March 27, 1919 (13th Parliament, 2nd Session)

Mr. LAPOINTE (Kamouraska):

The
minister says that he consulted with the employees last year and they were satisfied with the legislation as proposed, but now they have found the defects which the minister says I pointed out to him. He is now amending the Act to avoid the injustice it was doing to the dependents of employees. Under the old Act the widow of a man who had been killed and who had not elected to come under the provisions of the fund could not receive anything, because she had not waived her rights, so to speak, to something she was not entitled to.
My hon. friend realized the manifest absurdity of this and in the present Bill he is remedying that condition. We submit that the employees of the Intercolonial Railway or the Canadian Government Railways ought to be placed in exactly the same position as the employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway. My hon. friend s:ays they are in the same position, but we know that they are not. It should be a very simple matter to find out conditions as they really are before this Bill comes again before the committee, and the suggestion of my hon. friend (Mr. Reid) ought to be accepted; that we wait for eight or ten days and ascertain in the meanwhile how the Can adian Pacific employees are dealt with.