Unemployed Men in Vancouver
So far as the maintenance of law and order is concerned, that is a matter for the police authorities; and as regards the present situation I have already informed the house that the Minister of Labour in British Columbia stated on Tuesday, May 17, that in the opinion of the provincial government it would be possible to deal with the single unemployed who were properly resident in the province. The Minister of Labour of British Columbia was of the opinion that employment could be found in due course for these men. He stated at the same time that some
1,500 men had come into British Columbia and into the forestry camps which were maintained by the dominion and the province during the winter months, and that British Columbia was not prepared to find employment for these men during the coming summer. In that situation he stated that the province was willing to assist these men from outside the province of British Columbia in returning to their homes, and that policy appeared to be a sensible method of dealing with the immediate situation.
The demonstration conducted by the relief project workers' union in the city of Vancouver has clearly as its object the provision of work for these men. I should like to say simply in that connection that in so far as there are unallotted items for works in the supplementary estimates which were tabled on Friday these will be apportioned in accordance with the actual unemployment situation in the various provinces, having due regard to particular situations which may exist in certain provinces. I should like to make it equally clear, however, that in such apportionment of unallotted items for unemployment works, this government will not be influenced in the slightest degree by threats or by any form of mass demonstration either in British Columbia or in any other province of Canada.