway permanently closed. Passengers transferred to a stage for the Windermere –Fort Steele leg. In 1899, the respective mileages from Golden were Windermere (82.2), Brewer's (95.3), Canal Flat (111.4), and Kootenay Bridge (113.2). In the early 1900s, a substantial replacement bridge appears to have been built adjacent to Canal Flats. In 1911,
505-797: A change of 9% from its 2016 population of 60,439 . With a land area of 27,514.1 km (10,623.3 sq mi), it had a population density of 2.4/km (6.2/sq mi) in 2021. The largest hospital in the region is the East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook. There are also hospitals in Creston (Creston Valley Hospital), Fernie (Elk Valley Hospital), Invermere (Invermere & District Hospital), and Golden (Golden & District Hospital). Primary health centers are present in Sparwood and Elkford. The First Nations people who live in
606-529: A charter was awarded to William Adolf Baillie Grohman in 1886. A wagon road northward from Galbraith's Ferry opened in 1886. Southeastward from Steamboat Landing , and a connecting bridge at Upper Crossing, followed the next year. Completed in July 1889, the Baillie-Grohman Canal was a barely functional scheme. Giving away 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of good land to create a virtually impassable ditch
707-695: A cross in a prominent place to commemorate the occasion. Relocated to the village in 2011, a log building to house the Columbia Discovery Centre and Ktunaxa Interpretive Centre opened in 2013. Canoeing upstream, David Thompson reached the headwaters of the Columbia River in April 1808. He named the 1.9-kilometre (1.2 mi) land mass separating the waterways as McGillivray's Portage. Although probably named after Duncan McGillivray , who accompanied Thompson in 1800 in their search for an overland route to
808-588: A former privately run bank, bearing no relation to the U.S. government (not to be confused with the Federal Reserve ). Unable to pay out to all of its creditors, the bank failed. Among the 608 American banks that closed in November and December 1930, the Bank of United States accounted for a third of the total $ 550 million deposits lost and, with its closure, bank failures reached a critical mass. In an initial response to
909-459: A greater reduction in credit. On 5 April 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 making the private ownership of gold certificates , coins and bullion illegal, reducing the pressure on Federal Reserve gold. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to
1010-596: A modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources. Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families. Cheap foods were used, such as soups, beans and noodles. They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat—sometimes even horse meat—and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups. They sewed and patched clothing, traded with their neighbors for outgrown items, and made do with colder homes. New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days. Many women also worked outside
1111-402: A monetary contraction first-hand were forced to join the deflationary policy since higher interest rates in countries that performed a deflationary policy led to a gold outflow in countries with lower interest rates. Under the gold standard's price–specie flow mechanism , countries that lost gold but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard had to permit their money supply to decrease and
SECTION 10
#17328511750901212-563: A serious issue in the 1930s. Support for increasing welfare programs during the depression included a focus on women in the family. The Conseil Supérieur de la Natalité campaigned for provisions enacted in the Code de la Famille (1939) that increased state assistance to families with children and required employers to protect the jobs of fathers, even if they were immigrants. In rural and small-town areas, women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible. In
1313-474: A small cadre of Labour, but the vast majority of Labour leaders denounced MacDonald as a traitor for leading the new government. Britain went off the gold standard , and suffered relatively less than other major countries in the Great Depression. In the 1931 British election, the Labour Party was virtually destroyed, leaving MacDonald as prime minister for a largely Conservative coalition. In most countries of
1414-652: A standstill agreement froze Germany's foreign liabilities for six months. Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England. The funding only slowed the process. Industrial failures began in Germany, a major bank closed in July and a two-day holiday for all German banks was declared. Business failures were more frequent in July, and spread to Romania and Hungary. The crisis continued to get worse in Germany, bringing political upheaval that finally led to
1515-469: A steam sawmill was installed for the duration of the canal construction. In 1910, Canal Flats camps, under the oversight of T.G. Procter , took out 1,200,000 metres (4,000,000 ft) of logs for transportation to the Crow's Nest Pass Lumber Co mill. In 1928, CP erected a warehouse at Canal Flats. Construction began on a logging railway up Findlay Creek and a mammoth mill northeast of the station. The next year,
1616-551: Is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia , Canada . In the 2016 census , the population was 60,439. Its area is 27,542.69 km (10,634.29 sq mi). The regional district offices are in Cranbrook , the largest community in the region. Other important population centres include the cities of Kimberley and Fernie , and the district municipality of Invermere and Sparwood . Despite its name,
1717-642: Is a consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse, by expanding the money supply and acting as lender of last resort . If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter. Modern mainstream economists see the reasons in Insufficient spending, the money supply reduction, and debt on margin led to falling prices and further bankruptcies ( Irving Fisher 's debt deflation). The monetarist explanation
1818-493: Is supported by the contrast in how the crisis progressed in, e.g., Britain, Argentina and Brazil, all of which devalued their currencies early and returned to normal patterns of growth relatively rapidly and countries which stuck to the gold standard , such as France or Belgium. Frantic attempts by individual countries to shore up their economies through protectionist policies – such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries – exacerbated
1919-523: The 1932 election , Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who from 1933 pursued a series of " New Deal " policies and programs to provide relief and create jobs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps , Federal Emergency Relief Administration , Tennessee Valley Authority , and Works Progress Administration . Historians disagree on the effects of the New Deal, with some claiming that
2020-565: The New York Bank of United States – which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks, and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed. Friedman and Schwartz argued that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of
2121-525: The coming to power of Hitler's Nazi regime in January 1933. The world financial crisis now began to overwhelm Britain; investors around the world started withdrawing their gold from London at the rate of £2.5 million per day. Credits of £25 million each from the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an issue of £15 million fiduciary note slowed, but did not reverse,
SECTION 20
#17328511750902222-468: The stock market , which resulted in growing wealth inequality . Banks were subject to minimal regulation under laissez-faire economic policies, resulting in loose lending and widespread debt. By 1929, declining spending had led to reductions in manufacturing output and rising unemployment . Share values continued to rise until the Wall Street crash, after which the slide continued for three years, which
2323-562: The 1893 hotel opening by James Durick was welcomed. Eneas (Enie) H. Small, who became the proprietor of Columbia House, made considerable enlargements to the hotel in 1897 but months later sold the business to John Bullman. That year, the Kootenay Valley Lands Co, the recipient of the 12,000-hectare (30,000-acre) land grant, which included Canal Flats and parcels stretching to the Canada–United States border , began releasing
2424-447: The 1937 recession that interrupted it). The common view among most economists is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies either caused or accelerated the recovery, although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession. Some economists have also called attention to the positive effects from expectations of reflation and rising nominal interest rates that Roosevelt's words and actions portended. It
2525-795: The British crisis. The financial crisis now caused a major political crisis in Britain in August 1931. With deficits mounting, the bankers demanded a balanced budget; the divided cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government agreed; it proposed to raise taxes, cut spending, and most controversially, to cut unemployment benefits 20%. The attack on welfare was unacceptable to the Labour movement. MacDonald wanted to resign, but King George V insisted he remain and form an all-party coalition " National Government ". The Conservative and Liberals parties signed on, along with
2626-447: The CP planing mill followed the relocation of the CP sawmill from Bull River . The logging railway advanced farther up Findlay Creek, and the Crow's Nest Lumber Co also laid tracks toward Canal Flats along the main road from the south. During the early 1930s, CP operated several small tie mills in the area. A 1.6-kilometre (1 mi) spur led to the several yard tracks at the sawmill, which
2727-540: The Columbia Lake Technology Center opened in 2018 within the skeleton of the old mill. Two key tenants were PodTech, which manufactured transportable data centres, and Bid Group, which manufactured products such as steel conveyors for forestry companies. The existence of fibre optic infrastructure on site and in town was strategic. In 2016, Mountain Mercantile opened in the old high school building opposite
2828-517: The Depression. Businessmen ignored the mounting national debt and heavy new taxes, redoubling their efforts for greater output to take advantage of generous government contracts. During World War I many countries suspended their gold standard in varying ways. There was high inflation from WWI, and in the 1920s in the Weimar Republic , Austria , and throughout Europe. In the late 1920s there
2929-466: The Dow returning to 294 (pre-depression levels) in April 1930, before steadily declining for years, to a low of 41 in 1932. At the beginning, governments and businesses spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in
3030-682: The East Kootenay are from the Ktunaxa Nation . There are currently four bands Columbia Lake First Nation near Windermere , Lower Kootenay First Nation near Creston , St. Mary's First Nation near Cranbrook , and Tobacco Plains First Nation near Grasmere . Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty; drastic reductions in liquidity , industrial production, and trade; and widespread bank and business failures around
3131-480: The Federal Reserve did not act to limit the decline of the money supply was the gold standard . At that time, the amount of credit the Federal Reserve could issue was limited by the Federal Reserve Act , which required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit that could be backed by the gold in its possession. This credit
Canal Flats - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-442: The Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending, particularly investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today there is also significant academic support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that – building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz – add non-monetary explanations. There
3333-639: The Great Depression. According to the U.S. Senate website, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act is among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history. Many economists have argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 helped to worsen the depression, especially for countries significantly dependent on foreign trade. Most historians and economists blame the Act for worsening the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries. While foreign trade
3434-473: The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, as they argue that National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and National Labor Relations Act of 1935 restricted competition and established price fixing. John Maynard Keynes did not think that the New Deal under Roosevelt single-handedly ended the Great Depression: "It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on
3535-483: The Pacific, other possibilities are Duncan's brothers William and Simon McGillivray . Subsequent interchangeable names have included Columbia Portage or Lake Pass (1858), Howse Portage (1863), Kootenay City (1885), and Grohman (1888). In 1887, Kootenay City comprised a single one-room cabin. In 1892, the townsite was surveyed. In 1897, this name was recycled to promote what would become Procter . Canal Flat, adopted by 1888,
3636-525: The Thunder Hill Ranch. In 1913, E.H. Small erected a two-storey, 35-room hotel at a new site to accommodate railway construction crews. The next year, the premises were granted a liquor licence, and Fred A. Small built a general store. In 1915, William J. McFarlane bought the hotel, which was destroyed by fire the following year. About this time, Dennis Greenwood bought the general store, which by 1922 also sold gasoline. In 1925, A.H. MacKinley purchased
3737-540: The U.K. economy, which experienced an economic downturn throughout most of the late 1920s, was less severely impacted by the shock of the depression than the U.S. By contrast, the German economy saw a similar decline in industrial output as that observed in the U.S. Some economic historians attribute the differences in the rates of recovery and relative severity of the economic decline to whether particular countries had been able to effectively devaluate their currencies or not. This
3838-485: The U.S. unemployment rate down below 10%. World War II had a dramatic effect on many parts of the American economy. Government-financed capital spending accounted for only 5% of the annual U.S. investment in industrial capital in 1940; by 1943, the government accounted for 67% of U.S. capital investment. The massive war spending doubled economic growth rates, either masking the effects of the Depression or essentially ending
3939-678: The United States, agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs. Rural women made feed sack dresses and other items for themselves and their families and homes from feed sacks. In American cities, African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities, promoted collaboration, and trained neophytes. Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment. Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in
4040-543: The United States, remained on the gold standard into 1932 or 1933, while a few countries in the so-called "gold bloc", led by France and including Poland, Belgium and Switzerland, stayed on the standard until 1935–36. According to later analysis, the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery. For example, The UK and Scandinavia, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had
4141-453: The arena. A range of boutique small businesses set up on the site, which was also the venue for a local weekend vendors market. In 2020, the BID Group permanently closed its manufacturing facility. The next year, the village adopted a bylaw to waive the municipal portion of property taxes for new commercial developments. In 2022, Richard Wayken was appointed as Chief Administrative Officer for
Canal Flats - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-455: The banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businesses could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction, especially the New York branch . One reason why
4343-465: The behavior of housewives. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. The rearmament policies leading up to World War II helped stimulate
4444-433: The building and an adjacent restaurant. In 1967, a radio repeater antenna was relocated to Windermere The Canal Flats Airstrip, which existed from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, was decommissioned when the paved more modern Fairmont Hot Springs Airport opened. In 1985, a nearby wildfire forced an evacuation of about 1,400 residents. The Kootenay Central Railway (KCR) was a CP subsidiary. In 1913, Burns and Jordan,
4545-425: The business. Renamed Canal Flat Roadhouse, meals were served and a liquor licence was pending. A series of owners followed. In 1929, a new school opened, and a provincial police post was established, indicating that the arrival of the large Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) mill had brought a permanence to the community. In 1930, an offender charged with trapping without a licence fatally shot the game warden in front of
4646-458: The collapse in global trade, contributing to the depression. By 1933, the economic decline pushed world trade to one third of its level compared to four years earlier. While the precise causes for the occurrence of the Great depression are disputed and can be traced to both global and national phenomena, its immediate origins are most conveniently examined in the context of the U.S. economy, from which
4747-475: The crash was a mere symptom of more general economic trends of the time, which had already been underway in the late 1920s. A contrasting set of views, which rose to prominence in the later part of the 20th century, ascribes a more prominent role to failures of monetary policy . According to those authors, while general economic trends can explain the emergence of the downturn, they fail to account for its severity and longevity; they argue that these were caused by
4848-620: The crisis, the U.S. Congress passed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act on 17 June 1930. The Act was ostensibly aimed at protecting the American economy from foreign competition by imposing high tariffs on foreign imports. The consensus view among economists and economic historians (including Keynesians , Monetarists and Austrian economists ) is that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff had, in fact, achieved an opposite effect to what
4949-633: The decade. The Depression had devastating economic effects on both wealthy and poor countries: all experienced drops in personal income , prices ( deflation ), tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, and unemployment in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world , especially those dependent on heavy industry , were heavily affected. Construction virtually halted in many countries, and farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by up to 60%. Faced with plummeting demand and few job alternatives, areas dependent on primary sector industries suffered
5050-408: The depression. Not all governments enforced the same measures of protectionism. Some countries raised tariffs drastically and enforced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, while other countries reduced "trade and exchange restrictions only marginally": The gold standard was the primary transmission mechanism of the Great Depression. Even countries that did not face bank failures and
5151-435: The domestic price level to decline ( deflation ). There is also consensus that protectionist policies, and primarily the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , helped to exacerbate, or even cause the Great Depression. Some economic studies have indicated that the rigidities of the gold standard not only spread the downturn worldwide, but also suspended gold convertibility (devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did
SECTION 50
#17328511750905252-402: The drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply greatly exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians are almost evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of
5353-427: The economies of Europe in 1937–1939. By 1937, unemployment in Britain had fallen to 1.5 million. The mobilization of manpower following the outbreak of war in 1939 ended unemployment. The American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941 moved approximately ten million people out of the civilian labor force and into the war. This finally eliminated the last effects from the Great Depression and brought
5454-576: The end of the month. A large sell-off of stocks began in mid-October. Finally, on 24 October, Black Thursday , the American stock market crashed 11% at the opening bell. Actions to stabilize the market failed, and on 28 October, Black Monday, the market crashed another 12%. The panic peaked the next day on Black Tuesday, when the market saw another 11% drop. Thousands of investors were ruined, and billions of dollars had been lost; many stocks could not be sold at any price. The market recovered 12% on Wednesday but by then significant damage had been done. Though
5555-494: The explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists. The consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought ever more goods, exacerbating
5656-503: The few women in the labor force, layoffs were less common in the white-collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work. However, there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job, so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed. Across Britain, there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force, competing for part-time jobs especially. In France, very slow population growth, especially in comparison to Germany continued to be
5757-501: The first week of June, 540 million in the second, and 150 million in two days, 19–20 June. Collapse was at hand. U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on payment of war reparations . This angered Paris, which depended on a steady flow of German payments, but it slowed the crisis down, and the moratorium was agreed to in July 1931. An International conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on 19 August
5858-400: The general store. A jury found him not guilty on account of momentary insanity. That year, a fire destroyed two stores, a pool room, and rooming house. In 1931, over 200 men successfully fought a forest fire that threatened the CP sawmill, station, and section house. Destroyed were the CP warehouse, police residence and few small shacks. A month later, a fire at Wheeler Motor Garage burned down
5959-599: The government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi women's organizations, other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self-sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war. The organizations, propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living. However, these efforts were only partly successful in changing
6060-560: The holdings for sale. Bullman, who also operated a ranch on Thunder Hill and a freight business, found the Kootenay Valley Lands Co (the hotel landlord) obstructive. The final mention of the hotel was 1900, when Douglas Grainger was the proprietor. During an episode of insanity in 1901, the Hon. Francis John Lascelles, twelfth child of Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood , murdered the Chinese cook at his Thunder Hill ranch. Acquitted at trial, Lascelles
6161-519: The home, or took boarders, did laundry for trade or cash, and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer. Extended families used mutual aid—extra food, spare rooms, repair-work, cash loans—to help cousins and in-laws. In Japan, official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending. Consequently, the government launched a campaign across the country to induce households to reduce their consumption, focusing attention on spending by housewives. In Germany,
SECTION 60
#17328511750906262-514: The initial crisis spread to the rest of the world. In the aftermath of World War I , the Roaring Twenties brought considerable wealth to the United States and Western Europe. Initially, the year 1929 dawned with good economic prospects: despite a minor crash on 25 March 1929, the market seemed to gradually improve through September. Stock prices began to slump in September, and were volatile at
6363-543: The lack of an adequate response to the crises of liquidity that followed the initial economic shock of 1929 and the subsequent bank failures accompanied by a general collapse of the financial markets. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 381 to 198 over the course of two months, optimism persisted for some time. The stock market rose in early 1930, with
6464-497: The locality, encompassed riverboat, tramway and stage modes. In 1892, the Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co opened the tramway which connected Columbia Lake and Windermere Lake . In wintertime, when river ice shut down river traffic, a stage traversed the whole route. The 1894 flood destroyed the original 98-metre (323 ft) bridge, which was replaced near year end with a 43-metre (140 ft) Howe truss ,
6565-512: The market entered a period of recovery from 14 November until 17 April 1930, the general situation had been a prolonged slump. From 17 April 1930 until 8 July 1932, the market continued to lose 89% of its value. Despite the crash, the worst of the crisis did not reverberate around the world until after 1929. The crisis hit panic levels again in December 1930, with a bank run on the Bank of United States ,
6666-414: The mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S. Interest rates dropped to low levels by mid-1930, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment remained low. By May 1930, automobile sales declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices, in general, began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. Then
6767-423: The monetary base and by not injecting liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling, the Federal Reserve passively watched the transformation of a normal recession into the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that the downward turn in the economy, starting with the stock market crash, would merely have been an ordinary recession if the Federal Reserve had taken aggressive action. This view
6868-496: The most to make recovery possible. Every major currency left the gold standard during the Great Depression. The UK was the first to do so. Facing speculative attacks on the pound and depleting gold reserves , in September 1931 the Bank of England ceased exchanging pound notes for gold and the pound was floated on foreign exchange markets. Japan and the Scandinavian countries followed in 1931. Other countries, such as Italy and
6969-427: The most. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 ended the Depression, as it stimulated factory production, providing jobs for women as militaries absorbed large numbers of young, unemployed men. The precise causes for the Great Depression are disputed. One set of historians, for example, focuses on non-monetary economic causes. Among these, some regard the Wall Street crash itself as the main cause; others consider that
7070-568: The need to balance the national budget and was unwilling to implement expensive welfare spending . In 1930, Hoover signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , which taxed imports with the intention of encouraging buyers to purchase American products, which worsened the Depression because foreign governments retaliated with tariffs on American exports. In 1932, Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which offered loans to businesses and support to local governments. In
7171-537: The north is the 1.5-kilometre (0.9 mi) trail forming the Columbia Greenway. To the northwest is Thunder Hill Provincial Park . To the northeast is the Tilley Memorial Park (formerly Canal Flats Provincial Park ). Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park is 8 kilometres (5 mi) south. The Canal Flats Arena (early 1970s) received a major renovation in 2013 and upgrade in 2018. The civic centre (1968), which
7272-483: The physical volume of exports fall, but also the prices fell by about 1 ⁄ 3 as written. Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. Governments around the world took various steps into spending less money on foreign goods such as: "imposing tariffs, import quotas, and exchange controls". These restrictions triggered much tension among countries that had large amounts of bilateral trade, causing major export-import reductions during
7373-477: The policies prolonged the Depression instead of shortening it. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%; in the U.S., the Depression resulted in a 30% contraction in GDP. Recovery varied greatly around the world. Some economies, such as the U.S., Germany and Japan started to recover by the mid-1930s; others, like France, did not return to pre-shock growth rates until later in
7474-455: The political situation in Europe. In their book, A Monetary History of the United States , Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz also attributed the recovery to monetary factors, and contended that it was much slowed by poor management of money by the Federal Reserve System . Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006–2014) Ben Bernanke agreed that monetary factors played important roles both in
7575-537: The prime contractor for the railway construction, employed a large force in the vicinity. In November 1914, the last spike was driven near the north end of Columbia Lake. In January 1915, the inaugural passenger train arrived on the commencement of a through service. In 2021, a southbound freight train struck the rear trailer of a fully loaded logging truck at the Thunderhill Road railway crossing . Although damages were extensive, no injuries were sustained. In 1888,
7676-474: The region around Canal Flats for thousands of years. On a bluff just to the south, remnants of shelter pits evidence a former Ktunaxa salmon fishing camp. Differing versions exist of the missionary endeavours of Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet of the Jesuits . According to one account, he organized a great assembly at the south end of Columbia Lake in 1845, where he baptized hundreds of tribal members. Afterward, he erected
7777-699: The regional district (its northern half is in the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District ). Another distinct area within the regional district is the Elk Valley in the southern Rockies, which is the entrance to the Crowsnest Pass and an important coal-mining region. Other than the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers , whose valleys form the bottomlands of the Rocky Mountain Trench, also included in
7878-844: The regional district are the northernmost parts of the basins of the Flathead , Moyie and Yahk Rivers (the Moyie and Yahk are tributaries of the Kootenay, entering it in the United States, and the Flathead is a tributary of the Clark Fork in Montana ). As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , the Regional District of East Kootenay had a population of 65,896 living in 28,264 of its 35,931 total private dwellings,
7979-634: The regional district does not include all of the region known as the East Kootenay, which includes the Creston Valley and the east shore of Kootenay Lake . The regional district's dominant landform is the Rocky Mountain Trench , which is flanked by the Purcell Mountains and Rocky Mountains on the east and west, and includes the Columbia Valley region, the southern half of which is in
8080-473: The relevant listed stopping places were Windermere (82), Fairmont Springs (93), Sante's (106), Wolf Creek/Hanson's (151), and Fort Steele (160). In 1931, the new bridge comprised two 43-metre (140 ft) Howe trusses. The relief camp at Canal Flats during the Great Depression carried out highway improvements. In 1950, Highway 4 was renumbered as Highway 95, which was rebuilt in the late 1950s and paving
8181-434: The scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case—except in war conditions." According to Christina Romer , the money supply growth caused by huge international gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that the economy showed little sign of self-correction. The gold inflows were partly due to devaluation of the U.S. dollar and partly due to deterioration of
8282-458: The village. An elementary school, motel, post office, café, and general store/liquor outlet/gas bar exist. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Canal Flats had a population of 802 living in 362 of its 470 total private dwellings, a change of 20.1% from its 2016 population of 668. With a land area of 11.07 km (4.27 sq mi), it had a population density of 72.4/km (187.6/sq mi) in 2021. Adjacent to
8383-471: The world, recovery from the Great Depression began in 1933. In the U.S., recovery began in early 1933, but the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15% in 1940, albeit down from the high of 25% in 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and
8484-659: The world. The financial crisis escalated out of control in mid-1931, starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May. This put heavy pressure on Germany, which was already in political turmoil. With the rise in violence of National Socialist ('Nazi') and Communist movements, as well as investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies, investors withdrew their short-term money from Germany as confidence spiraled downward. The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in
8585-486: The world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States , the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. The Depression was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the " Roaring Twenties ". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation , such as on
8686-778: The worldwide economic decline and eventual recovery. Bernanke also saw a strong role for institutional factors, particularly the rebuilding and restructuring of the financial system, and pointed out that the Depression should be examined in an international perspective. Women's primary role was as housewives; without a steady flow of family income, their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care. Birthrates fell everywhere, as children were postponed until families could financially support them. The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12% from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930, to 17.0 in 1935. In Canada, half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births. Among
8787-490: Was a notable fiasco of the era. To make the waterways navigable would have required extensive dredging of the two rivers for many miles and a complete rebuild of the 2.4-kilometre (1.5 mi) canal. The downstream falls on the Kootenay were especially problematic. In 1890, a wagon bridge across the canal was destroyed when the canal banks collapsed. In summertime, the Golden– Fort Steele passenger service, which served
8888-639: Was a scramble to deflate prices to get the gold standard's conversation rates back on track to pre-WWI levels, by causing deflation and high unemployment through monetary policy. In 1933 FDR signed Executive Order 6102 and in 1934 signed the Gold Reserve Act . The two classic competing economic theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian (demand-driven) and the Monetarist explanation. There are also various heterodox theories that downplay or reject
8989-478: Was a small part of overall economic activity in the U.S. and was concentrated in a few businesses like farming, it was a much larger factor in many other countries. The average ad valorem (value based) rate of duties on dutiable imports for 1921–1925 was 25.9% but under the new tariff it jumped to 50% during 1931–1935. In dollar terms, American exports declined over the next four years from about $ 5.2 billion in 1929 to $ 1.7 billion in 1933; so, not only did
9090-500: Was accompanied by a loss of confidence in the financial system. By 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate had risen to 25 percent, about one-third of farmers had lost their land, and about half of the country's 25,000 banks had gone out of business. Many people, unable to pay mortgages or rent, became homeless and relied on begging or charities to feed themselves. The U.S. federal government initially did little to help. President Herbert Hoover , like many of his fellow Republicans , believed in
9191-454: Was completed in 1962. In 1966, the highway bridge was replaced by a concrete structure. Adjacent to the northwest is Thunder Hill, forming part of the Canal Flats area. The hill is first mentioned in an 1891 mining claim. A 2.4-kilometre (1.5 mi) tramway was installed from the 70-ton concentrator to the mine, but work ceased in 1893. The company was wound up the next year. The concentrator
9292-474: Was endorsed in 2002 by Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz with this statement: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again. The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures – particularly that of
9393-511: Was expanded in the 1980s, includes a seniors' centre and food bank. In 2021, the new pavilion at the Canal Flats Lions Park opened. On the first weekend in June, Canal Flats holds the annual Canal Days Party. The program include parades, pancake breakfast, beer garden, food vendors, competitive events, and live music. East Kootenay The Regional District of East Kootenay ( RDEK )
9494-426: Was given by American economists Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz . They argued that the Great Depression was caused by the banking crisis that caused one-third of all banks to vanish, a reduction of bank shareholder wealth and more importantly monetary contraction of 35%, which they called "The Great Contraction ". This caused a price drop of 33% ( deflation ). By not lowering interest rates, by not increasing
9595-491: Was in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes. A "promise of gold" is not as good as "gold in the hand", particularly when they only had enough gold to cover 40% of the Federal Reserve Notes outstanding. During the bank panics, a portion of those demand notes was redeemed for Federal Reserve gold. Since the Federal Reserve had hit its limit on allowable credit, any reduction in gold in its vaults had to be accompanied by
9696-446: Was intended. It exacerbated the Great Depression by preventing economic recovery after domestic production recovered, hampering the volume of trade; still there is disagreement as to the precise extent of the Act's influence. In the popular view, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was one of the leading causes of the depression. In a 1995 survey of American economic historians, two-thirds agreed that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act at least worsened
9797-474: Was owned by Crestbrook Forest Industries in the 1970s and Canadian Forest Products on closing in 2015 with the loss of 75 jobs. In 2004, the settlement incorporated as a village municipality. That year, the Nature Conservancy of Canada became a conservation partner in the Thunder Hill Ranch. From the mid-2010s, the village was transitioning from a forestry-dependent economy. To promote tech and trades,
9898-502: Was returned to the custody of his family in England. By 1906, all that remained of the Grohman townsite was an abandoned hotel. The next year, Enie Small repaired his Canal Flat summer resort hotel for operation. The next mention is a further rehabilitation for opening in November 1909. In 1910, F.W. Reeves was the manager, and Lord Hindlip purchased property to build a summer house and develop
9999-451: Was sold for relocation in 1902 but the removal did not eventuate. The local post offices were called Grohman 1888–1889, Thunder Hill 1893–1913, and Canal Flats 1913 onward. During the canal construction, a hotel and general store operated. Shacks provided winter accommodation for the 200 workers. Once the construction crews left, the hotel, which Charles J. Brownrigg took over, was too large for likely patronage. The business soon closed, but
10100-464: Was the rollback of those same reflationary policies that led to the interruption of a recession beginning in late 1937. One contributing policy that reversed reflation was the Banking Act of 1935 , which effectively raised reserve requirements, causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery. GDP returned to its upward trend in 1938. A revisionist view among some economists holds that
10201-435: Was used interchangeably with the plural version of Canal Flats from 1895. An 1898 reference that lists Grohman as separate from Canal Flats may suggest that the southern portion had a distinct identity for a period. The plural spelling, which first appeared on a map in 1909, gained pre-eminence over time. In 1884, the government called tenders for a ferry across the Kootenay at Upper Crossing. After retendering and negotiations,
#89910