AIDING THE WORKLESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22922, 28 December 1937, Page 12

AIDING THE WORKLESS

NATIONAL TROBLEM EFFORTS IN CANADA FINDINGS OF COMMISSION [from OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT] VANCOUVER, Nov. 10 Straggling along behind tho other Dominions. Canada is only now making a serious effort, from a national standpoint, to deal with unemployment. Aceording to the National Employment Commission, only recently appointed, the country, throughout the depression, followed the wrong rond in dealing with the problem of relieving the unemployed and rehabilitating them. Political considerations aside, there appears to be no prospect of an agreement being reached between the three high contending parties. Federal, Provincial and Municipal, as to individual responsibility. The noisiest critics of relief plans already devised and implemented have been the local governing bodies, whose financial history betrays utter disregard of the need for a balanced budget, sinking fund and conversion of bonded debt. More than half the municipalities of the Province of Ontario are bankrupt. Cities like Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver, on the point of receivership, have been saved only by emergency legislation. Increased Federal subsidies have toned down bitter criticism by provincial Governments, which have resolutely declined to furnish an accounting of these subventions. Sharp condemnation of Federal practices formerly followed is made by the commission. " This method of making grants-in-aid, without any special intent, should bo replaced by more specific grants, governed by the types of need," states tho commission, in an interim report. The Dominion Government, acting on one-third of its recommendations, presents a three-point plan—nationalisation of unemployment agencies, revival of apprenticeships in provinces by Dominion legislation, and low-rental housing. It is intended to divide relief assistance into three classes, in order to stabilise administration costs —unemployment aid, agricultural aid, and relief to unemployables. Tho commission admits that its work was hurried by tho need to find an immediate solution to pressing phases of the problem, with which it had grappled rather than with "longrange questions that might relate to a future depression." It recommends, however, Dominion-wide registration of unemployed, increasing the degree of employability of those receiving unemployment aid and vocational training of youth. Approximately half the worklcss timplovables on relief are between the ages of '25 and 45 years. The commission recommends a special appropriation for " re-conditioning, training and retraining needv persons in idustrial pursuits; naif the sum to be applied to youth and the remainder to the olderag? group."