and to control the development of provincial energy resources. When Shrum took over the project in 1961 it was already a year behind schedule meeting the 1968 deadline to generate power. Through a 'hands on', 'cost conscious' and a 'design as you go' strategy, the project was officially completed in the fall of 1967 with the first generators going online in 1968. The project was completed on time and on budget; however, additional construction would continue through the 1970s with final completion in 1980 when the last generator was installed. The construction of the W. A. C. Bennett Dam involved over twenty unions that were bound by ten-year contracts guaranteeing BC Hydro no lockouts or strike action. This contract allowed the project to be built without labour delays. The men involved on the project were international, coming from around North America, Europe, and as far as Japan. The workers onsite lived in temporary camps built around the Portage Mountain site with more workers in the summer and fewer in the winter. Much of the construction occurred inside the dam which was claustrophobic, full of exhaust fumes, and occasionally subject to cave-ins. In total, 16 men have lost their lives working on the dam. During the construction process, the Portage Mountain lookout was one of the first buildings built so that tourists could view the progress on the dam. Upgrading and refurbishment From 2009 to 2012, units 6 to 8 were refurbished to increase the plant capacity by 90 megawatts. The last unit of them, unit 7, was put into service on November 29, 2012. Units 1 to 5 have undergone complete refurbishment and upgrades, increasing the reliability and capacity of the first units installed at G.M. Shrum. The upgrades increase the generating capacity of each unit by as much as 17%. Economic investment and opportunity Province of British Columbia In the 1950s, as well as the decades before and after, the economy of British Columbia had largely been based on the extraction of natural resources and had therefore been susceptible to fluctuations in the world's demand for the respective resources. Despite the potentially unreliable economy resulting from this susceptibility, British Columbia was considered to be one of the most sought-out Canadian provinces to live in. This was due to the fact that British Columbia had the country's highest real per capita income which resulted in high standards of living for