Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

With their parents.

Mr. GEARY:

Would the minister be able to give categorically the different plans under which immigration is proceeding at the present time?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

I think the hon. member will find that I have given a complete statement with regard to juvenile immigration.

Mr. GEARY:

I was listening as carefully as I could, but I did not understand that that had been given.

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

Mr. HEAPS:

Has the system of training

in the old country been discontinued?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

No assistance is granted to the trainee other than the assistance given to him in the securing of employment. I think there are some 1,100 in training this winter, none of whom have left England.

As I have stated, my hope is that the bills now before this house for the transfer of the natural resources to the western provinces will go through. I trust that those bills will put all the provinces of Canada upon an equal basis. They will transfer the administration of the lands of the western provinces from this government to the governments of the provinces. Some time ago I wrote to the prime ministers of the western provinces stating that I felt that the objection taken in 1922

764 COMMONS

Immigration Policy-Mr. Stewart (Edmonton)

by the representatives of the western provinces that they did not control their natural resources, was now removed. I told them that in order that we might have an agreement between the provinces and the federal government, I was going to send the Deputy Minister of Immigration to consult with them, and I very naturally asked them to take the responsibility for colonization. That arrangement will apply to all the provinces of Canada.

Mr. CAMPBELL:

Will that involve the

termination of the contracts with the transportation companies?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

As has been stated by the hon. member for Willow Bunch (Mr. Donnelly) that agreement expires next autumn, and in accordance with the report, of the committee it will not be renewed. The railway companies have been notified to that effect.

In the proposed agreement with the provinces we are asking them to assume the responsibility for saying how much and what kind of immigration they are desirious of having and can absorb in any given year. We will not pass into Canada people destined to any province unless it is the desire of that province to receive them. It is not the intention of this government to prevent any healthy individual in the British Isles or in northern Europe who is in a position to finance his passage and who has a reasonable sum of money in his possession to maintain himself when he arrives in this country, from entering the country unless the provinces should say that they are not desirous of receiving such immigrant. Under such circumstances we would have to debar to that extent an individual's entry into that particular province.

So far as the immigration from central Europe is concerned, the classes mentioned in the railway agreements, that immigration will come in under what we call our permit system. It means simply that the application, instead of coming to the Minister of Immigration of the federal government, will go to the appropriate officer appointed by the province, and if he passes upon that request, then we will put the machinery into motion to bring in that individual.

Sir EUGENE FISET:

WThen will this new procedure take effect?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

As soon as

the agreement expires this year and we have an opportunity, after consultation with the various provincial governments, to work out the details.

Mr. BENNETT:

It will not be in 1930

anyway?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

It cannot go into effect this year. It is proposed to put it into effect next year.

Mr. KELLNER:

These relatives would

not come under the assisted passage scheme?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

We are not thinking of continuing any assistance except that we have not yet arrived at a definite decision as to whether we should discontinue assistance to juveniles or not. That is the only case in regard to which we have not reached a definite decision. The juveniles are passed upon by the appropriate provincial officer and it will be at the request of the province that they will come to Canada. We wish to make a clear distinction between the responsibility of the federal government and that of the provincial government. Believing that the province is responsible for the individual the moment he arrives within the boundary of that province, we propose for the future not to bring in, not to admit to Canada, if you like, any individual who has not been passed upon and a request made for his admission by the provincial authorities.

Mr. WOODSWORTH:

How is it proposed to keep an immigrant within a particular province?

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

There will be no more difficulty about that than there is at present.

Mr. W OODSWORTH:

There is a difficulty at present.

Mr. STEWART (Edmonton):

Mr. BENNETT:

Is there any diminution

of the department's effort this year or in the number of officers who have been maintained heretofore?