Johnson's government introduced compulsory health insurance, and a 3% provincial sales tax to pay for it. It expanded the highway system, extended the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, and negotiated the Alcan Agreement, which facilitated construction of the Kenney Dam, the first major hydroelectric project in the province. The government also coped with the devastating 1948 flooding of the Fraser River, declaring a state of emergency and beginning a programme of diking the river's banks through the Fraser Valley. Johnson is also noted for appointing Nancy Hodges as the second female Speaker in the British Commonwealth, Mary Ellen Smith being the first. It was also during Johnson's tenure that the British Columbia Provincial Police were disbanded and replaced by the R.C.M.P.