SSl. Fischer Avenue in the 1930's. '.. Phil Keddie ' ~ LEGO F 5649.T54 Ked c.1. r;;elebrating the 1 OOth Anniversary of the Town of The Pas in 2012

Transcription

1 SSl ll II II lt ' I / ' ' LEGO F 5649 T54 Ked c1 e 1 Fischer Avenue in the 1930's nd Phil Keddie r;;elebrating the 1 OOth Anniversary of the Town of The Pas in 2012

2 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES: THE BOOM YEARS September 27, 1926 NEW RAILWAY YARDS FOR THE PAS August 24, 1928 MANITOBA TELEPHONE SYSTEM TAKES OVER MUNICIPAL PHONES September 28, 1928 THE LAST SPIKE DRIVEN ON FLIN FLON ROAD Flin Flan railway completed Saturday - Premier John Bracken drove last spike October 5, 1928 MUCH PROSPERITY APPEARS IN STORE FOR THE PAS AREA December 14, 1928 SIXTY-FIVE CASES RESULT FROM WEEK OF ACTMTY Night Life Given a Jolt December 21, 1928 MORE THAN 100 CHARGES MADE BY PROV POLICE: MOVE AGAINST CAMBRIAN March 30, 1929 EXPECT STEEL WILL REACH CHURCHILL TODAY Finish of Railway Culmination of Battle of20 Years May 11, 1929 FISCHER A VENUE LOT SOLD FOR RECORD PRICE Property on corner of 3rd brings $15,000 May 16, 1929 ST ANTHONY'S HOSPITAL TO OPEN MAY 24th June 18, 1929 COUNCIL DECIDES TO BUILD NEW POWER HOUSE Town to Sell $50,000 Worth of Debentures August 8, 1929 RECORD CROWD ATTENDS CLEARWATER PICNIC 2 Trains Take 1,800 Persons to Big Frolic November 11, 1929 BANDIT TAKES BIGGEST POT IN LOCAL GAME Derby House Poker Players Held Up and Cleaned Out November 17, 1929 FIRST PASSENGERS LEA VE THE PAS FOR COLD LAKE Train Packed with People for Northern Mining Town

3 FOREWORD: WHY THIS AND WHY NOW? I was born in The Pas in 1936, and finished high school in The Pas in 1954 I spent grades 1 to 6 in the classrooms in one of the annexes on either side of the red brick building where I completed grades 7 to 12, except for a few months in the new collegiate facing Third Street As a teen I worked in my Dad's store From 1955 to 1959 I was only in The Pas for short visits, mostly over the Christmas season In my late teens I worked at a couple of summer jobs around The Pas: on a railway extra gang between The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction, and in Churchill where I worked on the grain elevator expansion In 1982 I returned to The Pas for the 70 1 h anniversary homecoming, and again briefly in 2004 while returning from a family reunion in Cumberland House which marked the 1 OOth anniversary of the arrival of the Keddie family there inl904 Since leaving The Pas in the fall of 1954 I lived in Winnipeg on two occasions for a total of about 8 years, in Madison, Wisconsin and Auckland, New Zealand, and, since 1967, in Guelph, Ontario But if asked where I am from I respond "I live in Guelph, but I'm from The Pas, Manitoba" '9 - -' ' - - In I put together a small book about The Pas titled "A Sunset View of Our Teen Town: The Pas in the Early 1950's" I had about 30 copies made and mailed them off to a bunch of high school friends living all across Canada, and who had shared with me the experience of being a teenager in The Pas in the early l 950's In undertaking that account I realised how little I knew about the town in which I was born Since I am now retired from being a geography prof at the U of G, I decided that I had the interest and the time to pursue the matter I also appreciated that those who have lived in The Pas since the late '50's were in a much better position to write about the town's more recent history I have long been puzzled why I know so little of The Pas in the period before I was born - so little about the town the Keddie family moved to from Cumberland House, the town where my dad took on joint ownership of the Keddie and Fowler general store, and where my parents were married in 1934 My first vivid memory is of one of my uncles running along the beach at Clearwater Lake shouting that Germany had invaded Poland It was September 1939 I was only three at the time and did not know what he meant, but I understood that it was important Canada entered WWII soon after No surprise, perhaps, that few adults in my youth were talking about the boom years that The Pas enjoyed in the late twenties, or the hardships so many in town endured in the thirties What must the town have really been like back then? I had little idea This prompted me to put together the following account of Boom and Depression: The Pas and District in the Late Nineteen Twenties and Nineteen Thirties It is my contribution to the town for its 1 ooth anniversary -1-

4 BOOM AND DEPRESSION THE PAS AND DISTRICT INTHE LATE NINETEEN TWENTIES AND THE NINETEEN TIDRTIES TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Foreword: Why This and Why Now? i Sections ii Tables vi Acknowledgments viii SECTIONS FAST FORWARD: A VERY BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PAS AND DISTRICT 1 The Beginning 1 Growth and Decline Across the Years 3 BOOM YEARS: THE LATE NINETEEN TWENTIES to 1929: Boom Years in Canada and The Pas 7 Fueling the Boom 8 Activities to the North 8 The Hudson Bay Railway: Rehabilitation and Construction 8 Railway to Flin Flon: Early Expenditures and Development 9 A Branch Line to Sherridon (Cold Lake) 11 The Lumber Mill and Logging Camps in the 1920's 11 Building Boom 16 Transportation and Communication 16 Wholesaling: A Gateway Function 17 Accommodation: Places to Stay 18 Banks and More Banks 19 Entertainment Establishments 19 Municipal and Provincial Buildings 20 The Hospital: An Outstanding Achievement 21 A Business College Opens

5 Further Initiatives 22 Business Growth and the Commercial Scene 24 Community Social Life, 26 Spiritual and Social Life: The Role of Churches 26 Clubs Are Organized 27 Sports and Sports Facilities 28 Leisure Time Fun 29 Bursting at the Seams 33 Wide Open and Wild THE PAS DURING THE DEPRESSION YEARS 39 Canada in the 1930's 39 Unemployment and the Unemployed 42 Who and How Many 42 Opportunities to the North 47 The Seasonality of Unemployment 49 Unemployment in The Pas in Perspective 50 Protests and Retribution 52 Marches and Demonstrations 52 Deportation 55 Public Works in Town 57 A Local Initiative 57 The Town Seeks Joint Funding 57 A Federal Public Works Project 60 Direct Relief 61 Direct Relief for Single Transient Men and Other Single Men 61 Direct Relief fo:r Town Residents 64 The Cost of Direct Relief in The Pas 65 How Many People Received Direct Relief in The Pas 66 How Much Financial Support Did They Receive 67 Additional Social Service Costs 72 The Social Welfare Commission ; 74 How Did People Support Themselves and Their Families? 76 Making Ends Meet 76 How Far Would a Dollar Go? 78 Getting Disconnected: More Household Cost Cuts 80 Receiving and Giving 81 Remembering the 1930's 83 Business Decline and the Commercial Scene 87 Businesses by the Numbers 87 Retail Merchandise Trade 89 Business Tax Revenue 90 Business Attrition in the 1930's

6 Municipal Money Management 94 Dealing With Municipal Debt 94 Three Categories of Debt, 94 Major Debenture Debt 95 Local Improvements and Relief Works Debt 97 The Housing Loan 97 Another Debt Consolidation 98 The Town's Debt in Servicing the Debt 99 Property Tax Arrears and Tax Sales 101 Tax Sales Procedures 101 Disposition of Tax Sales Properties 102 Property Types Acquired by the Town 103 Lots with Businesses on Them 104 Lots with Dwellings on Them 105 Empty Lots 106 Loss of Tax Revenue Attributable to Unpaid Property Taxes 106 Cutting and Constraining Municipal Costs 107 Cutting Wages and Salaries 107 Constraining Maintenance and Operating Costs 109 Short Term Relief: The Public School Levy 110 A Shining Light in the Financial Gloom 111 Better than a Balancing Act 113 The Lumber Mill and Logging Camps in the Depression Years 116 The Worst Years 116 The Road to Recovery 116 Picnics and a Club 119 The Lumber Mill Legacy 119 THE DISTRICT DURING THE DEPRESSION YEARS 121 Public Works: Road Construction 121 The Main Objective: A Highway to the South 121 Destination Hudson Bay Junction: The Road that Never Was 122 The Relief Camp 125 Depression Era Relief Camps in Canada 125 The Pas Area Relief Camp 126 To Mtifeking at Last 130 Getting Underway 130 Financial Arrangements 131 Wages and Conditions of Employment 131 Building the Highway 133 The Opening Ceremony 135 Retrospective on the Highway to the South 137 -iv-

7 District Roads 137 Getting to Clearwater Lake 137 Rail's Island Road 139 Grace (Regina) Lake Road 140 Carrot River Road: Improvements and Extensions 141 Roads and Highways in Muskrats and Marshlands 144 Tom Lamb's Rat Ranch 144 Provincial and Federal Rat Projects 146 Early Summerberry Rat Harvests 147 Muskrats for Relief 149 Reflections on the Rat Harvest 150 Farming North of'53: The Carrot River District 152 Farming Along the Carrot River 152 Making Hay 154 Getting a School 156 A Brief Look Forward 157 Other District Activities 158 Back to the Land: The Wanless Project 158 Berry Picking 159 -' ),7/ ' AQIDCKLOOKBACK 163 Boom Years: The Late Nineteen Twenties 163 The Pas During the Depression Years 164 The District in the Depression Years 165 Final Words 166 APPENDIX A: Selected Population Data, Manitoba, Census Division 16, 1921, 1931and APPENDIX B: The Pas: Annual and Monthly Cost of Direct Relief, 1933 to 1937, 1939 and SOURCES OF INFORMATION 169 BOOKS AND ARTICLES 171 PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION SOURCES AND CREDITS 174 -,/- -v-

8 TABLES Fast Forward: A Very Brief Account of The Pas and District Population of The Pas, Manitoba: 1913 to Business Growth and the Commercial Scene General Business and Professional Directory, The Pas Canada in the 1930's Per Capita Money Income as Percentages of 1928 or 1929 Peaks 39 Unemployment and the Unemployed Birthplace of the Population: The Pas, Unemployment in The Pas as of June 1, Population of The Pas, 1931and Average Unemployment Rates in Canada, 1929 to Direct Relief Annual Cost in Dollars of Direct Relief and Range by Highest and Lowest Month, 1931 to Number of Recipients of Direct Reliefin The Pas 1933 to Direct Relief Allocations in The Pas in 1933 and Dollar Amounts of Monthly Reliefin 1933 and What the Top Five Recipients of Direct Relief Received in 1933and1941 in Dollars 71 Maximum Monthly Relief Allowances for a Family of Five in Two Major Municipalities 71 Health and Welfare Costs in the Town of The Pas 1930 to How Did People Support Themselves and Their Families Residential Telephone Listings, The Pas 1929 to Business Decline and the Commercial Scene Number of Listings for Retail Trade and Business, Professional and Personal Services, The Pas, 1929 to Summary of Retail Merchandise Trade, The Pas, 1930 and Business Tax Revenue: Town of The Pas, 1927to ,_ { \ --,, ( t- ; tllla ( (""' (ll/llj (lfllj tl/jjij (llljf/a (llflj t cal Dealing with Municipal Debt Town of The Pas: Major Debentures as of December 31, Debt Incurred for Local Improvement and Relief Works in the Town of The Pas as of December 31, Town of The Pas: Major Debentures as of December 31, Vl-

9 Dealing with Municipal Debt (continued) Annual Cost of Servicing the Debts, Town of The Pas, 1930to Property Tax Arrears and Tax Sales Property Tax Sales, Town of The Pas, 1930 to Types of Lots Acquired by the Town of The Pas, 1930 to Properties with Unpaid Taxes and Value of Unpaid Property Taxes, Town of The Pas, 1930to Cutting and Constraining Municipal Costs General Administration: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas, 1930 to Index of Salaries and Wages, Town of The Pas, 1930 to Maintenance and Operating Costs: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas, 1930 to Public School Levy: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas, 1930 to The Electric Light Department: Net Revenue (revenue minus expenditure) and Percent of the Town's Total Revenue, Town of The Pas, 1930 to Better Than a Balancing Act Revenues and Expenditures, Town of The Pas, 1930 to vn-

10 j ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a special debt of gratitude to Laurel Neustaedter, Curator, Sam Waller Museum, in The Pas I started out with only the vaguest of ideas about what the museum might hold in terms of municipal records for the town Most of my inquiries were related to ideas I gained from newspaper accounts about debentures, property tax sales, business tax arrears, direct relief, and so on She listened to my often vague telephone inquiries as to what municipal records the museum might hold When I would phone her back she would tell me what she had found, and I would place a request for photocopies We repeated this process numerous times She was unfailingly helpful and gracious and uncovered records that I found invaluable in the conduct of this research The following people were willing to listen to my rather naive questions about municipal affairs and provide me with a better understanding of various aspects of municipal finance Val Miron: Town Clerk for many years and Chief Administrative Officer, Town of The Pas for some years prior to her retirement a few years ago Doug Brandt: Assessment Officer for the Swan River District Richard King: Treasurer, Town of The Pas for many years prior to his retirement in 2003 Stella Bickford (nee Hayduk), a friend from high school days, copied the pages related to The Pas for the years 1929 to 1941 from the Manitoba Telephone System directories held at the Legislative Library in Winnipeg She was also the source ofinformation about her grandmother's garden and root cellar as recorded in the section Making Ends Meet Many thanks to Marie Puddister, Cartographer, Department of Geography, University of Guelph, who designed the front cover, and to Bill Jonas of The Pas for some up-to-date information on TOLKO My biggest debt is to my wife Jackie She was tireless in hunting up references to The Pas and district on the internet Among several gems, she found the wonderful piece titled "Muskrats for Relief'published in something called The American Mercury in 1940 While she typed and re-typed, the entire account, onerous enough, she did much more than that She would say, "What have you got for me to type today?", and encourage me to get on with the job Or she would say, "This section needs some more work", and tell me why She improved my syntax and grammar, made suggestions how to improve the organization, and encouraged me to have pity on the reader and trim it down Without her help, patience and encouragement this account would never have been completed Any errors of fact or interpretation are, however, solely my responsibility Phil Keddie, Guelph, December viii-

11 FAST FORWARD: A VERY BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PAS AND DISTRICT The Beginning Prior to 1900 the site that was to become the town of The P,as was a Cree seasonal encampment, strategically located on the south side of the Saskatchewan River between the rich trapping and hunting resources of the upper and lower delta Some time after the signing of Treaty 5 in 1876 it was designated an Indian reserve The Pas Band built a number of new houses on the reserve By 1900 European presence was marked by a Hudson Bay Company trading post and Anglican and Roman Catholic missions The first Anglican church was built in and the first Roman Catholic church iri 1897 During the winter of Herman Finger, accompanied by his son Oscar, traveled widely in western Canada Using a map of timber berths in the North West Territories that they had secured from the Department of the Interior, they checked out the quality and accessibility of the available timber berths, Crown lands set aside for use by the forest industry As related by McCarthy in her informative book Harvesting the Northern Forest: A History of the Forest Industry in The Pas and Area: "Hislong experience as a lumberman and his entrepreneurial spirit led him to select the Carrot River timber berths of white spruce as the best value He chose the small Indian village and HBC Pas trading post as the place where he would build a sawmill to turn these logs into lumber " (p16) In 1906 land for a townsite became available when The Pas Cree were asked by the Canadian government to surrender around 500 acres of reserve land and move to the north side of the Saskatchewan River, which they did At the time, according to McCarthy (p l 0) about 30 families of The Pas Band lived there As of 1907 the white (European) population of the settlement, as yet unincorporated, consisted of 9 orlo families Herman Finger knew, of course, that for a mill at The Pas to be successful a rail link to the south was a prerequisite Again as related by McCarthy: "The railway builders, Mackenzie and Mann, were unlikely to build their railway unless they could be assured of freight Finger's promise to build a lumber mill at The Pas and ship seventeen cars weekly via the CNR (Canadian Northern Railway) was a catalyst in getting construction to The Pas underway" The railway link from Hudson Bay Junction arrived in The Pas in 1908 And by October of 1910 construction of the Finger Lumber Mill was underway In March of 1912 the province of Manitoba was expanded northward, from slightly south of 53' north, and assumed its current boundaries The Pas was now in Manitoba Before 1905 the site of The Pas had been in the District of Saskatchewan With the creation in 1905 of the Province of 1

12 ' Saskatchewan and the fixing of its boundaries The Pas was, for the next seven years, part of the District of Keewatin On April 6, 1912 the town of The Pas was incorporated as a municipality of the province of Manitoba Herman Finger was elected the town's first mayor on June 30th, 1912 There had been renewed agitation for extension of the railway from The Pas to Hudson Bay from 1908 onward, and in that year both the Liberal party and the Conservative party made a commitment to construct the railway In 1911 Sir Robert Borden, leader of the Conservatives, promised that the railway would be built by his government if his party was elected In the 850 foot railway bridge was built across the Saskatchewan River at The Pas When rail construction was suspended in 1917 as a consequence of WWI the rail line had been completed as far as Amery (mile 356) According to Morton, in Manitoba: A History: "Now with the bridge thrown across the Saskatchewan to carry the railway, with the fur trade and a flourishing new lumber industry, The Pas was setting out to be the capital of Manitoba "north of 53 '", the base for exploration of a new frontier of forest and mine The laws and magistrates of Manitoba went into the north, and a new electoral district of The Pas was created A member was elected and went south to Winnipeg to tell the legislators from the farms and rural towns of the south of the vast extent and illimitable resources of the new Manitoba" (p327) When the Board of TJ'ade of the town of The Pas took a census in August of 1913 the town's population had reached just over 1,500, and men outnumbered women approximately 3 tol The varied birthplaces and religious affiliations of residents indicate that the town, one year after its incorporation, was already becoming a diverse community This is what the census reported: / Number Total 1,509 Males 1,101 Females 408 White 1,453 Indian 37 Mongolian 17 Negro 2 Ill 'n: Nationmy Born in Canada 762 Born in Gt Britain 183 Born in us:a 163 Born in other countries 401 Religion Protestant 865 Roman Catholic 465 Greek Catholic 162 Followers of Confucius 17-2

13 Growth and Decline Across the Years --?"""''-'" IP"' The focus of this book, the years from 1926 to 1941, is only part of the stocy of The Pas and district From 1926 to 1931 The Pas experienced a huge absolute and proportional growth of population - a growth greater over those five years than across any subsequent fifteen year period The population boom was followed by a decade of substantial population decline, the depression years The decline was greatest from 1931to1936, but continued to be significant from 1936 to 1941 This was the most intense of the cycles of growth followed by decline that the town continued to experience Population data for the town provide a succinct record of these changes, and help place the great boom period and subsequent bust and depression in a broader context Source: ND Population of The Pas, Manitoba: 1913 to 2006 Year Total Change Sex Ratio Number % (males per 100 females) , , , , , , , , ND , , , , , , , , , , , , , Board of Trade Census for 1913, as reported on p24 of SJ Allen, ed, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of the Prairie Provinces, for the years 1916, 1926, 1936,and1946 Dominion Bureau of Statistics (now Statistics Canada), Census of Canada, for 1921, 1931, 1941, and 1956 to 2006 No Data on the number of males and females 3

14 As the population table demonstrates, a brief period of decline in the population of The Pas from 1913 to 1916 was followed by rapid growth betweenl916 and 1921 This growth was in large part a consequence of early mining exploration and the development to the north of the Mandy Mine The Pas became the headquarters of the Mandy Mining Company, and in 1918 a railway spur line was built to the Pasquia River to handle "high grade" copper ore arriving from the Mandy Mine The Pas: Gateway to Northern Manitoba, edited by SJ Allen (1983) provides an interesting account of the development of the mine and the transportation of the ore from the mine to The Pas (pp56-59) filj ( ( ff ""20 (,"' f \[ / Modest population growth from 1921 to 1926 was followed by a boom period From 1926 to 1931 the town's population more than doubled, from 1,925 to 4,030 The completion and rehabilitation of the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill, construction of railways to Flin Flon and Sherri don, and initial mine and townsite d(;"lvelopments at both all occurred in this brief time period The impact of all this activity on The Pas was enormous In addition, in the late 1920's The Pas Lumber Company attained levels of production not seen before or since The decade of the thirties were the years of the Gteat Depression The town experienced very high levels of unemployment in the early '30's, and a dramatic decline in population from 1931 to 1936, followed by further substantial decline from 1936 to 1941 Following WWil the population of The Pas grew again As before, activities to the north played a role in reviving the town's economy through its "gateway" functions In the fall of 1945 the first ore body at Lynn Lake was discovered In 1953 the railway arrived at Lynn Lake, and the first nickel concentrate was shipped out In 1949 the ore body at Mystery Lake (Thompson) was discovered The site was acquired by INCO and the townsite developed from a few shacks in 1958 to a town of 8,989 by 1966 A branch line linked Thompson to the Hudson Bay Railway, and in 1966 a highway linking The Pas to Thompson via highway 10 as far as Simonhouse was officially opened The Pas experienced 20 years of sustained growth from 1946 to 1966 The ten years from 1966 to 1976 were important for The Pas In 1967 the Northern Vocational Centre (Keewatin Community College) was opened Even more significantly, construction was started on the Churchill Forest Industries complex, a multi-million dollar forestry complex Martha McCa,rthy (1997) provides a detailed account of its development, and of its successors, Manfor and Repap The successor today is know as TOLKO From 1966 to 1976 the town experienced a population growth of 1,S71, a significant 312% increase 4 ujfl : \ 1-il ;A " { '\ -; The years from 1976 to 2006 have seen the town in gradual but continuous population decline The forestry complex had experienced a number of ups and downs, but has not been able to sustain the level of employment enjoyed during its best years when both a pulp and paper mill and a saw mill were in operation Today TOLKO employs about 300 at the pulp and paper mill, with others engaged in wood harvesting The mill has developed a niche market for high quality strong and durable 4

15 unbleached Kraft paper In 2006 the town was a community with income levels substantially above the provincial average, and with a diverse economic base The employment sectors most over represented in the town's employment structure were health and social services, educational services, and a range of other service industries among which government administration played a significant role Unfortunately the unwise and shortsighted decision by the federal government to cancel the long form census means that one will not be able to generate an accurate or meaningful socioeconomic profile of The Pas or any other municipality in

16 , { {,? {! / 6

17 BOOM YEARS: THE LATE NINETEEN TWENTIES 1926 to 1929: Boom Years in Canada and The Pas Contrary to popular opinion, the "roaring twenties" was not one continuous boom period The main boom occurred between According to Brebner in his book "Canada: A Modem History": "Canada's postwar ups and downs might be summarized as follows: boom to the autumnof 1920, deep depression until two years later, modest recovery during 1923, considerable depression during 1924, recovery during 1925, and another boom " (p424) Canada's prosperity depended heavily on its ability to export goods profitably In both 1925 and 1929 agricultural commodities, wood products (lumber, pulp and paper), fish and nonferrous metals accounted for about 88% of Canada's exports Approximately orie third of national income derived from exports A sign of Canada's growth during the 1920's was the more than 3 fold increase in the generation of hydro-electric power between 1920 and 1929 In the boom years from 1926 to 1929 Gross National Product increased by 193%, wages and salaries by 243%, and corporate profits by 319% to 1929 were also boom years in The Pas Between the census of 1926 and 1931 the population of the town more than doubled, increasing from 1,925 to 4,030 The Board of Trade claimed that the population was in excess of 4,000 by 1928 It is possible that the town's population was already declining by 1931 While the town's population grew by 2, 105 between 1926 and 1931 the 1,309 increase in the number of males far exceeded the 796 increase in the number of females As a consequence the ratio of males per 100 females (the sex ratio) increased from 126 to 145 Since one can assume that the number of boys and girls in town was roughly equal, the adult sex ratio was probably sqmewhere between 165 and 175 men per 100 women With so many more men than women, The Pas was a frontier town "wide open and wild" in the late twenties At the same time it looked like a place of opportunity for entrepreneurs, and for business, professional and trades people and their families - a townwith a promising future The Board of Trade, in its 1929 booster pamphlet "The Pas - Gateway to Northern Manitoba Where Opportunities Exj$t", declared: "The Pas is a modernized pioneer town no longer an isolated community Good streets, well lighted, up-todate business places, good hotels, comfortable dwellings, and all the accessories of a modern town make The Pas a desirable place to live in" 7

18 Fueling the Boom The impressive population increase and the growth of business activity and related construction boom were fueled by two factors: the town's role as supply and distribution centre for economic activity to the north - The Pas as "Gateway to Northern Manitoba", and the impressive levels of employment and production at The Pas Lumber Company Activities to the North Activities to the north involved the rehabilitation and completion of the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill, construction of railways to both Flin Flon and Sherridon, and development oftownsites at Churchill, Flin Flon and Sherridon, all of which continued after the boom was over in The Pas The Hudson Bay Railway: Rehabilitation and Construction Construction of the Hudson Bay Railway north of The Pas began in May 1913 Work had been suspended in 1917 due to financial difficulties during the war years According to Innis in his article "The Hudson Bay Railway" activity on the line ceased from 1917 to 1926 except for maintenance ofa fortnightly service to mile 214 (Pikwitonei) In 1926, to secure the support of the Progressives, the federal Liberal government of McKenzie King pledged itself to the completion of the Hudson Bay Railway Over 6 million dollars had been spent on port facilities at Port Nelson However the terminus of the line was changed to Churchill According to Innis: "The determining considerations in making the change appear to have been the possibility of bringing boats of more than twenty-eight feet draft into the harbor immediately- against a limit of twenty-six feet at Nelson - and the estimated lower cost of the Churchill route" (p 9) When construction was suspended in December of 1917 the line had been completed as far as Amery (mile 356) Completion to Churchill (mile 510) therefore required that an additional 154 miles of rail be laid Not only was the rail line to be completed, but the railway was to be made operational Bickle, in "Turmoil and Triumph, the Controversial Railway to Hudson Bay", noted that while the line was operational at restricted speeds between The Pas and Pik:witonei (mlle 214), work was required to build it up to fully operational condition Furthermore, between mile 214 and mile 332 (Kettle Rapids) subsidence was a major problem, and fires had destroyed fills graded with peat The embankments of peat had to be consolidated with granular material A memo written by CSGzowski, Chief Engineer of the Construction Department to another official on October 13, 1926 details the size of the labour force involved in the completion of t4e Hudson Bay Railway According to Bickle, Gzowski made the following recommendation: / "When the peak of operation is reached it is figured there will be required four lifting gangs of about 100 men, each with 3 0 pit men, and three gangs of 100 men renewing ties ahead of the lift, and 125 men engaged in track laying, besides about 300 men on bridges, terminal, water supply and buildings The boarding car equipment required for these 1,155 men would be 12 kitchen, 22 dining, 140 lliiiillllllll - :: - - /, - / - ;Jo;'/ 4J 8

19 --'< sleeping, 36 office, 12 supply and 8 water cars, a total of 230 cars For repairing the telegraph line about three outfits will be used" (p119) This is the size of the labour force required in 1927, an increase of about 360over1926 when work started Mochoruk, in his book "Formidable Heritage, Manitoba's North and the Costs of Development"reports that between 1926 and 1929 a minimum workforce of 1,000 was employed He adds that during major periods of activity, particularly between , the CNR had 2,000 men on the job and the chief sub-contractor, Steward and Cameron, employed 5,000 men The men who built the Hudson Bay Railway worked under extremely difficult conditions that would in no way be acceptable today Bickle documents the condition in two chapters entitled "Life on the Line" and "Work Life in the 1920's" Andrea Deters recorded her grandfather's experience of working on the Hudson Bay Railway in the winter of : "The men slept in bunks, twenty six to a box car For heat there was a coal stove in the middle of the box car Therefore most of the men had to sleep in most of their clothes as it was too cold to change The clothes froze to the boxcar walls" (p 5) c;, ;c-;:', In September 1929 the railway was completed to Churchill, although the "last spike"had been officially driven on April 3, 1929 The last sixty miles were laid over frozen muskeg in the winter of , prior to completion of a permanent roadbed In 1930 a 2 million bushel capacity grain elevator was completed at the Churchill terminal The harbour works were finished in 1931, and in August of 1931 the SS Farnworth put into harbour to take on a cargo of western wheat (Morion) About 40 million dollars were required to rehabilitate and complete the railway to Churchill and for harbour, terminal elevator and townsite development (Mochoruk) The frrst dance held in Churchill was documented in the Northern Mall on August 24, 1931 with a headline that read: "400 Men, 11 Women at Churchill First Dance" Railway to Flin Flon: Early Expenditures and Development What turned out to be the rich copper-zinc sulphide deposit at Flin Flon was discovered in 1914 by Thomas Creighton The ore body was subject to careful investigation by various interests In 1925 the Whitney interest ofnew York obtained the property and the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co was incorporated (Doris Allen in SJ Allen, ed) In 1926 the legislature approved a provincial guarantee for a branch of the Hudson Bay Railway to Flin Flon (Morton) Instead of a direct subsidy for the railway, Premier Bracken proposed that Manitoba underwrite operating deficits on the railway for 5 years to the extent of $100,000 per year (Mochoruk) According to Mochoruk neither Charles punning, the minister of railways, nor the CNR liked Bracken's proposal, but the premier was unwilling to increase the province's offer "By November 17, 1927 Dunning capitulated to the pressure of the Whitneys, Bracken, and the CNR 'sown lawyer, HJ Symington, who not so coincidentally was a partner in the Winnipeg firm of Hudson, Ormond, Spice and Symington, which served as the Whitneys' local legal representative" (p331) 9

20 The railway, costing the CNR something in the order of 35 million dollars, was soon under construction As Mochoruk noted: "if things went as well as expected, there might be no deficits to cover at all" (p331),, Laying of steel on the Flin Flon line began on January 3, 1928, and the last spike was driven by Premier John Bracken on September 28 that same year According to Innis, Cranberry Po1tage was reached on March miles in 57 working days with a record of 8, 700 feet in one day Such rapid construction across essentially flat teitain was accomplished by laying down ties and track on a narrow right of way without dump or grade, and hauling supplies over the frozen road bed Ballasting was done subsequently Innis claims that it was experience gained here that made possible the rapid construction and completion of the line to Churchill, again across flat terrain, in the winter of The final 36 miles to Flin Flon across the Canadian Shield, requiring cut and fill, bridging and trestling, took a further 6 Yz months A newspaper repmi of January 6, 1928 stated that: "Nearly four hundred men are now employed by the contractors and more are being put to work as soon as they can place them It is only three weeks since operations were commenced and camps had to be built, supplies taken in and other preparations made before much actual work could be done Men are arriving on every train for this work and there seems to be no scarcity of labor at present" When the construction was in full swing the extension of the railway accounted for about 1, 700 jobs (Mochoruk) By 1930 the shaft house and mill and the concentrator and smelter in Flin Flon and the hydro-electric power plant at Island Falls were all in place (photo evidence, Wallace) About 2,000 men were employed in the construction work involved in these and related projects (Mochoruk) By 1930 the capital investment at Flin Flon was about 225 million dollars (Mochoruk) According to Mochoruk a 21 year royalty exemption on the Flin Flon mine granted by the federal government was conditional on Manitoba's approval In Premier Bracken's view this was only an academic matter In a memo he stated he could not understand why it was necessary for the federal government to have provincial approval As Mochoruk points out, it was only academic for the federal government, which understood that, by the time the mine went into production and had to pay royalties, the province's resources would almost certainly be under provincial control - as indeed they were with the enactment of the Resources Transfer Act of 1930 Activities to the north also provided opportunities for local businesses According to the paper, CB Morgan, a business man in The Pas, and coincidentally a town councillor from 1932 to 1935, was awarded a contract in 1929 to move many tons of freight from the end of steel at Flin Fl on to Island Falls on the Churchill River, where the hydro-electric site to provide power for Flin Flon's mining operation was to be developed For this operation a good winter road had already been prepared The hauling contract involved the use of 11 Linn tractors and some smaller tractors used in yard work, making up the "cat swings" The Linn tractors hauled an average of 70 tons to a load Before the hauling contract was completed about 300 men were working at Island Falls on the power plant 10, illifa 'ltila :llilj -:llfla -18,:oiillllili!I ' {lf/l!ji -i -;fl/lj ;ll/llla -4llA -,,,,,, -iir:,_ 11111

21 A Branch Line to Sherridon (Cold Lake) Jn 1922 a copper-zinc ore body was discovered near Cold Lake (Kississing) On July 7, 1927 Sherritt-Gordon Mines was incorporated and work began at the property (Dorris Allen in SJ Allen, ed) Jn the fall of 1927 HL Webber, business man, manager of the Ross Navigation Co, and town councillor from 1923 to 1928, returned from Toronto with a contract to haul freight to the Sherritt Gordon property at Cold Lake The freight was to be shipped to mile 55 (Rawebb) on the Hudson Bay Railway, and then transported by teams across country to Cold Lake, a distance of about 75 miles Approximately 75 teams of horses were required for the job, with camps along the route at about 18 mile intervals A winter road already existed as far as Elbow Lake, but an additional 25 miles or so of winter road was needed to reach Cold, Lake On the recommendation of 1 the Commissioner of Northern Manitoba the provincial government cooperated with the company in building the road A subsequent report of August 3, 1928 indicated that over 100 teams of horses and several caterpillar tractors were used on the job Before the railway to Flin Flon was completed a branch line to Cold Lake was started from Sherritt Junction, a bit north of Cranberry Portage By early August, 1929 the last piece of steel had been laid and construction gangs were engaged in ballasting Since about 1,700 men were employed on railway extensions to Sherridon and Pine Falls (Mochoruk:) it is likely that 750 to 1,000 men were engaged in building the branch line to Sherridon, the Cold Lake townsite If the cost of building the, railway to Flin Flon provides a guide, the branch to Sherridon probably cost about 15 to 20 million dollars About 4 million dollars were raised to devefop Sherritt-Gordon Mines at Cold Lake (Mochoruk:) and the mill and concentrator were ill place by 1930 (photo evidence, Wallace) In June, 1929 Sherritt Gordon signed a 10 year custom smelting contract and a 5 year contract for Island Falls power with the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co (Mochoruk:) Ore was being hauled from Cold Lake (Sherridon) later that same year Like Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, Sherritt-Gordon received royalty exemptions (Mochoruk:) These exemptions meant a substantial loss of revenue for the provincial government Mochoruk: explores this m_atter in considerable detail On November 17, 1929 a newspaper headline read: "First Passengers Leave The Pas for Cold Lake -train packed with people for northern mining town" The Lumber Mill and Logging Camps in the 1920's "Though mining possibilities preoccupied many in the north, the lumber industry represented a stabilizing force and dependable source of work for the town" (McCarthy, p29) Construction of a lumber mill in The Pas was undertaken in by Herman Finger In addition to building the mill, timber berths (cutting rights) were secured up stream from The Pas along the old channel of the Saskatchewan River, the Sipanok Channel, the Carrot River, and above the 11

22 p Sipanok Channel on the Saskatchewan River Although these berths were in Saskatchewan, which was established as a province in 1905, crown land in the prairie provinces continued to be in federal hands until 1930 When it was built, the mill was in the District ofkeewatin, North West Territories, but this changed in 1912 when the boundary of Manitoba was extended northward Shortly after, the town of The Pas was incorporated - in no small measure due to the initiative of Herman Finger Mr Finger became The Pas's first mayor In 1919 the Finger Lumber Company was purchased by the Winton interests A new company, The Pas Lumber Company, was incorporated under Manitoba law on November 27, 1919 (McCarthy) For slightly more than $1,00,000 the new company took possession of the mill at The Pas, one tug, two steam barges, and 324 square miles of timber limits Some of the timber berths had been cut over, and others were not accessible from The Pas Soon after the acquisition of the mill, additional equipment was installed "They replaced Finger's circular head rig with two single cutting band saws but kept the gangsaw With these improvements the mill could turn out 175,000 board feet in 10 hours In 1927 the company installed a new, much heavier engine that was able to handle the increased output The plant could not run at a reduced speed, however, and needed an annual supply of20 to 25 million board feet even to keep one shift running" (McCarthy, p28) Although river boats were part of the Winton purchase, a decision was made not to use the CR Smith, built in 1912 for the Finger Lumber Company In 1920 the David N Winton was built in Prince Albert for the new company It remained in service until the 1950's This boat was used to move the logs from the boom camp at the mouth of the Carrot River to the mill In 1921 the Alice Mattes, also built in Prince Albert, was added to the fleet According to McCarthy "they needed a smaller, more versatile boat for the Carrot River to help in river driving, pulling booms, towing barges and so forth" The Alice Mattes was designed for this purpose and remained in service until 1950 r p ,&-A - - David N Winton Alice Matte$ 12

23 After the Wintons acquired the mill many families settled in The Pas The Families History section of the 1983 commemorative volume edited by SJAllen tells the stories of numerous families that moved from Big River, Saskatchewan to The Pas The Wintons had operated a firm known as the Ladder Lake Lumber Company in Big River It closed in 1922 after it had logged out its timber licenses and no more were available because of forest fires that swept through in 1919 (McCarthy) Others coming to The Pas had worked for the Wintons at a mill in Prince Albert The Prince Albert mill closed in 1918, fifteen years earlier than originally planned, when a forest fire destroyed well over half the area of the Winton timber licenses (Winton) McCarthy argues that the movement of families to The Pas brought increased stability to the town and the mill She contrasts this with the hiring practice of the Finger Lumber Co when many men came from the US to work at the mill during the summer season, but returned home for the winter McCarthy concludes: " as the local labour force learned the necessary skills, and the mill operated for a longer time each year and provided other work for its employees the rest of the year, the community and the industry developed a more interdependent and permanent relationship" (p27) Herman Finger had built some housing for mill employees There is a photograph of a number of small houses in McCarthy's book (p19), all without running water On November 4, 1921 The Pas Herald and Mining News reported that the Wintons' lumber company now had 35 houses for married employees and more were planned I did not find any information on the total size of the housing stock owned by the mill A friend who lived in one of the mill houses as a child and teenager told me that the mill had about twenty houses on First Street with both running water and sewerage If memory serves me correctly, in the 1940's and early 1950's this housing was largely occupied by the mill's "white collar" employees, and "blue collar" employees with the more prestigious and higher paying jobs At that time much of the housing in Fingerville was still without running water and sewerage - - ' The boarding house for single men built by the Finger Lumber Co was lost to frre in 1920 As related by McCarthy: "Work began immediately on a large new two-storey boarding house, west of the old one Equipped with showers, electric lights, and steam heat, it provided a new level of comfort for single men working at the mill or loggers waiting to go into the woods This house had space for 120 men, two to a room The meals were excellent and recre4tionfadlities such as bowling alleys and a billiard table were provided The wide verandah with double screens proved a comfortable gathering place for the men The company opened the bathhouse in the boarding house for the married men to use The women were allotted certain days to enjoy the showers" (p29) The boarding house accommodated 120 single men who likely worked atthe mill The operational season at the mill (sawing and planing) lasted for about 5 to 6 months each year By one account, in the late 1920's two shifts were operated and about 350 men were employed per shift Presumably 13

24 many of these were married men with families who lived in town all year round Larger numbers of men were engaged in the logging camps during the winter than in the sawmill during its summertime operation, but I have found little information as to where this labour force came from Some of the loggers may have been married men and single men, who lived in The Pas, and some probably worked at the mill McCarthy provides a graphic account of the logging camps and the working and living conditions they provided during both the Finger Lumber Co and The Pas Lumber Co operations She notes that "those who lived in the camps had little inclination or ability to write about their experience Many were immigrants with inadequate knowledge of English and some were illiterate" She comments further that many eventually settled with their families in The Pas She also notes that farmers from Saskatchewan were an important component of the winter workforce On November 26, 1926 an article in The Pas Herald and Mining News was titled "Facts About The Pas Lumber Company's Camps 1 ' It was reprinted from the Nipawin Herald Most of the article appears below: "The six logging camps being operated this winter by The Pas Lumber Co between here and The Pas are now filled with a full complement of men numbering about 1,100 Few people stop to figure out just what a crew of this size means It means they take out 40 million feet (scale measure) of logs during the winter It means that 1, 600 pounds of beef are eaten every day It means the baking of 10 bags of flour, and the cooking o/26 bushels of potatoes besides all the other provisions required to make up a first class menu It means a payroll of about $2, 000 per day besides the cost of provisions and other overhead expenses it would take the breath from some people to see one team of horses hauling from eight to twelve thousand feet of logs at a load The sleigh runners are eight feet apart and the banks are sixteen feet wide, made from fourteen inch square timbers and the loads are rounded up between eight foot stakes Of course, the roads are always kept well iced, and teamsters must know their job" It seems that the logistical side of this huge operation (hiring, production, provisioning, etc) could only have been provided by experienced men who were permanent company employees fu the spring of each year jobs for most men in the camps came to an end The crew required for the river drive was much smaller than that required in the logging camps during the winter Presumably most left with a small nest egg: the farmers from Saskatchewan to resume their farming activities, and, as related by McCarthy, for others "to look for summer employment, or to binge in the nearest towns" For many of those wishing tp binge, The Pas was probably the nearest town As Malaher described it: "In the fall there was always an influx of lumberjacks on their way to the logging J 6 { ( 7' rill - -

25 camps 100 miles up the Carrot River Each spring these same lumberjacks invaded The Pas with their winter earnings in their jeans, ready and anxious to paint the town red Many were the ladies of pleasure who came from down south to entertain them and relieve them of their hard earned wages It fell to Sergeant Grennan of the Royal North West Mounted Police to shunt the ladies southward again, but in the meantime the lumberjacks were queued up in the long corridor upstairs in the Derby House, each with a dollar bill in his hand, waiting his turn" (p23) The years from 1922 to 1928 were good years for The Pas Lumber Company, and set records for logging and sawmilling The Pas Herald and Mining News of October 11, 1927 reported that: "This season the company has again created a record for the mill, their season's cut being slightly in excess of that of last year and well past the fifty million mark Not only have the company set a new sawing record, but it is understood that they have shipped approximately as much as they cut this year Fifty million feet of lumber going over the railway this summer between The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction and still people ask "Do Branch Railways in Manitoba Pay?" " In that same year the log boom on the Carrot River upstream from its confluence with the Saskatchewan was 18 miles long In the fall of 1929, however, the mill closed earlier than usual It was not possible to get rafts oflogs from the Carrot River down to the boom at the mill due to low water Despite this the mill cut in 1929 was about 45 million feet I have not been able to find information on the actual levels of employment at the mill each operational season, or of the numbers engaged in winter logging and how many of these jobs were held by residents of The Pas I suspect that many of the men who worked in the mill from May to October each year also worked in the logging camps in the winter For example, an October 4, 1929 report stated that, although the mill closed earlier than usual in the fall of 1929, most of the 400 men laid off early would get jobs in the lumber camps for the winter cutting season Activities to the north may have fueled the boom in The Pas in the period from 1926 to 1929 and provided much of the explanation for why the town was "wide open and wild" and "bursting at the seams" But as noted by McCarthy, "the lumber industry represented a stabilizing force and a dependable source of work for the town": This was certainly the case in the years from 1926 to 1929 when it too made a major contribution to the growth of the town's population and expansion of its businesses 15

26 Building Boom An editorial of May 11, 1928 in The Pas Herald and Mining News read in part: "The town a/the Pas is now experiencing a building boom which, if it continues will soon build a city where a few years ago there was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post New buildings are being erected on every hand Not shacks or temporary buildings but substantial places of business and residences" The editorial went on to detail the building activities underway My purpose here is to document those elements of the building boom that were an outgrowth of the rapid increase in population and commercial opportunity, and the town's role as a transportation and distribution centre Transportation and Communication A report of August 27, 1926 was headlined "New Rail Yards for The Pas" The Pas was to be a divisional point and a gang of men had been engaged in clearing land south of town where the railway yards would be located On July 29, 1927 a report stated: "In the yards seven miles of trackage has been laid and filling and ballasting is underway The new concrete roundhouse and shops are nearing completion" It was noted that the station would have to be moved to allow for the new development The original station was near the intersection of Gordon A venue and Seventh Street A May 11, 1928 report stated that ground had been broken for the erection of a new CNR station The new station, with ticket office, waiting room, telegraph office, etc, is shown on the Fire Insurance Maps of the town compiled in May and June of 1929 Its construction must, therefore, have been completed prior to the spring of 1929 On August 3, 1928 the newspaper announced the establishment of a new transportation company "Transport Limited is the name of a new company capitalized at $100, 000 and with a Dominion charter will operate from The Pas throughout the Northland" The new company was to take over the land transportation business of the Ross Navigation Co Initially its head office was located in the new addition to the Opasquia Hotel On March 25, 1929 the paper reported the new firm's building plans Its new office and warehouse was constructed on the south side of Third Street adjacent to the railway spur line ii ti Aiillliillll1I - Ill ';Ji The need for effective, modem communications saw, in March of 1928, overwhelming voter approval for the passing of a by-law to sell the municipal telephone system, with its central office located in the Power House, to the Manitoba Telephone System By late April an outside fum had secured the contract to build a hew telephone exchange for the provincial government, and by late August the new building on the north side of Third Street east of Edwards Avenue was completed At a cost of around $11,000 it was a 28 X 4 3 foot one storey brick structure with a full basement and provision made for a second storey if required The switchboard, fitted up to accommodate 400 lines but with a total capacity for 1,200 lines, cost an additional $7,000 At a cost of about $6,000 new telephone cables were installed on the poles of the town's electric light system 16

27 -, : 11 Before the year was out a telephone land line was built from The Pas to Swan River at a cost of about $50,000, providing long distance service not reliant on the vagaries and inconvenience of radio-telephone Marion Gans (nee Douglas), then only 17 years old, was transferred to The Pas by the Manitoba Telephone system to train operators in long distance procedures By the end of 1928 construction of the 58 X 110 foot, two storey Northern Mail building was completed on the north side of Third Street just west of Ross A venue It was reported that the newspaper plant occupied 6,300 square feet on the ground floor, and as I recall, there were apartments on the second floor -%--"'-- - :rpi :": I lle8, -""- Northern Mail Newspaper Bldg ; Now Frontier Apts As one who has looked at the front page of The Northern Mail on microfilm (over 3,000 editions) I have been impressed by the scope and depth of coverage of local, regional, national and international news by this daily, small town newspaper The advertised subscription rate in 1929 was $175 for three months, $300 for six months, and $600 for a year Wholesaling: A Gateway Function Western Grocers established a wholesale business in The Pas in 1920 or 1921, and rented the construction office and warehouse belonging to the Hudson Bay Construction Co on First Street In May 1927 work began by a Winnipeg contractor on a $30,000 concrete and steel building for Western Grocers Ltd just north of First Street, on the spur line The practically fireproof building was to be a 210 X 50 feet structure two and a half storeys high, and equipped with an electric elevator Just a year later, in a second phase of construction, two additional storeys were added An account of May 11, 1928 reported that the Canada West Hardware Co had built a warehouse and office The same report noted that the Saskatchewan Creamery Co had built a cold storage plant and office, and Swift Canadian Co was in tj1e process of building a warehouse These initiatives were designed to meet the town's growing needs, but also reflect the town's growing role as a supply and distribution centre for northern Manitoba: a "gateway function" 17

28 Accommodation: Places to Stay On September 17, 1928 the paper carried a glowing report of the soon to be opened Hotel Cambrian, located on the comer of Edwards A venue and 1bird Street 'The new hotel with its 68 guest rooms, spacious corridors and large airy rotunda is a credit to The Pas and places this town on a par, as far as hotel accommodation goes, with many large centres" II II -,_ The four storey building measured 64 X 132 feet and cost in the order of $125,000 All the rooms had hot and cold water, frrst floor rooms were laid out so they could be used as suites if necessary Connected bathrooms were a feature of many rooms and ample bathroom accommodation was provided for the others A restaurant was to be operated in connection with the hotel, which would be run on the American plan 18

29 Somewhat earlier that same year the Opasquia Hotel had doubled its accommodation and was made thoroughly up to date in every respect It was also reported that rooming houses were going up all over town By 1929, according to a Board of Trade publication, there were 6 hotels and 15 rooming and boarding houses in The Pas I think the six hotels referred to by the Board of Trade would have been the Hotel Cambrian, Opasquia Hotel, Avenue Hotel, Rupert House Hotel, Allouette Hotel and the Flin Flon Hotel In the 1929 telephone directory also lists the Central Hotel, the Cold Lake Hotel, and the Derby House Banks and More Banks The Union Bank and the Canadian Bank of Commerce were established in The Pas in 1913 I have not been able to establish when the Royal Bank arrived in The Pas, but it was after the Royal Bank had taken over the Union Bank It occupied the site that had been the location of the Union Bank on the north-east comer of Edwards Avenue at Second Street In the 1950's this site was referred to as the Old Royal Bank Building, for in 1936 the Royal Bank purchased the building erected in 1929 by the Bank of Montreal The Bank of Commerce was on the north-west comer of Fischer Avenue at Second Street Sometime before 1928 the Dominion Bank came to town In 1929 it was located on the east side of Edwards A venue north of the Cumberland Block The Bank of Toronto arrived in 1928, and its first premises was in the Gateway Block on Fischer Avenue By 1929 it was in a brick building on the west side of Edwards Avenue adjacent to the soon to be completed Lido Theatre The Bank of Toronto closed in 1931 and its premises became the location of the Dominion Bank fli "' = The original location ofthe Bank of Montreal was on the east side of Edwards Avenue a bit south of Second Street and about four doors north of the Dominion Bank In March of 1929 it was reported that the Bank of Montreal was to build a new structure on the south-east comer of Edwards Avenue at Third Street The structure was described as a two storey, 44 X 33 foot brick building with a residence above for the manager Five banks, the Commerce, Dominion, Royal, Toronto and Montreal, had advertisements in the Board of Trade publication of March 15, 1929 By 1938 only the Dominion Bank and the Royal Bank remained Entertainment Establishments On May 18, 1928 the newspaper reported: "Crystal Gardens will be the name of a new dance hall being erected in town The building is 49 X 90 feet, having a main dance floor 44 X 66 feet" The new building was located on the comer of Edwards Avenue and Fourth Street Apparently the floor in the main hall was laid so that dancers were always dancing with the grain of the wood For a short time, with the installation of equipment for talking pictures, it operated as a movie theatre, but dancing and theatricals were its main use In September 1934 it was purchased by The Pas branch of the Ca:nadian Legion ' 19

30 ii - ii Crystal Gardns In May 1929 Crystal Gardens Ltd acquired a property adjacent to the Gateway Drug Store on Fischer A venue with plans to build a new movie house This initiative was never completed However, in June of 1929 six local men acquired a site on Edwards A venue for a new movie theatre This theatre, the Lido, was opened in May of 1930 It cost in the order of$80,000, had "mechanisms for talkies", and was described as one of the finest in western Canada - al ( ;, '( \ ttilja :- Municipal and Provincial Building To meet the town's growing need for eiectricity and for an expanded water and sewerage system a couple of debentures were issued in the late 1920's On May 16, 1928 a debenture of $50,000 was issued for a new electric plant In late December of 1929 a debenture of $40,000 was issued for a new Power House Building The new facilities were located on the east side of Edwards A venue to the north of the Arena and Curling Rink 20

31 "' -'-/,,,,- z 119 II Power House The Pas In Manitoba prohibition lasted from 1916 to 1923 In 1923 Manito bans reversed this decision by a vote of 107,609 to 67,092 In 1924, though, only 5 communities in Manitoba had liquor stores: Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, and The Pas The liquor store in The Pas was located in part of the Gateway Block on Fischer Avenue In the fall of 1929 the provincial government purchased a site for a new liquor store on the south side of Third Street adjacent to the CNR spur line The new building, to cost $45,000, was a one storey brick and concrete structure 60 X 76 feet, with a full basement for warehousing It was reported in early August 1930 that the building would be finished in three weeks The Hospital: An Outstanding Achievement " During the construction boom of the late s the outstanding achievement was the opening in The Pas of the new St Anthony's hospital on May 24, 1929 This achievement stemmed from the dedication and hard work of the Grey Nuns (Sisters of Charity) "StAnthony's" 1929 The Northern Mail of May 23, 1929 provided a detailed description of the new hospital It was a four 21

32 storey structure (excluding the raised basement) of reinforced concrete and brick, measuring 185 X 55 feet Embodying the latest in hospital equipment, it had 19 private rooms and 8 public wards (total 100 beds) It also housed a large class room for training nurses, private rooms for 20 nurses, private rooms for interns, and special dining rooms for nuns, nurses, male and female help It had a complete and up to date steam laundry and a 70 X 50 foot wing housing the kitchen and boiler room The structure was reported to have cost in excess of $300,00 I doubt if another town in Canada with a population as small as that of The Pas could boast such a hospital A Business College Opens On November 23, 1928 it was reported that a business college was opening in the Booth Fisheries Block, with a qualified and experienced staff of three An advertisement in the same edition of the paper stated that the opening term was to commence on November 26 with the following subjects included in the curriculum: book keeping, commercial law, shorthand, typewriting, business English, arithmetic, rapid calculation, spelling, grammar, business etiquette, penmanship, office routine, filing It was noted that the system of individual instruction permitted enrollment throughout the entire year While I did not find the business college listed in the 1929 telephone directory, it was listed in the 1930 and 1931 directories Further Initiatives On January 20, 1928 the paper reported that arrangements were being made for the opening of a retail lumber yard Beaver Lumber had purchased a location on Edwards A venue between First and Second Streets, running back to Railway A venue A temporary office was to be replaced in the summer by a brick structure, and the yard was to be a building 64 X 120 feet An article on April 20, 1928 reported that the Roman Catholic Corporation was going to erect a building on Edwards A venue north of the Opasquia Hotel It was to be a 36 X 40 foot, steam heated, two storey building with a full basement and was to be used for offices I think this was the building referred to as the Cumberland Block in the 1950's A Northern Mail headline of April 29, 1929 read: "Many Houses Being Built in The Pas" The article noted that seven building permits were the daily forecast but that few permits issued included work that required excavation Of the 26 permits recently issued, the most important was for Godin' s Bakery, which would cost in the neighbourhood of$7,500, a substantial sum in 1929 As I recall, Godin' s Bakery was in a two storey brick building on the east side of Patrick A venue just south of First Street, and the Godin family lived above the bakery on the second floor In the 1940's and 1950's Godin's was the largest bakery in town A permit of $1,900 was issued for a house for Magistrate Ridyard This may convey some idea of the cost of better houses at the time I also came across a couple of housefor-sale ads where the asking price was $600 and $800 The house for $800 was a 4 room house on a 33 foot lot, and the owner was willing to sell to a responsible party on rental terms 22

33 : ll!llllll' There are also indications of the progressive nature of the town A report of May 7, 1929 noted that numbering of streets was to be started It carried a report by GA Williams who had made a detailed examination of various systems, and recommended that a block system be used with a different hundred for each block A few months later it was reported that street signs had been ordered by council and that 300 signs would be placed on street light poles Optimism was certainly a feature of the town in 1929 A headline of May 11, 1929 read "Fischer Ave Lot Sold for Record Price" A 66 X 132 foot property on the south-east comer of Fischer A venue at Third Street brought aprice of $15,000 The name of the buyer was not announced It was noted that a building was not contemplated in the immediate future,,- 23

34 Business Growth and the Commercial Scene The construction boom that the town experienced in the late 1920's is but one reflection of the growth of business activity in The Pas Another measure of the expansion of business activity is found in the town's business tax revenue records Across the last three years of the 1920's business tax revenue in The Pasrose:from$9,042 in i927to $12,604in 1928 and peaked at$17,540in1929, impressive to say the least Business tax revenue had nearly doubled in two years In 1929 the Board of Trade published an equally impressive list of the business enterprises in The Pas GENERAL BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY THE PAS Mining Companies 15 Rooming and Boarding Houses 3 Dominion Land Surveyors 6 Hotels l Assay Office l Liquor Store 5 Banks 10 Restaurants and Cafes 9 Lawyers 5 Ice Cream Parlors 6 Real Estate and Insurance Offices 4 Pool and Billiard Rooms 6 Physicians and Surgeons 2 Picture Shows 1 Hospital 1 Dance Hall 3 Dentists 8 Barber Shops and Beauty Parlors 2 Chiropractors 2 Public Baths 9 General Stores 2 Laundries 13 Grocery, Confectionery and Fruit Stores 3 Fur Buyers 3 Meat Markets 2 Fish Companies 2 Bakers 3 Flour and Feed Stores l Dairy 3 Shoemaker Shops 4 Gent's Furnishing Stores 4 Tailor Shops 2 Ladies Wear Stores 1 Second Hand Store 2 Boot and Shoe Stores 8 Transportation and Draying Companies 3 Drug Stores 3 Plumbers, Electricians & Tinsmith Shops 2 Hardware Stores 3 Newspaper and Printing Offices 3 Furniture Stores 1 Soft Drink Works 2 Jewelers 1 Steamboat Company 1 Music Store 1 Construction Company 3 Lumber Companies (retail) Carpenters 3 Coal Depots Painters 1 Garage MaSons 2 Photographer$ etc in considerable numbers 2 Undertakers Source: Board of Trade of The Pas, Manitoba, 1929, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba, Where Opportunities Exist, p37 24

35 : -o:-< c: /: :,,_/,- ye:( or The Board of Trade publication expanded that: "The foregoing is not a complete record of business enterprise in The Pas, but is sufficiently accurate to indicate that The Pas is a real business centre Its business undertakings, as listed above, occupy 175 buildings, some of which are substantial businesses and office blocks, and enlist the services of 1,300 persons, the great mqjority of whom (95% or more) are males" The activities to the north and the impressive level of employment and output of The Pas Lumber Company contributed to the growth of business activity The railways, the CNR and the HBR, were probably the town's second leading employer Railway employment grew impressively with the designation of The Pas as a divisional point and with the construction of the roundhouse and substantial railyards In absence of an earlier business and professional directory it is not possible to determine the exact timing of the expansion of business and professional services in The Pas Of the five banks int-own two, the Toronto Bank and the Bank of Montreal, were added after 1926 Five banks in a town of 4,000 is an indicator of a high level of business optimism in The Pas in the late 1920's The importance the town's gateway function, with thousands of people coming and going to and from points further north, is reflected by the presence of the 15 rooming and boarding houses, 10 restaurants and cafes, and 6 hotels, several of which were impressive in their size and in the quality of their facilities In addition to these service functions, Donald Lindsay (SJAllen, 1983) made the claim that: "almost all of the buildings on the west side of Larose Avenue were houses of prostitution or bootleggers In fact the lane behind Larose Avenue was known as alcohol alley" (p343) According to the directory, 6 mining companies had a presence in town in 1929 In the telephone directory for 1929 I found the following mining companies listed: Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co Ltd, Sherritt-Gordon Mines Ltd, Callinan and Flin Flon Mines Ltd, Jack Nutt Mines Ltd, Nipissing Mining Co, and Manitoba Basin Mining Co Ltd All but one of these were no longer listed in the 1930 phone directory Both the federal and provineial governments had a significant presence in town The federal presence included the Post Office and Canada Customs, the office of the Indian Agent, and the RCMP, plus the offices of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Railways and Canals, and a Dominion Lands office In 1929, before passage of the Resources Transfer Act, the Mining Recorders office was also probably federal Provincial agencies and departments included the Government Liquor Control Commission, the Manitoba Telephone System, and the office of the County Clerk To this one can add the offices of the ommissioner of Northern Manitoba, the district engineer, and the Provincial Police 25

36 Community Social Life George Bagshaw, in the Family History section of the volume edited by SJAllen, provides an excellent overview of social life and activities in The Pas in the 1920's: "Summer entertainment consisted of playing baseball, soccer and swimming in the Saskatchewan river The dock at The Pas extended from First street to Byng street and the boats tied up there provided good diving boards Winter entertainment included playing hockey and there was plenty of social activity in those early years for there was no radio or T V to detract from people getting together at card parties, teas, box socials, etc The picture shows were well attended and people were invited into homes for a good old sing-song around the piano, especially on Sunday evenings after church services The churches had their social clubs and amateur theatricals were a big thing/or some years There were one or two grand balls held every year as well as regular dances For several years these balls were held upstairs in the Community Building The tennis club, very strong at that time, held their grand -ball in the fall Costumes for masquerades were either rented or made at home Each year during "The Pas Dog Derby" the Derby Queen and her court held a Grand Ball The dog derby was the most interesting event that took place in the town in those :years Theftrst one be in$ held in 1916 and started ojf infront of the Opasquia Hotel, now the Gateway, on Edwards Avenue This race was the only event that year, but cifter the war the Dog Derby really got started and it was held each year until 1931 In order to promote dog racing one or two races were held for boys and girls The race was run in town around a four block square starting in front of the Community Building Every one with a dog or two took part, Earl Bridges, one of the great dog mushers got his start in these races" (pp ), - - = Spiritual and Social Life: The Role of Churches Church was, and still may be, the focal, point of much social activity in a community Under its umbrella many volunteer associations served various age groups Activities of the town's young people, women's organizations, choirs, and many teas and suppers? were carried on under religious auspices The Board of Trade booklet of March 1929 records that there were four churches in The Pas,, Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and Salvation Anny The Roman Catholic Cathedral on the north side of First Street was built in 1922 Adjacent to the cathedral on First Street was the parish hall {Guy Hall), a school (Sacred Heart), the convent and the Bishop's house In 1929 the Knights of Columbus, the church's fraternal organization, was established Historic Christ Church (Anglican), overlooking the Saskatchewan River west ofmwards Avenue, was built in 1896 Its font, pulpit and pews, made by members of the Sir John Franklin Relief Expedition who wintered overin The Pas in , were from an earlier church buildin The Umted Church, formed in 1925 from the union of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches, was located on the comer of Second Street and Ross Avenue, in a building that was 26

37 formerly the town's Presbyterian Church The Salvation Army Citadel was located on Edwards A venue Other denominations, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Greek Orthodox, all with more adherents than the Salvation Army, were without church buildings ' ;_ Churches contributed not only to the spiritual life of the community, but significantly to its social life Church teas, bazaars and box socials were as much social events as they were fund raisers for the maintenance and good works of the churches Clubs Are Organized By the late 1920's a number of fraternal organizations were flourishing in town Fraternal organizations play an important role in providing a variety of services that help meet the needs of the larger community while providing an opportunity for social interaction among their members The first organizational meeting of the Masons was held in 1914 By 1926 they had 83 members The first Masonic Temple, located on Fischer Avenue at First Street, was built in 1927 at a cost, including contents, of approximately $10,000 The Great War Veterans Association (GWVA), later to become the Canadian Legion, held its first meeting in 1919 with fifty veterans in attendance In August of 1921 its Ladies Auxiliary was formed The first GWV A hall, opened in the fall of 1923, was on Edwards A venue between First and Second Street The Pas Lodge of the Elks was formed in 1926, with an initial membership of 40 The Rotary Club of The Pas held its first meeting in 1928 with an initial membership of24 business men These organizations were very active in the social life of the town, and raised money for various good purposes In 1921, for example, the GWV A hockey team won the Ross Navigation Shield In May of 1929 the newspaper reported that the Elks were to start work on a children's playground in Devon Park, and a subsequently informed its readers that the playground equipment had arrived The Elks were also sponsors and organizers of the huge community picnics held at Clearwater Lake in 1928 and 1929 In September 1929 the paper reported that the Rotarians were going to build a pool in Devon Park, and on July 2, 1930 it reported that the new children's pool was officially turned over to the town The Imperial Order Daughters ofthe Empire (IODE) was responsible for erecting the Cenotaph (War Memorial) in Devon Park in 1927 Apparently after the unveiling of the Cenotaph the organization was disbanded While active, they organized dances and plays and provided assistance to the needy The auxiliary women's organizations of the Masons (Order of the Eastern Star) and the Elks (Order of the Royal Purple) were established in 1930 and 1946 respectively The town's 50th anniversary booklet, edited by Harry Dunn, has a photograph (p82) from 1923 of members of The Pas Lodge No86 I00F (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) and Devon Rebekah Lodge No 65, 100F The ency states that the Rebekah Lodge was instituted in the Community 27

38 Building in March 1921, but provides no information on when the men's lodge was formed It notes that the Rebekah Lodge donated to many worthy projects in the community, and served as canvassers for funds for organizations such as the Red Cross The Board of Trade booklet of 1929 lists the Loyal Orange Order and the Loyal Orange Benevolent Association as fraternal societies in The Pas I did not come across any mention of their activities in town The first scout troop in The Pas, organized in 1916, was sponsored by the Anglican Church Throughout the 1920's and 1930's scouting was an activity in which the town's boys could be actively engaged A briefhistory of scouting in The Pas can be found in the 50 1 h anniversary booklet Sports and Sports Facilities Winter and summer, youngsters and adults had plenty of sports to choose between Curling apparently came to The Pas in 1914 when a two sheet rink was built by Bob Hughes on Edwards Avenue On April 29, 1921 a newspaper headline read "Skating Rink for The Pas to Cost Around $15,000" The report stated that the building was to have three sheets of ice for curling and a standard size rink for skating and hockey On May 14, 1921 the paper noted that the provincia1 government had authorized the town to issue debentures up to $15,000 for fue erection of the skating and curlin rink These facilities were located on the east side of Edwards Avenue, between First Street and the Power House Tennis courts were a feature of Devon Park, although I could find no date for their construction As George Bagshaw noted; the tennis club was very strong in the 1920's, and held a grand ball in the fall In the late l 920's a well equipped children's playground was added to Devon Park, thanks to the Elks, and a children's swimmin$ pool, sponsored by fue Rotary Club, opened in the summer of 1930 Organized sports were an important part of the recreational scene in The Pas The Board of Trade publication of March 15, 1929 itemizes summer sports as: golf - nine hole course; tennis - hard courts; football (soccer) - three team lee; baseball - three team league; soft ball (males)-three team league; soft ball (female) - three team league; canoeing and yachting I, - Wlllr'l! -- ;_J """"' ' The golf course was a six hole course provided and maintained by the lumber company According to McCarthy, the Wintons (the lumber company owners) also supported a football (soccer) team known as Winton United, and a hockey team The football (soccer) field was in a low lying part of Devon Park south of its more elevated portion where the Dance Pavilion and tennis courts were located The Board of Trade publication itemized winter sports as curling, hockey and skating, snowshoeing and skiing, and winter carnival -The entry for the winter carnival read: "Each winter The Pas Winter Carnival ojfour days duration and consisting of a curling bonspiel, hockey matches, dog racing and other winter sports attracts 28

39 widespread attention, particularly on account of the Marathon Dog Race which is a World Classic in dog racing" :% -77>- / The dog race referred to was of course The Pas Dog Derby, earlier known as the Hudson Bay Dog Derby, that started in 1916 The last of these was held in 1931, but a winter carnival with a dog race as the central event was revived in 1948 as the Northern Manitoba Trappers' Festival, and continues to this day Leisure Time Fun Devon Park, formerly known as Mission Island, was acquired by the town from the Anglican Church in lieu of taxes In July 1920 the newspaper reported that a dance pavilion was being erected in Devon Park Mr LA Mattes, Manager of The Pas Lumber Company, offered the town a gift of 10,000 board feet of lumber, an offer quickly accepted by council The town, for its part, provided additional lumber and hardware, screening, etc It was expected that volunteer labour would help to keep costs within affordable limits An entry by Anne Bohay in the volume edited by SJ Allen read: "On hot summer nights regular dances were held in Devon Park in the Open Pavilion, which had screening on the upper part of the walls, letting the breezes through" (p184) I suspect that the screening was as much to keep mosquitoes out as to let the breezes blow through, -:c--,,: Ill -?"'- - Ill,,,,,,, -;-! The Pas Pavilion The Community building and Court House, still one of the town's finest buildings in the l 950's, was built on the corner of Fischer A venue and Third Street in For some time it was used for social activities The assembly hall, on the second floor, was used for one or two grand balls held yearly, such as the Grand Ball associated with the Dog Derby There were, of course, other places in town where dances could be held With the opening of the Crystal Gardens in 1928, it became the main venue for dances, and for a time amateur plays, stage shows, etc Located at the corner of Edwards Avenue and Fourth Street, it later became the Legion Hall According to the Board of Trade publication of 1929, the town had only one dance hall, presumably a reference to Crystal Gardens, but dances were also held in other buildings Anne Bohay again provided first hand information: 29

40 ' During my teens, I enjoyed going out dancing There was Chaika 's Hall on our street, the Crystal Gardens uptown and the Adanac Hall was just up half a block The girls would come in groups and sit on a long bench the length of the hall and the boys would sit on the opposite side of the hall When the music began, the boys would rush toward the girl's side and pick their partners We girls hardly ever had to sit out a dance" (p184) One advertisement for a dance I came across while scanning the newspaper microfilm for 1929 read: "Dance, Paris Dance Gardens (opposite Community Building), Tonight, Nov30, 9 pm, Professor Glover's Orchestra, Admission, $1 00 per couple " I presume this was the same building that housed the Paris Cafe in the 1940's and l 950's, a favourite hang-out for teens Anne Bohay described another favourite town activity as follows: "On a sunny Sunday afternoon, after church and lunch, it seemed the whole town dressed in their best would stroll to Devon Park to listen to the town band play in the bandstand The adults would visit with their friends and get to know new arrivals in town and ask them to tea My friends and I would run around the stand and find a nice place to sit and listen to the music" (p184) - Bi: On June 8, 1928 a headline in The Pas Herald and Mining News read: "Summer Picnic on the River" The article described an initiative undertaken by a group oflocal musicians in conjunction with the Ross Navigation Company Weber's Island, about 5 miles up the Saskatchewan River, had been cleared, seats and other picnic conveniences erected, and a dance pavilion was under construction The steamboat Nipawin was to make hourly trips on Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as Sunday afternoons and evenings Dances were to be held in the pavilion on Friday and Saturday evenings, and it was suggested that the island was an ideal spot for family picnics on a Sunday The belief was that transport costs would be low, only about 25 cents Improvements were contemplated if it was found that people were taking to the idea :f SS Nipawin 30 :1n auf11 -,":J <i:t,:111 fi'ltl NJI

41 :>:----" -?/" I did not come across any further reference to this venture, but if successful at all the success was short lived An ad of July 27, 1929 read: "River excursions via SS Nipawin, Fare $75 cents, Steamer Leaves Dock every Sunday, Afternoon: Leaving at 2 OOpm Evening: Leaving at 7 p m " There was no mention of trips on Friday or Saturday, and no mention of dances on Weber's Island /, --""' '" -//---" The SS Nipawin, a stem wheeler owned by the Ross Navigation Company, had been used to move barges loaded with high grade copper ore from Sturgeon Landing, where it was hauled from the Mandy Mine, to the ore dock on the Pasquia River in The Pas, for shipment by rail to the smelter at Trail, BC The SS Nipawin was beached at The Pas sometime in the 1930's The Board of Trade publication of 1929 claims that the town had two picture shows (movie theatres) This could not have included the Lido Theatre, since its construction was not announced until after the date of the publication, and was not opened until 1930 Only the Lyric Theatre, on Fischer A venue, is known to me I recall it as a boarded up building, but know from newspaper accounts that it was showing movies (silent films) in the 1920's I have seen reference to the Drearnlan4'fheatre destroyed by fire, but do not know where it was or when the fire occurred It may have been around this time that the Crystal Gardens was used as a theatre %/ --,- -"'7' The town had four pool and billiard rooms in 1929, where young men could enjoy a "misspent youth" By the early 1950's these had been reduced to only two, but as a teenager I was able to misspend many hours at Modem Billiards on Fischer A venue The town also had 6 hotels and in those that were licensed one could drop in for a few beers in what I presume were men-o:qly beer parlors There were no cocktail bars, and no hard liquor was legally available in public establishments The 1924 provincial liquor act stipulated that liquor could only be consumed at home Hotel beer parlors where beer could be sold by the glass were not approved until 1928 Two events in The Pas during the spring and summer of 1929 illustrate its connection with the world of the "roaring twenties", the importance ofleisute time activities, and the strong social spirit of the town On May 2, 1929 there was an ad placed by the Rotary Club of The Pas in The Northern Mail It was for the "Lets Go" show - a musical revue sponsored by the Rotary Club to be held at the Crystal Gardens; The ad featured a photograph of the chorus line from the Saskatoon production of the same revue - they were all dressed as one imagines the "flappers" of the "roaring twenties" The ad noted that the director of the revue was a Miss Estelle Jones of Chicago, that local talent would comprise the cast of the show, and that the latest dance steps and latest costumes from New York and Chicago would be featured in the production - y,/;- -- Pl" Then, in the summer of 1929, the Elks sponsored a picnic at Clearwater Lake, accessible then only by rail to Atikameg Station (Mile 17) on the Hudson Bay Railway As I recall, from the railway stop it was a fairly easy hike down to the crystal clear waters of the lake and the beautiful sand beaches of what is now called Pioneer Bay 31

42 The Northern Mail reported on July 31, 1929 that the mill was to close, a civic holiday was declared, and an excellent sports program was arranged The first train was to leave the mill spur line at 730am The lumber company provided free transportation for all their employees, their wives and families The second train was to leave the station at 1000 am The paper later reported that "two trains take 1,800 persons to big frolic" Yes, 1,800 - a town picnic with about half of the town's population in attendance - not local, but 17 miles out of town The same event the previous year may have been even larger, as 1,500 tickets were sold and children under 10 were free (, ( i,,, As a kid growing up in The Pas I was fortunate to spend my summers from 1936 to 1951 at our family cottage on Pioneer Bay I cannot imagine what 1,500 to 2,000 people on the beach at Pioneer Bay would look like - very crowded! 32

43 -l?f" -0?::7;-: -<'C''" - Bursting at the Seams The population of The Pas increased by more than 100% between1926 and 1931 according to the Census of Canada A 1929 publication of the Board of Trade estimated a population of more than 4,000 by 1928, a doubling of the population in less than three years On January 6, 1928 The Pas Herald and Mining News commented on the town's housing situation, saying: "Housing accommodation in The Pas is at a premium and not even a single room can be obtained The Booth Fisheries old building is perhaps the only building in town not occupied and it is only a big company which could afford to rent and heat that place This week men were going from house to house seeking accommodation and having a hard time to obtain it If this is the case just now when the rush has not really commenced, what is going to take place in the spring when the work is in full swing and people come flocking in? There is no preparation being made to provide housing accommodation for the new comers and married couples with families will find great difficulty in getting located",,_"-:'{-,,,_/ -;:"Ci-,, / 'Jx ';/"' !?"-"'-- - J,-"'"", --;::" -- ll The "Family History" section in the volume edited by SJ Allen provides anecdotal evidence of the situation in the boom years of the late 1920's " we were told that there was a floating population of about 10, 000, that is people moving or passing through The Pas to work up north or here during the boom" The Lindsay Family ( p342) "The Pas was booming when we arrived in 1928 Hotels were renting space in the hallways for a cot, if they ran out of cots they would rent a space on the floor for a bed roll We spent our first night here at the Rupert House When getting up in the morning we had to step over sleeping men in the hallways to get to the bathroom" Lindsay, Douglas Alexander (p343) "At that time (February 1928) it was almost impossible to get accommodation, so Jack bought a Toronto couch and slept in the Post Office Mrs Brown arrived a month later and they were able to rent a suite in the Herald Block Each suite provided its own heating system, in the hall were two toilets and a cold water tap" Mr and Mrs JC Brown (p192) "My first experience was to sleep in the Telephone Office on a cot as no available Hotel room could be found Later I received room and board in the home of Mr and Mrs Fred Watts on Patrick Avenue" Marion Jessie (Douglas) Gans ( p235) " on April J 7'h, 1928 we arrived at the old railway station opposite where Hill's corner store now stands The Pas was booming that year Tarpaper shacks and tents were a common sight'' The Lindsay Family (p341) 33

44 "My first memories of The Pas go back to February 1929 This was a boom town filled with hundreds of construction workers, scores of prospectors and bush pilots George met with the news that he had not been able to find living quarters for us He had shared a box car with a CNR policeman for the past month I must live in an overcrowded hotel until one of a dozen hastily build cottages were available" Shipley, Nan (p429) "Living accommodation in The Pas was at a premium so three of us set up a tent near Hal crow Lake and it served as a home for most of the summer (of 1929)" Bateman, Scott (p180) In 1929 the town had 6 hotels and 15 boarding and rooming houses Even so accon;nnodation was hard to fmd Hotels and rooming houses were overcrowded Public spaces became sleeping places Tents and shacks sprang up around town The Pas was mdeed bursting at the seams 34 4IJt -Ill - - '-"'-)"i

45 Wide Open and Wild The town's 50th anniversary publication, edited by Harry Dunn, noted that: "The Pas has been and still is the gateway to all this expansion and was a haven of refuge to those who sought a few days or weeks of relaxation and entertainment before hitting the trail again to seek their fortunes in gold, lumbering or trapping or working on the railway" {p 62) At no time in The Pas's history was this more true than in the years from 1926 to1929, with thousands of men coming and going through the town Furthermore, not all of the relaxation and entertainment was of the approved variety Bootlegging, drinking, gambling and brothels were all part of the scene People had money to spend, and spend it they did ),) According to one young woman who arrived in The Pas 'in 1929 (SJ Alle ed Family History section): "The town was wide-open and wild but there was a sense of camaraderie that made youfeel alive" (p429) Donald Lindsay, also in the Family History section, recalled that in 1928: "Before winter we moved to Larose Avenue, one door down from Louis Bacons two bit flop house where a weary traveller could put his bedroll on the floor and sleep for two bits a night The other side of Larose Avenue was known as Millionaires Row because many of the town's wealthy people lived there With the exception of Irish Riva/in 's and a few others almost all of the buildings on the west side of Larose Avenue were houses of prostitution or bootleggers, in fact the lane behind Larose Avenue was known as alcohol alley The residents of these places had colourful nick names such as Cut Throat Rosie, Webb Fingered Alice, Moose Jaw Kid, TB Rose, and many others Owners of some of these establishments owned some of the first automobiles in The Pas and on Sundays they would drive slowly around town with some of their painted "Ladies" There was one gentlemen who would come forth each day from one establishment dressed to the utmost, derby hat, black pin-stripe suit, grey spats, patent leather shoes, a gold headed cane and a very obvious red necktie with a large diamond stick-pin He could be seen talking to strangers on the streets and occasionally pointing his cane in the direction of the "house"" {p343) But, as Eddie Barker, who arrived in The Pas in 1929, observed (SJ Allen, ed Family History section): " not all of this activity was welcomed by the permanent residents nor by the civic leaders and law enforcement agencies" {p178) Newspaper accounts provide further eviqence of the "wide open and wild" aspects of the town in the boom years On December 14, 1928 a headline in the Prospector and Northern Manitoban read: 35

46 "Sixty-Five Cases Result From Week of Activity: Night Life Given a Jolt" The newspaper continued: "Activities of provincial police in The Pas during the last week have swelled court dockets to a size rarely seen in town in recent years Since a week ago last Wednesday more than 65 cases have been listed in Magistrate Ridyard 's court The majority of these involved liquor, gambling or breaches of the moral code Thirtyflve convictions have been registered and thirty cases are pending The majority of the bigger cases are on remand" The court figures do not tell the whole story Police estimated that 35 females from various ''joints" 111 had gone on "voluntary holidays" out of town and some of the men had taken vacations until things were quieter Officers had made dozens of "visits" to houses in all parts of town with fair success "Joints" opened in the previous six months were the hardest hit by police activity because the new places had received the bulk of the blame for the many men who had been "rolled" in the past surnµier It is likely that some of the painted "Ladies" that Donald Lindsay referred to were among the female prostitutes from various "joints", houses ofill-repute, who had gone on voluntary vacations Perhaps the man "talking to strangers on the streets and occasionally pointing his cane in the direction of the house" was one of the men also talcing a vacation "Provincial Police Are Still Busy Cleaning Town" declared The Pas Herald and Mining News on December 21, 1928 The paper continued: "The Provincial Police are still hard at work in their efforts to clean up the town and have, since the commencement of their campaign, laid a total of 99 charges, and have secured 70 convictions The following is a list of cases disposed of" Drunks, 18; Vagrancy charges, 9; Keeping a disorderly house, 3; Inmate of a disorderly house, J; Insanity, 2; Infractions of Motor Vehicles Act, 3; Carrying a revolver without a permit, I, Theft of Merchandise, 2; One man was convicted for stealing $115 from another man and one was convicted for keeping a hotel without a license Two convicted for permitting drunkenness on their premises and two were charged with obstructing police in the discharge of their duty Five charges were withdrawn and three dismissed To date there has been six convictions for bootlegging and some 20 cases are still pending" Ninety nine charges and 70 convictions over a period of a few weeks are rather impressive numbers The idea that police were bent on cleaning up the town was denied However, Inspector WR Day was quoted as saying that the law was being broken too openly in The Pas The Cambrian Hotel was also targeted by provihcial police A December 21, 1928 headline in The Prospector and Northern Manitoba read: "More Than I 00 Charges Made By Prov Police; Move Against Cambrian" The Cambrian Hotel was made a "prohibited" place under the liquor act, the beer parlour was closed 36

47 ) ) \ l ) ;, ) 1 c -ill, 1r11, mi,k 4fA ct,x"', '" --J4[B JI 4rt indefinitely and permits for liquor held by guests were seized Inspector Day of the Provincial Police denied that any trouble was encountered in enforcing the liquor commission ruling He also declined to disclose the number of permits seized or the amount of liquor confiscated The action by the provincial police against the Cambrian Hotel did not sit well with some of the tov,;n' s leading citizens, among them the mayor He sent a telegram to the provincial Attorney General that read: "Consider action of provincial police in seizing liquor from bona fide guests of the Cambrian Hotel to be unfair, un-british and certainly uncalled for If this is legal under your liquor act then your act needs revising (Signed) BM Stitt, Mayor of The Pas" The provincial liquor act of 1924 stated that liquor could only be consumed at home It would seem that the Manitoba Liquor Commission had decided that a room rented by a guest at the Cambrian Hotel did not qualify as "home" The beer parlor was closed indefinitely, but it is unclear as to what, if any, law had been broken After prohibition ended in 1923 it continued to be illegal to sell beer and wine by the glass However it became legal to sell beer by the glass in hotel beer parlors in 1928 (Gray, 1975) The moves against the Cambrian Hotel seem heavy handed, and the reactions of the mayor and other citizens should come as no surprise The Pas Herald and Mining News commented that: "Considerable feeling has been aroused in town over this action, the general impression being that this action was unwarranted in view of the fact that there has never been a charge of any kind preferred against the hotel" While charges were laid after the December 1928 raid on the Cambrian Hotel, I did not find any account of convictions The Pas Herald and Mining News reported that: "The police state that the liquor and permits belonging to the guests have been turned in to the Government Liquor Store and owners can get their property if they have anywhere else they can legally take it to" Provincial police officers remained active in town, but night life had ebbed to such an extent that few arrests were being made The police were keeping a wary eye on all the "joints" The activities of the provincial police may have had the intended impact At least the law was not being broken too openly A few months later, on March 8, 1929, a Northern Mail headline read: "Police Chief Says Law Now Being Obeyed" Chief Coghill claimed to be well satisfied with the conduct of the town's citizens and took exception to rumours circulated that The Pas was filled with gamblers and criminals He noted that the town had experienced a bad spell in the fall but it was not nearly as bad as the newspaper would lead one to believe Seventy convictions over a few weeks and 35 females going on "voluntary holidays" would suggest otherwise 37

48 However, some gamblers and at least one criminal remained in town The headline in the Northern Mail ofnovember 14, 1929 read: "BANDIT TAKES BIGGEST POT IN LOCAL GAME: Derby House Poker Players Held Up and Cleaned Out, Believe Gunman Was Amateur But He Got the Loot" It went on to say that: "Half a dozen men playing poker early yesterday morning in a rear room of the Derby House got big hearted when a lone bandit hoisted a window near the playing table and ordered the gamblers to hand it over His voice came from behind a gun and the boys carried the money to the open window and handed it through" - Apparently no one complained t<;> the police, so it is unclear as to how the police heard about the heist, but an investigation was underway Speculation as to how much money the gunman got 11way with ranged from $150 to $400 The chief of police noted it was the first hold up in The Pas in a long time He suggested that the thief was probably an amateur, but that sometimes the amateurs were the hardest ones to catch It is ironic that the town's net cost for policing was lower in both 1928 and 1929 than in any year between 1930 and 1941, due in large part to the number of fines levied during those wide open and wild years - this despite substantial cuts to police and the magistrate's salaries during the depression years Note: I am old enough to recall a time when my dad had a "liquor book" To purchase a bottle of rye, gin, scotch, sherry, etc, he was required to present his liquor book, which included his permit, at the liquor store The pu:rchase and date of purchase were recorded in the book 38

49 THE PAS DURING THE DEPRESSION YEARS The Dirty Thirties is the term used across the Prairie Provinces to describe the years of the Great Depression Conventionally, the depression years start with the New York stock market crash in October of 1929 and end with the outbreak of WWII in September of 1939 For many, though, the depression did not end in 1939 Rather, our attention was diverted elsewhere Canada in the 1930's No one anticipated the severity or length of the depression, and no national government had much idea how to deal with it effectively Canada was no exception The fall in prices was greatest for raw materials and commodities The average yearly wheat price, for example, fell from $124 per bushel in to 542 cents by (Strange) As prices ofraw materials and commodities fell and barriers to international trade increased, Canada, with approximately 1/3 of its national income derived from exports, was impacted even more severely than most other advanced economies Assuming a GNP (Gross National Product) at market prices and indexed at 100 in 1929, the GNP had fallen to 596 in 1933, recovering to 916 by 1939 In 1929 the national unemployment rate was 42% It rose to 266% in 1933 and was at 141%in1939 On the Prairies, the collapse in prices was further exacerbated by drought Saskatchewan, the most dependent of the three on agriculture and particularly on commercial grain production, was especially hard hit Wheat yields that were over 23 bushels per acre in 1928 were only 111 in 1929, the first year of serious drought For Saskatchewan, across the decade of the 1930's, wheat yields ranged from a high of 19l bushels per acre in 1939 to a low of only 26 in 1937, and averaged 104 (Strange) The following table provides an overview of the situation across Canada in the depression years Pe:r Capita Money Income as Percentages of 1928 o:r 1929 Peaks Province Nova Scotia (1929) New Brunswick (1929) Ontario (1929) Quebec (1929) Prince Edward Island (1929) CANADA (1928) British Columbia (1929) Manitoba (1929) Alberta (1928) Saskatchewan (1928) Source: Macintosh, AW (1939), p71 39

50 Downswings were greatest in the predominantly exporting provinces of the west For Saskatchewan low commodity prices coupled with poor yields gave rise to the situation where the 193 per capita money income was only one quarter of what it had been in 1928 Across much of Canada farmers were able to retrench during the depression years, to put food on the table from income in kind, and to secure fuel for heating and cooking from the farm woodlot The situation was very different for many prairie farmers In the commercial grain growing areas of the prairies gripped with drought, there was little opportunity for income in kind and no farm woodlot or uncleared back forty to provide fuel For many grain farmers the loss of cash income was nearly as severe as it was for the urban unemployed, and unemployment relief was less forthcoming, as farmers were not viewed as being unemployed Responsibility for providing relief, according to Morton, lay with the municipalities, whose resources were soon overwhelmed by the magnitude of mass unemployment Neither the federal or provincial governments had established buffers against unemployment utilizing insurance nor had they put in place any workable system of relief _ wr- In his biography of John Bracken, Kendle notes that Bracken, the Premier of Manitoba, had believed for some years prior to the depression that the federal government should share some of the costs of unemployment relief In Bracken's view, federal tariff and immigration policies were at the root of many of the west's unemployment difficulties As Kendle notes, in January of 1930 Premier Bracken wrote Prime Minister King, pointing out that the unemployment situation was becoming "acute", and was causing "considerable agitation" Bracken argued that it was largely a federal problem, and required federal government participation to effect a cure King's reply, as recorded by Kendle, stated: "We feel very strongly that this is a municipal and provincial matter, and in no sense one of federal obligation" (p110) According to Kendle, this remained the policy of the Liberals until July of 1930 when they were defeated by the Conservatives under Bennett Prior to any federal action, during the winter of , the Bracken government became involved in assisting municipalities For example, the provincial government payed 113 of the excess cost of winter work over summer work and 1/ 4 of the cost of direct relief In addition, during the summer of 1930, various construction projects were speeded up in order to provide employment (Kendle) In September of 1930 the new Conservative government under Bennett passed the Unemployment Relief Act, appropriating $20 million to be spent across the country According to Kendle, in Bracken's view the initiative had one serious flaw: the ratio of expenditure was to be 50% municipal, 25% provincial, and 25% federal Bracken felt that the majority of municipalities would be unable to participate since the burden of debt and the necessary level of municipal taxes would be prohibitive if the policy was rigidly adhered to Morton on the other hand, argues that marked a new agreement with the federal government, by which the federal and provincial governments and the municipalities were each to bear l /3 of the cost of relief Presumably!his agreement, while still in 1930, was later than that documented by 40

51 --/? - - = "'r- - -/ >-/- <fk':', Kendle Morton says that Manitoba's share was $13 million of the $20 million to be spent across the country By sometime in 1931 the federal position became more generous If I have read Kendle correctly, the federal government assumed 50% of the cost ofreliefworks outside of Winnipeg, leaving it to the provincial government to work out with the municipalities their relative contributions Newspaper accounts indicate that public works in The Pas were funded under two formulas - one where the federal, provincial and municipal governments each paid 1/3, and the other where the costs were 50% federal with the remainder being equally split between the province and the town To raise monies for its share of the cost of public works, the town had to obtain the approval of the provincial Municipal and Utilities Board From what I can gather from the newspaper accounts, there were also a number of formulas applied in meeting the costs of direct relief ;;c'' - H"':-- 41

52 Unemployment and the Unemployed Who and How Many? Two questions are posed here: what were the levels of unemployment in The Pas during the depression years, and who were the unemployed? Neither question can be fully answered given the information I have been able to uncover In the boom years of the late 1920's The Pas was where men congregated, heading north in their thousands to take up jobs building and rehabilitating the Hudson Bay railway, building the railway to Flin Flon and the branch line to Sherridon, and in developing the mining properties and townsites at both Flin Flon and Sherridon In the early 1930's the hope of employment was a magnet that continued to draw men north, and they continued to congregate in The Pas In both 1930 and 1931 The Northern Mail carried numerous accounts of the number of unemployed in town An account of May 17, 1930 contained these estimates: - Mr Trembach, a spokesman for the unemployed, stated that earlier in the year there were about 300 but now there were about Councillor Bickle estimated that there were between 500 and 600 unemployed - Councillor Selfe said he had made enquiries among the Russian people as well as others in town and estimated there were about 700 and added further that he was of the opinion that all told there were about 1,200 out of work in The Pas and district - it was claimed that less than 100 of the unemployed were citizens of The Pas On May 20, 1930 the following newspaper account provided a partial answer to the question of who the unemployed were "Many in the bread line here are recent immigrants a number of whom were brought to this country by the Canada Land Settlement association Others have been brought to Canada by the railways Some in The Pas had been brought to Canada as agricultural immigrants less than a year ago, and these are now looking for work" Data for a year later confirms the gist of the newspaper report Not only was the male population of The Pas well in excess of the female, but a substantial portion of this excess, 716%, was "foreign born" Birthplace of the Population: The Pas, 1931 Canadian born British born Foreign born TOTAL Male Number % 1, , Female Number % 1, , Total Number % 2, , , Source: Dominion Bureau QfStatistics Census of Canada,

53 By the spring of 1931 there was an attempt to clarify the unemployment situation in town "All Men to Register in Local Drive" was a headline of May 20, 1931 The report in The Northern Mail read as follows: "Registration of unemployed in The Pas started this afternoon in the Ukrainian Hall on Crossley Avenue All those out of work and seeking employment will be registered The committee of unemployed is taking the census of local workless and their figures will be turned over to civic officials The actual home of every man seeking employment will be one of the main questions" (my emphasis) A few days later, on May 28, 1931 The Northern Mail reported that: "The unemployment problem affecting bona-fide residents ofthe Pas came forcibly before the council of the board of trade last night when a delegation of nearly 100 men presented a plea for help in securing work during the summer" The delegates said that they: "represented local residents who were jobless They were local tradesmen and local residents of every type who could not secure work, who were facing a blank summer and the spectre of starvation for themselves and families next winter" Mr Frederickson, one of the spokesmen for the delegation stated that: "These men are not the men who have paraded the streets of the town during the last few days These are bona fide local residents who have helped to build the town of The Pas, and who, through no fault of their own, are jobless this summer They would be the last men to ask for relief or help of any kind if they had any alternative" (see the section Marches and Demonstrations for more on the parades of the unemployed) -;-"'''"'",' On June 20, 1931 it was reported that 300 residents of The Pas were out of work This was based on the nearly completed survey, and was reported by RH McNeil who was in charge of the census of the unemployed The figure of 300 included only married and single men who had been residents and taxpayers of The Pas for some years It was further reported that: "At present 100 men are at work for the town on a three day a week basis, and these man will be alternated to provide work relief for all falling under the first classification " This employment was based on a local, town funded public works initiative (see the section on Public Works in Town for more details) It was also reported that there had been no developments regarding provincial aid, but that residents of the district would receive first consideration for provincial relief work when it was forthcoming Results of the registration of the Unemployed carried out in May were reported in The Northern Mail on August 29, 1931 as follows: Married Men 350 Single Men 400 Married Women 25 Single Women 50 43

54 The total of825, it was pointed out, did not take into account the bona fide residents of The Pas, so another 300 or so could be added to this total It was anticipated that several hundred,more men would be added to this number when some of those currently working at Churchill and on the Hudson Bay railway returned to The Pas and would then be on the unemployment list and requiring material assistance or work This was not the end of the efforts to get a handle on the numbers of unemployed On September 16, 1931 a headline in The Northern Mail read" Unemployed Again to be Registered" The report said: "Another registration of all unemployed here will start tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock in the Fire hall on Third street, civic officials announced this morning Lists prepared by this work will be the basis of all relief work in The Pas during the coming winter No other registration will be accepted as official Forms supplied by the Provincial government, calling/or complete details ofinancial standing of every person seeking relief, and their employment record for the past year, are expected in tomorrow morning Financial Resources: All details must be sworn to before a notary public Those seeking relief must give officials permission to investigate any bank account or other phases of their financial resources RH McNeil will be in charge of the registration So complicated are the forms that it is expected to take some time to complete the work, a week at least Hours for registration will be from 10 o'clock in the morning until noon, andfrom 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 5 o'clock at night 800 Expected: At least 800 will be on the list when it is completed, it is believed here More than 200 transients are obtaining direct relief now in the form of a meal a day The work is being done by the town of The Pas officials on behalf of the provincial and federal governments" (my emphasis) On September 22, 1931 a follow-up headline read "All Local Jobless are Urged to Register Here, Importance of New List is Stressed at Council" The accompanying report noted that: "The importance to citizens who hope to get work or direct relief from the town this winter of being registered under the unemployment census now underway in the fire hall was emphasized today by GA Williams, supt of utilities Only those who are on this list will be given unemployment or relief this winter While transients are being registered in large numbers on this census, it is of utmost importance that bona fide citizens who need work should also be registered" I have detailed the elaborate registration of the unemployed for two reasons First, the work was being carried out by the town on behalf of the provincial and federal governments which had assumed the responsibility of providing relief for single transient men (see the section Direct Relief for Single Transient Men and Other Single Men) Second, it provided the lists and personal information required to deliver direct relief to town residents through the program jointly funded the all three levels of government, induding the town (see Direct Relief for Town Residents) Clearly town officials were concerned on behalf of bona fide residents of The Pas that they get 44

55 , registered The information collected presumably would be used by the town in reaching decisions as to who would be given employment on jointly funded public works programs administered by the town under the supervision of GA Williams, superintendent of utilities (see the section Public Works in Town) The national census of 1931 also gives data on unemployment in The Pas Male Female TOTAL Unemployment in The Pas as of June 1, 1931 Number of Wage Earners 1, ,551 Number of Wage Earners Unemployed Source: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada, 1931 % Unemployed Comparable figures for urban centres in Manitoba (towns and cities of 1,000 population or more) were: males 269%, females 111 %, total 234% The comparable figures for Canada as a whole were: males 217%, females 83%, total 189% \ ) Male unemployment levels in The Pas at the time of the 1931 census were more than double the national rate and considerably higher than those for any other town or city in the Prairie Provinces Furthermore, since it is clear that transients constituted many of the town's unemployed, some of whom would have been "living rough", it is likely that the number of unemployed males in and around The Pas was actually higher than reported by the census Data similar to that :from the census of 1931 are not available in either the 1936 Census of the Prairies Provinces or in the 1941 Census of Canada, so subsequent comparable data are not available In the spring of both 1930 and 1931 the town experienced an influx of transient jobless men hoping to find employment in the north, in particular along the Hudson Bay railway where work on upgrading the road bed was still underway, and in Churchill, where the port facilities and grain elevator were under construction On April 30, 1932 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Mayor Warns Job Seekers to Stay Away From North" The mayor was reported as fearing a repetition of the previous spring rush of men into The Pas seeking employment in the north In an effort to avoid this he was seeking the co-operation of the CNR, the RCMP, and authorities at the Saskatchewan border - presumably at Hudson Bay Junction A few days later the paper carried a copy of the mayor's telegram to Premier Bracken, which read: "This town and district again faced with a spring rush of unemployed Many drifters 45

56 arriving daily on freight trains seeking employment on Hudson Bay Railway or at Churchill There is absolutely no work for such here Indications are that situation as serious as last year developing Imperative that it be prevented Advised that large numbers of unemployed are congregated at Hudson Bay Junction and may be here if not prevented Railway authorities advise they cannot alone prevent them Suggest quick action by Mounted Police today at Hudson Bay Junction, and that sufficient force be kept there to prevent unemployed coming here who have no jobs promised Please wire immediately what action is being taken " P C Robertson, Mayor On April 25, 1932 these telegrams were received in response and published in the Northern Mail: "Winnipeg, Man, April 23, 1932 Dr PCRobertson, Mayor, The Pas Have your wire re drifters arriving in The Pas and have taken the matter up with mounted police and minister of railways, Ottawa John Bracken, Premier, Dauphin, Man" "Mayor PC Robertson, The Pas, Manitoba Please be advised that the Canadian National Railways desire to co-operate with you in every possible way to control situation with respect to unemployed persons riding on our freight trains into The Pas Matter has been taken up with our superintendent of police and everything possible will be done to assist with the number of men available to comply with your request RKing" What effect these initiatives had is not clear, but the demonstrations and marches of the unemployed that were such a feature in the spring of 1930 and spring of 1931 were not repeated in 1932 After the demonstrations in the spring of 1931 a program of direct relief for single transient men, funded by the federal and provincial governments, was put in place in The Pas However another event adding to the problem of unemployment did occur During the winter of The Pas Lumber Company did not operate logging camps, and in the spring of 1932 the mill did not open As reported by McCarthy, many of the man laid off could not find work, adding to the number of unemployed in the town Fortunately, after receiving tax concessions from the town and from the school board, the mill did operate logging camps in the winter of , and the mill opened for operation in the spring of 1933 (for details see the section The Lumber Mill and Logging Camps in the Depression Years) By the middle of 1932 newspaper accounts of ummployment in The Pas had essentially come to an end The focus had shifted to the cost of direct relief, but with only sporadic reports on the actual number of recipients The clearest evidence I found regarding the numbers on direct relief was for the years 1933 and 1941 The highest number of the town's direct relief rolls occurred in March of 193 3, when 13 7 heads of families with 517 dependents and two single individuals were on direct relief In addition there were around 100 to 125 single men, mostly transient, receiving direct relief 46

57 :'il - f'ri - f/iiil -5jj -[lfi' - efr r:r p/s' mt et' If\ ",o;-oy trf l(e\ [ "> from a jointly funded federal/provincial program (see How Many People Received Direct Relief in The Pas in the section Direct Relief) Census data, presented below, also help to address the question of levels of unemployment in The Pas Between 1931and1936 the town's population declined by 625 Nearly 84% of this decline consisted of males, 523 of the 625 It is probable that most of this decline in the male population was attributable to the departure of men who were part of the town's transient population in Change Population of The Pas, 1931 and 1936 Male 2,382 1, Female 1,648 1, Total 4,030 3, Source: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada, 1931 and Census of the Prairie Provinces, There is no clear evidence as to when across this five year period the dramatic decline in the male population occurred Some single transient males went to relief camps (see the section Direct Relief for Single Transient Men and Other Single Men and the section The Relief Camp) By July of men had been deported from The Pas (see the section Deportation) By the summer of 1933 this particular aspect of unemployment in The Pas, that of single transient men, had largely pssed The population decline as recorded in the census does not tell the whole story I found evidence that across the years 1931 to 1936 annual births in The Pas exceeded deaths by about 50 This would yield a natural population increase across the 5 years of about 250 Consequently the net outmigration from The Pas between 1931and1936 was about 875 (625 plus 250) If the ratio between males and females documented earlier remained the same, then the net out-migration of males was 732 and of females 143 If the additional 250 was evenly split then the male net out-migration was around 648 and that of females about 227 It was probably somewhere between the two Between 1936 and 1941 the town experienced a further decline in population of 224 (from 3,405 to 3,181) The census of 1941 does not provide a count of the numbers of males and females in the town, so that one does not know whether this decline continued to be male dominated Assuming an annual natural increase of 50 (there is good evidence for this claim), then the net out-migration from to 1941 would have been about 4 7 4, and for the decade from 1931 to 1941 it would be about 1,350 Opportunities to the North The town's unemployment problem was solved, in part, by net out-migration However, this consisted of more than simply the departure of single, unemployed and transient males 47

58 The activities to the north that fueled the town's boom in the late 1920's may also have helped alleviate the unemployment situation in The Pas during the l 930's McCarthy remarks, when discussing the closure of The Pas lumber mill in 1932 that many of the employees could find no work and some left to seek work in the mines In 1931 the Flin Flon district had a population of 2,3 74 and the Sherri don district a population of 686 By 1941 the populations were 6,860 and 1,459 respectively What is not known is the nature, size and timing of the contribution of The Pas to this population growth Men with jobs in The Pas may have moved to these communities to avail themselves of better economic opportunities Two of my uncles who were residents of The Pas with jobs in 1931 were residents of Flin Flon by 1936 My aunts, their wives, were also residents of The Pas in 1931 One was a teacher at McKay School Another man I knew worked for the Liquor Control Commission in The Pas and was transferred to Flin Flon in 1933 Perhaps moves of this nature opened up job opportunities for others in The Pas Mr CNeely, mayor of The Pas from 1933 to moved to Sherridon to take the job as town manager The mines at Sherridon were closed for about 5 years, re opening in 193 7, and would not have provided much in the way of employment opportunities until the latter part of the decade Possibilities of employment in Flin Flon would have been considerably better across the 1930's Other activities to the north provided relatively permanent or seasonal job opportunities By the summer of 1934 a Citizens Employment Bureau was established in The Pas On August 30, 1934 the newspaper noted that the committee in charge of the bureau had written to all employers of labour in the north country and that the response had been splendid The reported stated further: "The committee is in correspondence now with the God's Lake Gold Mine Limited and it appears that this company will require a considerable number of men this fall to clear the transmission line between the mine and the power station" On October 3; 1934 a headline read "Unemployment Reduced Here: Relief Cut Down, 109 People Are Placed By Office Mining Camps Taking Many Men From The Pas" The report read in part: "The office had been notably beneficial in getting men employed in the mining camps Two wires had been received since last council meeting calling for lots of men Fourteen men had gone to llford on the last Churchill train he declared" Ilford at mile 286 on the Hudson Bay Railway was the point for moving freight across country to the,4 mine site In late March of 1934 the newspaper reported that about 1,500 tons of freight had been moved over the new winter road between Ilford and the mining area about 130 miles to the southeast By November 1934 Ilford boasted a number of buildings, including several stores, bunkhouses, boarding houses and warehouses, attributed to an increase in freight shipments into the gold properties at God's Lake, Knee Lake, Stevenson Lake, and other points Transport Limited was again actively involved, and was establishing a branch office at Ilford Imperial Oil was constructing a warehouse and was erecting gasoline storage tanks, and two airways companies were to have bases ::!!'otti: :el= n;,;":e:e:,,::t:::i:: :1 expectation of a hotel and beer parlour at Ilford 48

59 On September 16, 1935 The Northern Mail reported that: Milling operations at God's Lake mine were scheduled to be underway today, bringing a new producer into the lists of Manitoba's gold mines" In February of the paper reported that God's Lake Gold Mines Limited had earned a net profit of $123,691 in 1936, after all costs were accounted for This was the last report of gold mining in the God's Lake area that I came across in the local paper The Census of Canada reported the population of the Oxford House and God's Lake District as 44 in 1931 and 449 in 1941 In the summer of 1934 a gold mine at Herb Lake (formerly the Rex, now the Laguna) was re-opened In December of 1934 the newspaper reported that Charlie Morgan, a local businessman, had secured a contract to provide 2,000 cords of wood to be used to provide power for the mine The wood was to be provided from camps in the area This may have provided work for men from town A report of 1938 said that Transport Ltd, a firm headquartered in The Pas, had won the freighting contract for Laguna Mines The report elaborated that: "As well as handling all the supplies for the mine Transport Limited will inaugurate a service to serve the public of the settlement of Herb Lake consisting of some 500 people as well as several stores and a hotel" On July 22, 1938 a headline read "Laguna Yield Hits Million in Past Week" The paper noted that the gold brick, the largest poured at the mine, was valued at $50,000 Sadly this was followed on December 6, 1938 by a headline that read "Laguna Mines to Close Officials Announce" A consulting engineer had reported that there was not sufficient ore too warrant the purchase of new equipment or the deepening of the mine shaft In 1941 the Census of Canada reported the population of the Herb Lake District was 194, back to near the 1931 population of 187 J The Seasonality of Unemployment A particular feature of unemployment in The Pas during the 1930's was its marked seasonality - high in the winter and spring and lower in the summer and fall This seasonality is reflected in the cost of direct relief on a monthly basis For example, from January to April of 1933 the cost of direct relief for the four months was $10,259, while for the four months July to October the cost was only $3,612 The January to April period averaged 132 heads of families on direct relief, while the July to October period averaged only 51 If the number on direct relief can be viewed as a surrogate for the number unemployed, then the winter-early spring levels of unemployment were about 26 times as high as the levels in the summer-early fall period (see the section Direct Relief for Town Residents for more on the number of heads of families on direct relief and the cost of direct relief on a monthly basis) Seasonality in levels of unemployment during the depression years is not unique to The Pas It has been a feature of levels of national unemployment for many years The term "seasonally adjusted unemployment" reflects this national reality While newspaper accounts noted changes in the number of heads of families on direct relief I did not come across any account that made the link between these increases and reductions and the availability and types of seasonal employment men might be able to find Since much of road 49

60 construction was largely a summer based activity it is probable that some of the unemployed on direct relief in the winter were able to find some summer road construction employment (see the section Public Works: Road Construction) Employment on the railway "extra gangs" that maintained the railway road beds would likely have been another source of summer work For example, in May of 1933 the newspaper reported that a steam shovel was going up the line to Prospector to begin work on a new gravel pit being opened there About 50 men would be employed in the pit and 130 men on the track, in addition to the section gangs already working on the line Not all the seasonal work was summer work The logging camps of The Pas Lumber Company were winter operations After 1932 these camps were much smaller than they had been in the heyday of the 1920's, and it seems that most of the men employed in them worked in the mill during its season of operation On December 21, 1934 the paper carried a report of a logging operation at a camp about 45 miles south west of The Pas along the Carrot River, where 70 men were employed Here the target tree was jack pine to be used for railway ties During the previous winter of operation 50,000 ties were brought down to The Pas, and it was anticipated that the output for the winter of would be 75,000 to 100,000 ties These would be floated to The Pas in the spring and delivered to the CNR Unemployment in The Pas in Perspective In the early '30's the situation was dire, but by the middle of the 1930's the worst of the unemployment was over in The Pas If the number of heads of families and single individuals on direct relief is a good indicator, unemployment levels were modest by the mid 1930's compared to those recorded in 1931 With a labour force ill the town of around 1,000 to 1,200 the levels of unemployment, even in the winter, were under 8%, and were considerably lower in the summer - a far cry from the 415% reported in the census of ; -{ <]$ ( WFI""', ;: r : For those dependent on seasonal employment, direct relief functioned like employment insurance, or if you prefer the older term, unemployment insurance For those unable to find any employment, it functioned more like welfare For those who had no employment or could find only seasonal employment, I'm sure it was cold comfort that the rates of unemployment were no longer so high For them and their families life was a constant struggle to make ends meet (see the section How Much Financial Support Did The Receive in the section Direct Relief) However, an observation in the "Family History" section of the volume edited by SJAllen comments on the contribution of the lumber company to local employment and unemployment, noting that: " the mainstay of our economy, The Pas Lumber Company, kept operating, providing employment for many people and probably making The Pas more fortunate than other communities suffering through the depression years" (p216) 50

61 While the logging camps were closed in the winter of and the mill did not open in the spring of 1932, for most of the depression years the mill was an important source of employment each milling season for around 300 to 400 men, some of whom were also employed in the logging camps during the winter months The railways, also, continued to provide an important source of employment for some local residents during this period The following table helps put unemployment levels in The Pas into a broader perspective Average Annual Unemployment Rates in Canada, 1929 to 1940 Year Rate Year Rate l Source: Struthers, James (1933), Appendix 1, p215 In and 1931 the unemployment rate in The Pas was well in excess of the national rate By 1934, if not byl 932, it was well below the national rate 51

62 Protests and Retribution Marches, demonstrations, and even riots, were a feature of the depression years In western Canada grievance and dissatisfaction reached a high point in with the organisation by the Communist Party of the Relief Camp Strike and the On-to-Ottawa Trek In "The Winter Years, The Depression in the Prairies" Gray (1966) viewed this as the Communist Party's belated reprisal for Prime Minister Bennett's attempt to destroy it, and for the imprisonment of Communist leaders Gray gives a graphic account of the riot in Regina by relief camp strikers taking part in the On-to Ottawa Trek "From the Market Square, the riot surged back and forth onto Eleventh Avenue for three hours Every store window between Scarth and Cornwall was shattered Teargas filled Tenth and Eleventh avenues and the Mounties rode up and down on horseback to break up the rioters At the end of the riot, a city detective, Charles Miller, was dead, a dozen policemen had been seriously fnjured, half a dozen civilians had been shot, and more than 100 had been injured by police clubs or roclrs thrown by the strikers In addition to the eight trek leaders, the Mounties took thirtysix people into custody and the city police arrested forty" (p157) Marches, demonstrations and riots were not restricted to large urban centres On September 29, 1931, Estevan was the scene of a violent clash between district coal miners and police The toll in this confrontation was three miners dead and 12 injured, including five miners, six policemen and a bystander Eleven strikers were arrested Marches and Demonstrations The Pas was likewise the location of a number of marches and demonstrations One was referred to by the local paper as a "free-for-all row with the police in front of the Community Building and the arrest of eight men and a girl" Marchers held banners proclaiming: "Give Us Three Meals a Day, a Job, or Send Us To Jail" "We Cannot Live on Fish Alone" "We Demand Work or Full Maintenance, Also Non-Contributory Unemployment Insurance " "Do Not Laugh At Us Today - Tomorrow You Will Be In Our Ranks" And most poignant of all: "You Like Us With Full Pockets But You Hate Us With Empty Stomachs" The first account of protests in The Pas that I found was an article in the paper headlined "Will Parade Again If No Action Taken" It reported that 400 of the town's jobless had packed the Ukrainian Hall the previous day Speakers strongly condemned the inaction of the provincial and federal governments The following day, M,,y 23, 1930, a parade was scheduled for the afternoon, and would carry a banner "Work, or Three Meals a Day or Jail" The paper reported that the parade was a consequence of no definite action by the federal government in response to a telegram sent by those at an earlier protest meeting 52

63 IP at JP -' I'S if?''' Jf P?,/ DI c 'Ill 7"/' (?;-;-;' ' Three marches were held in the spring of 1931, each documented in detail in The Northern Mail The first was held on May 15 The newspaper headline the following day read "Unemployed Men Stage Big Parade in The Pas: Hundreds in March Along Streets Here" Speeches were given in both English and Ukrainian to about 500 men and women gathered just north of the Ukrainian Hall on Crossley A venue An orderly march, joined by more people, proceeded through the principal streets of the town It disbanded on Fischer A venue after asking the town council to take action to aid them In response Dr Robertson, mayor of The Pas, sent a telegram to Premier Bracken, saying: "Some 800 people, one half of them outsiders, respectfully and in orderly manner, but in desperation, paraded the streets this afternoon demanding work or provisions, and carrying banners, one bearing the inscription "We Cannot Live on Fish Alone", which is actually the plight of very many They dispersed quietly after demanding the town council secure from responsible authorities a definite reply to their requests for work or food by Monday noon People here anxiously waitingyour government begin construction work on The Pas highway and Clearwater Lake road Something must be done by some government to relieve the acute unemployment situation here immediately We think that both the Provincial and Federal governments have a responsibility A most serious and distressing situation now exists here The Town of The Pas is absolutely unable to handle the situation which becomes more acute every day Please give immediate reply" A similar telegram was sent to RJ Manion, federal minister of Railways and Canals The emphasis in this telegram was that it was the understanding from earlier assurances that 65 percent of labouring men now engaged for work on the Hudson Bay railway and the port facilities at Churchill would be hired from The Pas and district The May 15th march was followed by another on May 20th in which about 450 men and women paraded from the Ukrainian Hall to the Community Building Demands were presented in a more strident fashion than before, with a request that they be forwarded to provincial and federal authorities They said: "We the unemployed in the town of The Pas are not satisfied with the replies received to our demands from the federal and provincial governments and therefore protest against them We further demand work or full maintenance immediately, for locals and non-locals on federal and provincial government expense We further demand non-contributory unemployment insurance " This petition was signed by six men and one young woman on behalf of the unemployed The mayor met with the committee, and received the requests He told them that he strongly objected to the use of the word "demand" in the petition, and pointed out that the federal government had definitely refused to consider any plan for non-contributory unemployment insurance He promised that he would forward their demands without comment to provincial and federal authorities He also 53

64 told them of the telegrams sent to Ottawa and Winnipeg, and of the replies received There is no report in the newspaper of the nature of the replies he had received, suggesting that thy did not amount to anything significant The protesters announced plans for a third parade to hear the replies to the latest telegram the mayor was sending on their behalf to Winnipeg and Ottawa The third march took place On May 27, 1931 extended newspaper headlines read: "PARADERS POLICE CLASH IN THE PAS: Nine Men and One Girl in Court Today; Charges are Remanded and Bail is Fixed; POLICE, MOB IN STREET ROW, No Serious Casualties in Melee at Courthouse" The newspaper reported that: Police and the unemployed battled on the streets of The Pas for the first time late yesterday afternoon at the conclusion of the third unemployment parade Eight men and one 17 year old girl were arrested as a result of the miniature riot which attracted a crowd of hundreds of citizens" About 250 unemployed, fewer in number than at previous marches, started at the Ukrainian Hall on Crossley A venue, then paraded along Second Street and up Fischer A venue to the Community Building They sang the "Internationale" as they walked along in fours, ten or twelve women among them A delegation of five, including one woman, left the gathering and went into the Community Building They demanded food for non- residents, a demand turned down by Police Chief Coghill on instructions from the town council The delegation quietly withdrew and returned to the group gathered in front of the Community Building The paraders moved forward to the sidewalk in front of the Community Building and, led by one of the delegation, began to sing "The Red Flag" According to the newspaper report, Chief Coghill then ordered one of the men to stand back off the sidewalk "The man refused, and forced the policeman's hand from him The Chief shoved him again and when he still refused to get off the sidewalk Chief Coghill grabbed his arm George Ingram, another town policeman, took the other arm, and the pair started to move the demonstrator into the Community Building This appeared to be a signal for a general attack by the unemployed They swept over the sidewalk and obtained release of the prisoner By force of numbers they were driving back the two town police when a squad of provincial policemen rushed down the steps of the building and swept into the crowd For three minutes a pitched battle raged Police billies, and fists mingled with clubs Only for a short time did the unemployed line hold They broke and retreated closely followed by police In little knots however, they met along Fischer Avenue and at the corner of Third and Edwards under the tongue of Rosie 0 'Gradnyk, 17 year old girl and committee member, they stopped Rosie carried one of the banners under which they had been marching Police attempted to take it away from her but she clang to it crying "It's a free country" She urged the men to protect her and the banner She was grabbed by two town policem,en and rushed toward the Community Building struggling and - -,alfl - - l - 54

65 kicking A number of stones were thrown by the men as the police forced her along the street Gradually the scene became quieter Hundreds of citizens were gathered along Third Street and at the Community Building The unemployed, however, melted away Police patrolled the streets for several hours afterward but there was no further trouble Nine men and one woman were arrested" The report suggests that police action (grabbing the arm of the protestor who refused to move off the sidewalk, and attempting to move him into the Community Building) was a signal for the general attack by the unemployed Rather than it being a signal, it could equally have been a predictable response The report states that the delegates left the Community Building quietly after their demands were refused, and rejoined their group which then moved forward on to the sidewalk and started singing "The Red Flag" At this point Chief Coghill came out of the Community Building and ordered one of the demonstrators off the sidewalk Perhaps the singing was a red flag to Chief Coghill If the protestors had been ignored, might they not have disbanded once they had finished sin&ing? - -c-, - r " The initial fate of the protestors who were arrested was reported in The Northern Mail on May 29th, May 30th and June 3rd, 1931 Of the nine men arrested one case was dismissed by Magistrate Ridyard For the remaining 8, as a consequence of such charges as unlawful assembly, obstruction of the police and disturbing the peace, sentences ranged from one to two months of hard labour in the jail at Dauphin, except for the man deemed to be the ringleader He received a four month sentence In sentencing the men Magistrate Ridyard stated that deportation would be recommended by him should any of!hem appear before him again ""T The headline of June 3, 1931 read "Rosie O'Gradnyk Given One Year On Probation" Rosie, 17 years of age, was tried in juvenile court and was found guilty of charges of obstructing an officer and being a member of an unlawful assembly Magistrate Ridyard gave her a brieflecture, pointing out the seriousness of her actions before placing her on probation It was further reported that after the court session Rosie thanked Magistrate Ridyard and promised that she would not take part in similar activity in the future I must admit I have considerable admiration for young Rosie O'Gradnyk Deportation Gray (1966) observed: " as if racial intolerance was not enough, a new terror for new Canadians began to stalk the land in the form of Immigration Officers with deportation orders in their hands" (p131) In 1931 the Communist Party was outlawed and under Section 90 of the Criminal Code party leaders were arrested and sent to jail Aliens suspected of Communist activity were taken secretly to Halifax for deportation Deportation did not start or end with alien Communists or the foreign born, as British subjects were also seized and returned to the United Kingdom Deportation, according to 55

66 Gray, became a useful and popular treatment for cutting down on municipal relief costs, and over the next two years more than 10,000 new Canadians (those without citizenship papers) were deported and twice as many, mainly of British birth, left voluntarily Pierre Berton in "The Great Depression, " details the deportation system, noting that: "In the worst years of the Depression from 1930 to 1935, Canada deported more than twenty-eight thousand men and women, either because they were radicals or because they made the mistake of asking for relief Unless they were naturalized citizens they had no chance: they were hustled aboard steamships leaving/or the old country, often secretly and with no right of appeal" (pp ) Berton's full story left me shaking my head in disbelief! In The Pas Magistrate Ridyard had warned the men arrested and charged after the clash between paraders and the police on May 26, 1931 that he would recommend deportation should any of them appear before him again Deportation, however, was more swift than Magistrate Ridyard suggested A September 14 newspaper article reported that the five of the protestors given the shorter sentences would be deported on release from the jail in Dauphin, and steps had been taken by police to have the other two deported on their release from prison It is likely that not only were they foreign born but, given thatthey had been singing the "Internationale" and "The Red Flag", were suspected of being Communists A headline on March 2, 1932 read "120 Unnaturalized Men Examined Before Board: Extensive Hearings Here on Deportation" A board of enquiry was being held in The Pas by the federal Department of Immigration and Colonization The board, headed by an official of the federal immigration department from Winnipeg, was looking into the cases of 120 unnaturalized men who were without employment and were on relief The newspaper noted that: "Anyone appearing before the board of enquiry has the right to appeal against deportation to the minister of immigration Under a recent ruling the minister personally must make the decision in such cases" There was no indication in this report that the board had made any decision on deportation in these cases On July 16, 1932 the paper reported that seven more people were deported from The Pas, and that they were enroute to their homes in Poland accompanied from The Pas by officers of the immigration department It was added that this brought the total number of man deported from The Pas to 37 The final sentence in this account read as follows: "The men are returning to their homes by virtue of being unemployed and having become public charges in that they are given relief' These men did not come to Canada illegally They were admitted to Canada because their labour was wanted They, like thousands of Canadian-born, became unemployed with the deepening of the depression For the vast majority of those deported their only crime was that they accepted relief, rather than choose to starve, and thus they became public charges For this they could be deported - and many were 56

67 ::: ui' -} -1 l - -,, -""- - w - Public Works in Town Public works that delivered improvements to a town's infrastructure and public facilities were one way in which employment and relief were extended to the unemployed during the 1930's A Local Initiative The first report I came across on a public works initiative in The Pas was in The Northern Mail of June 20, 1931 The headline read "Extensive Improvements Effected in The Pas" The extensive program of public works, described in detail, included ditching, grading and graveling of streets and lanes, additions to sewerage facilities, the planting of 100 elms along streets, and repairs to public buildings and grounds that included repairs to the children's playground, painting of buildings and the planting of shrubs and flower plots in Devon Park This appears to have been an entirely local initiative, without provincial or federal assistance Another report of June 20 noted that 300 residents of The Pas were out of work This figure included only married and single men who had been residents and taxpayers of The Pas for a period of years At any one time 100 were at work for the town on a three-day-a-week basis and they were to be alternated, to provide relief employment for all of them By July 13, 1931 the program was nearly completed and had cost in the neighbourhood of$10,000 The Town Seeks Joint Funding To provide employment to the town's unemployed the town was eager to undertake further public works, even before these locally funded projects were completed On June 30, 1931 a headline read "Relief Program of Public Works Proposed Here, $60, 000 Plan to be Drawn Up For Board" A plan costing between $60,000 and $75,000 was to be submitted to the municipal and public utilities board for its approval, and if approved and the work actually carried out, then 113 of the cost would be borne by the town and 113 by each of the federal and provincial governments respectively For this to occur, however, several hurdles would have to be overcome The town's share would be between $20,000 and $25,000 The town could only raise this through the sale of debentures, which would in tum require approval by the municipal and public utilities board, the provincial watchdog for municipal expenditures In addition, to fund such a program, both the provincial and federal governments would have to give their approval In 1931 both levels of government were fiscally conservative and both were overwhelmed by the impacts of high levels of unemployment and requests for assistance from municipalities These realities operated to stifle local initiatives It is also likely that the municipal and public utilities board played a necessary role in limiting the level of the town's indebtedness This particular proposal appears to have been unsuccessful With the very high level of unemployment in The Pas in 1931 the town council was convinced that dramatic action was required It was clearly frustrated by the inaction of both the provincial and the federal governments Concern was likely heightened by the marches and demonstrations that occurred in town in both 1930 and 1931 On September 9, 1931 a series ofheadlines read: "Council Decides on $185, 000 Relief; Town Being Ignored by Gov 't; Resolution for Immediate Action is Passed; To Sell Bonds for $40, 000; Will Ask 57

68 Govt For Assistance in Selling Bonds" The resolution passed by council read: "That as the town of The Pas has submitted a program of civic improvements to the extent of $185, 000 and are further prepared to contribute $40, 000 as their share on a basis of , the council therefore desire assurance from the provincial government that they will carry out their obligations on the aforesaid basis and that this resolution be forwarded tonight by wire" By this date the formula for public works had been changed from 1/3-1/3-1/3 to 50% federal, 30% provincial and 20% municipal The council's resolution was based on a program developed by the town engineer, Mr Williams However it is clear that the funding request was unlikely to be granted Mayor Robertson noted that, at a recent conference with provincial authorities, Premier Bracken had indicated that the provincial contribution to public works in The Pas would not be more than $10,000 The mayor had apparently told Premier Bracken that if a bond sale by the town of $40,000 was approved, a $100,000 public works program could be funded: $50,000 federal, $10,000 provincial, and $40,000 municipal - a significant departure, in the province's favour, from the formula noted above The Pas did get a public works program in 1931 On September 22 the relevant headline read "Local Relief Projects to Get Underway Next Week, $6,666 to be expended on Works Here" Yes, you read this correctly - the magnificent sum of $6,666 was the amount allotted to The Pas for relief work Not surprisingly the town's councillors were of the view that the amount allotted was entirely inadequate Men to be engaged were to be selected by the health and welfare relief committee, and a decision was reached to pay 35 cents an hour to men employed on civic improvement work The money allotted did not last long, as a report of October 1, 1931 indicated that the work would be completed in two weeks It was further noted that: "Civic officials stated today that the situation was desperate More than 600 transients will have registered here as jobless before the provincial registration is completed" When the $6,666 modest public work program was nearing completion town council laid out a further proposal On October 20, 1931 a headline read "Council Plans New Relief Program Worth $75,000, FourthPlanfor ReliefisProposed, WouldEntail $40,000BondSale by The Pas, Plan Vote of Ratepayers" This proposal by the town was quite complex The first step required approval from the municipal and public utilities board of the province, to sell debentures to the value of $40,000 If the debenture sale was approved only part of the money would be used for new public works The mayor's suggestion was that $10,000 of the $40,000 be used to reduce bank debt, $10,000 be used for relief programs (including the town's share of the $6,666 program just completed), leaving at least $15,000 for the town's share of the new public works program of about $75,000 Using the 50/30/20 formula, the federal share would be about $37,000, the provincial share $22,000, and the town's share $15,000 This was not the final outcome A headline of December 16, 1931 read "Relief Work to Start Immediately, $40,000 Loan, Now Ratified, Frame By-Law for $22,000 to Pay Bank Debt, $41,000 58

69 Civic Improvement Program to Start" From this account and subsequent accounts it would seem that the details of the plan were as follows The municipal and public utilities board had approved the sale of debentures by the town to the total of$40,000 Of this amount $10,000 was guaranteed by the provincial government Of the $40,000 available from the sale of debentures $22,000 was used to pay off bank indebtedness On December 23 the $22,000 debenture loan by-law was approved by the town's ratepayers by a verdict of 160 to 31 About 84 % voted in favour - well past the 60% majority needed for the vote to carry With $22,000 of the $40,000 debenture used to retire bank debt, $18,000 was left for other purposes The allocations were not specified in their entirety The civic improvement (public works) program was to cost $41,666 The town's share, at 20% of the total, would only be about $8,300, leaving a surplus of nearly $10,000 If it was used to pay off the town's share of the earlier $6,666 public works program, then a further $1,300 would be accounted for I presume that any balance was used for other projects undertaken by the town alone and to meet the town's share of the costs of providing direct relief, plus other expenses such as hospital care for the indigent Given the level of unemployment in the town this $41,666 public works program was modest in scale Nevertheless it was the largest such program undertaken in The Pas during the depression years that was jointly funded by all three levels of government The public works carried out through this program involved the laying of sewer and water mains on Taylor Avenue from Fourth to Eight Street, on Patrick Avenue from First to Third Street, and on Crossley A venue from Second to Third Street The other major undertaking was the installation of a sewer lift on Fourth Street mid way between Taylor and Larose Avenues This required construction of an almost entirely underground structure with pumps and machinery located about twenty feet below the surface The actual number of men employed on these public works projects was not reported According to the plan, men were to be employed in rotation, in order to spread out the work and the relief benefits it offered 5;/-::- On May 3, 1932 The Northern Mail reported that: "Approximately $24, 000 was paid for labour for public works in The Pas carried out under the unemployment relief scheme during the period starting December 15, 1931, and ending April 30, 1932, this exclusive of the cost of supervision and timekeeping, GA Williams, town engineer told council in his general report on the work tabled at the meeting last night" The town engineer told council that: "When all the costs are available I will report to you on the cost of the works and in conclusion I wish to say that in my opinion we have secured a good and substantial job notwithstanding the season of the year in which it was done Naturally we must expect a much higher labour cost than would have prevailed for summer work We used considerable quantities of wood for thawing purposes but even with this help it was necessary to fight frozen ground most of the time" 59

70 Most of the manual labour must have involved digging trenches with the use of picks and shovels in the middle of winter in order to lay the water and sewer pipes The public works program lasted about four and a half months Given levels of unemployment in the town it is likely that as many men as possible were hired on If as many as 200 men were employed in rotation this would yield an income of$12000 for each man across the four and a half month period A Federal Public Works Project During the early years of the depression the federal government funded one noteworthy project in The Pas, according to a number of reports in The Northern Mail It reported that by late September 1931 tenders had been called for a new federal building A report of October 22 stated that a Moose Jaw firm, the same company that had built the telephone exchange in town in 1928, had been awarded the contract, with a tender of$43,125 The site for the new building, on the north-east comer of Fischer A venue at Second Street, had been readied for construction by August of 1931 A photograph of the new federal building to house both the Post Office and the Customs Office appeared in The Northern Mail on Saturday, September 24, 1932 It was described as a "commodious structure" with a ground floor space measuring 56 by 85 feet, with a second storey 56 by 46 feet in the forepart of the building The newspaper accounts gave no indication of the amount of employment that its construction provided to local townspeople It is likely that the Moose Jaw firm brought in its own skilled trades people The post office and customs house was, I believe, the most substantial building constructed in The Pas between 1932 and 1953, the year that the new high school, later named the Margaret Barbour Collegiate, was built facing Third Street between Ross and Cook Avenue The Pas Post Office 60

71 Direct Relief As McPherson points out: "At first government funds were directed primarily to relief works which were considered useful to the public good and also helpful for the self respect of the individual By 1932 such programs were thought to be too costly and direct relief, in cash or in vouchers became the focus of most relief spending, especially in urban areas " (plate 42) From data provided by Struthers (Appendix 111, p219) I was able to calculate the extent of the shift from public works programs to direct relief to families and individuals In 1930 and 1931 federal disbursements for public works exceeded disbursements for direct relief by ratios of 35 to 1 and 25 to 1 respectively By 1932 and 1933, however, direct relief disbursements exceeded public works by ratios of 172 to 1 and 8 7 to 1 The shift from public works to direct relief occurred around this time in The Pas An article of April 19, 1932 in The Northern Mail discussing the relief works program soon to be completed read in part: "In accordance with a recently announced policy of the federal government these workswill be fully completed it is believed, but no new works will be undertaken In this connection there was read at last night's meeting a letter from A McNamara, assistant deputy minister of public works pointing out that after May 1 federal and provincial aid will be restricted to direct relief only " The $41,666 public works program in The Pas was completed on April 30, 1932 It was the town's last jointly funded public works program of the depression years Direct Relief for Single Transient Men and Other Single Men As Struthers observed regarding direct relief: "Until 1932 the mqjority of recipients were unskilled casual labourers, many of them immigrants, who had few personal resources and slight hold on their jobs" (p 71) This was certainly the case in The Pas In both 1930 and 1931 the town was full of unemployed single men, many of them immigrants They congregated in The Pas in hope of finding employment along the Hudson Bay rail line or in Churchill, where work was underway on the port facilities and grain elevator In the early 1930's there were jobs in Churchill, albeit for only a fraction of those seeking employment there In June of 1931 the Census of Canada reported the population of the Churchill district as 1,813 The construction boom was still underway in Churchill in the summer of 1931 In 1941, by way of contrast, the population of the Churchill district was only 406 The first report on direct relief that I came across in the newspaper was from May 17, 1930 The headline read "Bread to be Supplied to Unemployed by Town, Emergency Meeting of Council Decides on Action " The resolution drafted by council read: "That the unemployed of this town who are in necessitous circumstances are to be 61

72 fed one loaf of bread each day starting tomorrow morning, Saturday May 17, 19 30, and that the police keep tab on each and all recipients and that the provincial q,nd federal governments be asked to pay at least fifiy percent of the cost " It seems that the town councils emergency meeting and decision to provide bread was, in part at least, a response to a parade of 400 unemployed with a banner reading "Work or Bread" Telegrams were sent by the Mayor, BM Stitt to TBird, MP for Nelson constituency and the Hon PHeenan, Minister of Labour in the federal government The telegram read: "More than 600 labourers brought in by the railway last month parading the streets of town demanding work or bread We feel the situation is a federal responsibility Immediate action is necessary to avoid trouble Town of The Pas not financially able to handle situation Kindly ascertain the government's attitude on the matter " A few days later, on May 20, 1930, a headline read "Burden Left on the Town Members Say, No Satisfaction Given by Federal Authorities, 400 Men in Bread Line" Neither Winnipeg nor Ottawa had done anything beyond stating that they would look into the matter The situation, the paper pointed out, occurred in no other town of the same size in the country, and the town could not afford the expense entailed With no assistance forthcoming from either the federal or provincial authorities a special meeting of town council made the decision to terminate relief On May 27, 1930 a headline read "Breadline Here to End June 2nc1 " Less than 100 of the unemployed, the article noted, were citizens of The Pas Unemployed men were advised to leave The Pas as there were no prospects for work on the Hudson Bay Railway or in Churchill No indication was given about how many transient men took this advice Shortly after the marches and demonstrations of May 1931 the federal and provincial governments assumed responsibility for direct relief for single transient males in The Pas, and, from what I can gather, also for single men who qualified as residents of the town On September 16, 1931 the newspaper reported that more than 200 transients were receiving direct relief in the form of one meal a day I think that this was in exchange for working one day a week on the Rall's Island Road (see the section on Public Works: District Road Construction) The joint federal-provincial program of direct relief for transients came to an end in the summer of 1932 On August 8, 1932 The Northern Mail carried the following account "Direct relief to transients in The Pas will stop this afternoon with the issuing of meal tickets to some 125 men here as they make their final parade at the fire hall The tickets purchase food to the value of 35 cents, and have been issued daily to unemployed non-residents of The Pas for the past year or so The provincial and federal governments have paid for the direct relief to transients in The Pas because of the unusual situation prevailing here, with transients from all parts of western Canada and the north country staying here Interviewed today most of the transients were planning to ri<}e the rails to the harvest fields of western Canada Dozens, 62

73 however, will remain in The Pas, hoping that some work will open up " A headline of August 15, 1932 read "No Further Relief for Single Men to be Given" The paper elaborated that "Relief officials in The Pas today officially notified single men that no further help would be given here until further instructions were received" Within a few months assistance of a different kind was made available to single men On December 1, 1932 The Northern Mail carried the following account: "A dining hall for single unemployed men, the first to be established in The Pas, will open this afternoon at 4 o'clock and be conducted throughout the winter months under supervision of the provincial government NS Tate, government engineer, will have charge here The dining hall will be in The Pas Lumber Company's boarding house on First Street in Fingerville It is expected that in the neighbourhood of seventy men will be fed The cooks and staff of the hall will be composed entirely of single unemployed men" Mr Tate, in discussing this initiative with Mr McNamara, chief of the labor bureau and relief officer for the province, pointed out that some people had suggested to him that establishment of a dining hall would be subject to local criticism On hearing that the only other option was to send the men out to relief camps Mr Tate felt that the dining hall option was preferable A short time later, as related in the newspaper on January 10, 1933, twenty of the town's unemployed single men left for a federal government relief camp at Prince Albert National Park One of the twenty initially drafted refused to go and was cut off from the list of boarders at the lumber company's boarding house His place, it was reported, was filled by a volunteer By June of 1933 a relief camp was being established a few miles south of town near Young's Point This became a destination for some portion of the town's single unemployed men (see the section on The Relief Camp) By 1934 thereappears to have been another change of policy On August 21, 1934 it was reported that the relief commission, jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments, was to continue to provide relief for single homeless (transient) men in The Pas The town was required to pay 1/3 of the cost for single men with residential qualifications From all that I had read in the newspaper accounts it seemed apparent that the provincial and federal governments had assumed responsibility for direct relief for single men in The Pas, both transient and those who qualified as residents, sometime after May of 1931 I was, therefore, surprised to find information on the cost of direct relief for single men in the town's detailed statements of maintenance and operation expenses In both 1931 and 1932 these costs were recorded, although it is clear that the costs were NOT shared by the town In 1931 the entry read: ''Provincial Relief: Rebated and Charged $14, , Disbursed $14,24690", and a credit of $11675 was entered and subtracted from the town's portion of the 118: direct relief costs that it shared with the federal and provincial governments In 1932 the entry read: I" "Provincial Relief Paid by Provincial, Dominion Governments $16, 34445, Disbursed $16, ", and a credit of $349 was entered and subtracted from the town's share of direct relief costs 63

74 The only conclusion I can come to is that, while the provincial and federal governments paid the direct relief costs, the town looked after the cost of disbursement of the monies - I presume in the form of tickets to purchase food to the value of35 cents daily In both 1931 and 1932 the cost of direct relief for single men was in excess of the cost of direct relief for town residents, who were for the most part heads of families These costs, as is documented in the section of direct relief for town residents, were $9,783 in 1931 and $10,348 in 1932, of which the town paid one-third As evidenced by the level of support forthcoming for single men in 1931 and 1932, it would seem that the unique nature of the unemployment problem in The Pas in the early 1930's was recognized by the provincial and federal governments At 35 cents a day, the $14,24690 disbursed in The Pas in 1931 would have supported about 112 men for a full year, and the $16,34096 disbursed in 1932 would have supported about 128 men How the men managed other aspects of their lives, such as shelter, remains unanswered During the early spring of 1931 large numbers of single transient men congregated in The Pas hoping to find employment along the Hudson Bay Railway or in Churchill Five hundred men massed in The Pas and receiving 35 cents a day for even a couple of months (60 days) would lead to the disbursement of $10,500 It is likely that both in 1931 and in 1932 disbursement of direct relief to single transient men was concentrated during the spring and summer months of each year Direct Relief for Town Residents A program of direct relief for town residents was in place by 1931 Costs were shared between the municipality and the provincial and federal governments The Northern Mail reported on September 22, 1931 that the town's share of direct relief costs was to be 25% Based on information detailed earlier, the federal share was 50% and the provincial share 25% In December of 1932 the newspaper reported that the town's share of direct relief to residents was 1 /3 of the total Subsequent newspaper reports reiterated that the town's share was 1 /3 Presumably the provincial and federal governments' shares were also 1/3 each However, based on information available for the period August 1, to July 31, 1938, it is clear that by this date the town's share of the cost was 30% The town was also responsible for all the costs associated with administration of direct relief - costs which must have been considerable While the federal and provincial governments had agreed to jointly fund most of the cost of direct relief, they were clearly concerned to keep their costs as low as possible, as the following indicates RELIEF NOTICE "The Council of The Pas pointed out today that the Federal and Provincial Governments have asked for a curtailment of relief costs and only those that are absolutely destitute will be given relief from now on, and then this will be restricted to small amounts All able bodied men are expected to take work offered them and under no condition ]Vil! the Relief Commission countenance cases where work is 64

75 refused for any sum whatever While it is true that many men cannot obtain steady monthly employment it is expected that they shall use their own efforts to secure hourly or daily work It has come to the attention of the local relief Commission that men have actually quit jobs themselves and then asked for relief Records of all these activities are being rigidly kept, and this is a warning to everyone that they must earn what they can to support themselves Those seeking work should record their names at the Citizens Employment Office and watch the bulletin boards for positions offered" (The Northern Mail, September 5, 1934) Changes were made periodically to the eligibility criteria for direct relief It was reported in January that seven heads of families and their dependents were now solely a municipal responsibility because of the refusal of the province to grant relief to unemployable heads of families, regardless of how destitute they were On February 25 the paper reported that the town's social services expenses would increase as a result of the new Dominion- Provincial ruling widening the classification of unemployables The town's municipal aid expenses, expected to be $1, 100 in 193 7, would increase to $2,800 in 1938 The Cost of Direct Relief in The Pas Annual Cost in Dollars of Direct Relief and Range by Highest and Lowest Month 1931to1941 Year Annual Cost 9,783 10,348 20,199 13,227 9,868 14,085 12,659 14,139 16,708 15,534 7,051 Highest Month(A) Lowest Month(B) 2,599 (Jan) 787 (Sept) 1,713 (Feb) 377 (Oct) 1,269 (Dec) 453 (Sept) 1,731 (Feb) 455 (Oct) 1,566 (Feb) 503 (Oct) 1,735 (Apr) 1,064 (Oct) 1,248 (Feb) 246 (Nov) Bas%ofA Source: Statement of Expenditure - Direct Relief, Town of The Pas, Manitoba, 1933 and 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Maintenance and Operation Expenses, Schedule "l", 1931and1932, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum The Northern Mail, 1934to1940 Note: I found no reports of monthly costs for the years 1931, 1932, 1938 and 1940 As the table shows, ti}, highest annual cost of direct relief occurred in 1933, when it was over $20,000 It declined steeply to under $10,000 by 1935, but increased in 1936 and then remained fairly constant from 1936 to 1940 By 1941, the last year of the jointly funded direct relief program, 65

76 the cost was less than half of that incurred in 1940 Costs varied widely on a monthly basis Costs were consistently highest during the winter months and into early spring, and lower in the summer and early fall For example, in 1936 the cost of direct relief for the four month period January through April was $6,496 In contrast the cost from August through November was only $2, 117, a two-thirds reduction (see Appendix B for a table that details monthly relief costs for the years such data were available) Some of the men on relief were able to find employment across the summer and fall months However, with the onset of winter and the end of temporary employment they would have to go back on relief since the money earned was insufficient to carry them and their family through the winter months Others, unable to find seasonal employment or unable to undertake demanding physical labor remained on relief all year Some were on relief year after year How Many People Received Direct Relief in The Pas? Date March 1933 August 1933 December 1934 September 1935 November 1935 April 1936 May 1936 November 1936 December 1936 January 1937 February 1937 September December August 1938 September 1938 December December 1939 April1940 December 1940 February 1941 December 1941 Number of Recipients of Direct Relief in The Pas 1933 to 1941 Heads of Families Dependents Single Individuals Total «1n 3 no ,,, ( ( rill,_ Note: A dash ( - ) indicates that the information was provided by the newspaper report Just as the monthly cost of direct relief varied from year to year and month to month, so did the number of recipients The number of recipients is only available on a monthly basis for the years 1933 and 1941 In addition there were sporadic reports of the number of recipients in the local 66

77 -' ' - -;-?" - P/- ""'!-'/ -,,,-"'-:-- c;p,_/' ""s-- e/ -J> ""''? newspaper For the above table I selected the highest and lowest months for 1933 and 1941, supplemented by the sporadic reports to provide some idea of the number of direct relief recipients across the years It is reasonable to conclude that the number of direct relief recipients was highest in 1933, the year of highest direct relief cost The March 1933 numbers shown in the above table are nearly matched by the numbers for January, February, April and May of that same year In March of 1933 the detailed report submitted by the town to the province recorded 137 heads of families with 517 dependents and 2 single individuals on direct relief This does not, however, tell the whole story, since other reports indicate that in the winter of 1933 somewhere between 120 and 125 transient males were also receiving support from the joint provincial-federal program This would mean a total of about 780 individuals on direct relief at that time Since the town's population was somewhere between 3,600 and 3,700 at the time, this means that about 22% of the population of The Pas was relying on direct relief Across the twelve months of 1933 the number of heads of families on direct relief ranged from 13 7 down to 44, but averaged 91 This average is likely higher than the number reported for any subsequent month across the years 1934 to 1940 By i 941 the situation had improved markedly, as the cost for that year also showed The numbers of recipients were much lower, with 41 heads of families, 136 dependents and 11 single individuals receiving direct relief in February, the worst month, but only a total of22 on relief by the end of the year Across the twelve months of 1941 the number of heads of families on direct relief averaged just under 20, a far cry from the average of 91 for 1933 Between April and May of 1941 there was a steep decline from 3 6 to 15 in the number of heads of families on relief This can be attributed to the fact that the heads of21 families were among those selected to trap on the Summerberry preserve Despite the lower numbers on relief in 1941 compared to 1933 there were more single individuals on direct relief in 1941 This reflects a change in policy in 1934, as noted earlier According to a newspaper account, in August 1934 the relief commission, jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments, was to continue to provide relief for single transient men in The Pas However, the town was required to pay 1/3 of the cost of single men with residential qualifications How Much Support Did They Receive? How much direct relief did individuals and families receive? Not enough, it would seem The first information I found regarding what people received was about recipient dissatisfaction On August 2, 1932 the newspaper reported that: "Asking steps to be taken to make provision for rent, fuel and clothing, in addition to groceries, a delegation of fifteen unemployed came before council at the meeting last night and in strong terms told of their condition stating that in cases of family men they feared eviction from their homes by reason of non payment of rent The interview with council lasted nearly two hours" A member of the delegation pointed out to council that $600 per week was inadequate for full mintenance for families and would not pay rent, fuel or necessary clothing in addition to groceries 67

78 One suggestion was that welfare recipients be paid 30 cents an hour to obtain wood for the winter, and that the monies so received be viewed as part of the relief payment The mayor pointed out that only direct relief had been approved by the federal and provincial authorities and that any type of public work, such as cutting firewood, was not possible under the current agreement The mayor said that council would assure the delegation that they would continue to receive groceries, but that rent, clothing or fuel could not be provided The requests of the delegation, he said, would be forwarded to the provincial government In November of 1932 the Unemployment Council of The Pas, a local organization of the unemployed, again approached council with a letter from Premier Bracken which stated that the administration of relief in the town was the responsibility of town council Spokesmen for the Unemployed Council claimed that the Winnipeg schedule for relief for families was $5050 per month and for single men $2040 per month, while in The Pas the appropriation for families was $2600 and $1050 for single men Discussion followed, but no resolution was reported It would seem therefore, that while relief vouchers were provided for groceries direct relief did not extend any further A detailed account of correspondence between the town and the provincial minister of public works was reported in the newspaper on December 20, 1932 Apparently the schedule received by the town from the provincial government included food, plus rent, fuel, clothing, etc In its letter the town claimed that under this schedule the town's share of direct relief costs would increase from about $5 50 to $1, 000 a month, a cost the town said it could not bear The town also pointed out that unpaid relief accounts, of$3,500, were held by local merchants, about $3,000 of which was the liability of the town Given the above, the town proposed that the government should take over the cost of unemployment in the town in its entirety The minister, for his part, stated that given the terms of the provincial agreement with the federal government, if the town was unable to pay its share of direct relief costs plus the cost of administration of direct relief, then direct relief would be discontinued The minister pointed out that the schedules forwarded to The Pas were maximum schedules, and that it was "entirely optional with the town as to what they do as long as they are not in excess of the schedule" With the misunderstanding cleared up - that is that the town was not obliged to meet the maximum schedule - The Pas continued to meet its share of direct relief costs Another matter of contention between the town and relief recipients was highlighted by a headline of ApriU8, 1933 which read: "Relief Recipients Askfor Former Voucher Plan, Want Right to Cash Relief Tickets Where They Like" Some time earlier The Pas town council had decided to divide relief orders equitably among all town merchants The petition requested that those receiving relief be allowed to take their vouchers to and buy their goods from the merchant they chose to trade with The petition was turned down by council On October 25, 1933 an account in the paper explained the voucher system that the petitioners wished to change 68

79 Ill _,,,<-;-Y,,, - - -'0-''-- iliiia / -r' '-,_ "Some time ago the system of issuing relief vouchers resulted in them being handed to one or two merchants in town This was not considered a good policy, as mµch was owing in taxes by storekeepers After full consideration it was decided these vouchers with purchases they called for be divided equally among all merchants to fulfill terms laid down by council Now all merchants receive a certain amount of the business arising from relief This in some instances allows the merchant to pay his taxes as a result of the system" While this elaborates on items of contention between the town and its direct relief recipients it does not provide clear evidence as to what those recipients received in way of support The only information I could find on the amount received by direct relief recipients is for the years 1933 and 1941 This information came from detailed monthly reports filed by the town and submitted in quadruplicate to the provincial authority I assume that these monthly accounts of direct relief payments, duly signed by the town's secretary-treasurer and the mayor, were required to be filed before the province would pay the provincial and federal share of the costs back to the town For each of the twelve months across 1933 and 1941 the following are recorded: Name of the Party Receiving Relief; No in Family including Parents, and columns to enter the monthly allocation (cost) for Fuel, Food, Clothing, Shelter, and the Total Cost The following table has been created from these detailed monthly accounts for 1933 and 1941 As noted earlier, the province had set maximums for direct relief, presumably related to family size A municipality could meet, but could not exceed the maximums set As long as it did not exceed the maximums a municipality was free to decide how much (or how little) to allocate for food, fuel, shelter and clothing _, :_ - --??-- - q/ - r" Direct Relief Allocations in The Pas in 1933and $ % Total Exnendiiures 20, ,051 Expenditures for: Food 19, ,409 Fuel Shelter ,010 Clothing Cumulative Annual Total of Monthly No No Relief Recinients* 1, Receiving: Food Vouchers 1, Fuel Allowance Shelter Allowance Clothing Allowance 00 4 % * The number of single individuals and heads of families receiving direct relief each month, totaled across the 12 months of the year Source: Calculafed from monthly reports, Statement of Expenditure - Direct Relief, Town of The Pas Manitoba, 1933 and 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum 69

80 In 1933 food, at nearly 96% of the total, accounted for almost the entirety of direct relief expenditures in The Pas Fuel and shelter were only 24% and 17% of total expenditures respectively \Vhile all recipients received food vouchers only 103% received a fuel allowance Even in the worst winter months (January, February, March and December of 1933) this increased to only 169% of recipients Newspaper accounts suggest that some town council members felt that relief recipients could "rustle for firewood", that is, go and cut it in the bush for themselves, a more reasonable proposition in The Pas than would be the case in the city of Winnipeg - An even smaller percentage of recipients, 41 %, received an allowance for shelter For some direct relief recipients going off relief with seasonal summer and fall employment may have enabled them to make payment of rent arrears before they went back on direct relief in the winter months By 1941 the situation had changed considerably for direct relief recipients Not only had the cost of direct relief dropped to $7,051 from the 1933 high of $20,199, but the percentage of expenditures accounted for by food had declined from 958% to 767% of the total, while the share accounted for by fuel and shelter had increased markedly to 87% and 143% respectively In 1941over29% of recipients received a fuel allowance and nearly 44% received a shelter allowance I was unable to determine whether or not the substantial increase in the share of direct relief expenditures accounted for by fuel and shelter had increased gradually across the years, or whether the town adopted a more generous model of support in 1941 when the number on relief was low In the detailed reports available for and 1941 there is no evidence to suggest that it came at the expense of support for the purchase of food From the monthly reports of direct relief expenditures for 1933 and 1941 I was able to compile the table below which shows the number and percentage of recipients across five categories of monthly allowance Dollar Amounts of Monthly Relief in 1933 and Category Number % Number % $1000 or less >$1000 to< $ $2000 to < $ $3000 or more TOTAL 1, Source: Calculated from monthly reports, Statement of Expenditure - Direct Relief Town of The Pas Manitoba, 1933and1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum The contrast between the two years is quite marked In 1933 nearly 13% (142) of recipients received monthly support of $1000 or less compared with only 5% (16) in 1941 However, across the 12 months of 1941 there were 82 single individuals receiving direct relief compared with only 27 such cases in 1933 The majorityvof single individuals in 1941 received support in excess of $1000 per 70

81 -1l9 month Conversely, in 1933 at best only 27 of the 142 receiving $1000 of less were single 119 individuals - the balance were families of 2 or more persons o0"" m - The contrast is equally striking for the top category - recipients receiving monthly direct relief of $3000 or more In 1933 only 28% (31) of those receiving direct relief were in this category, while JR in 1941over19% (61) received $3000 or more This is largely due to the fact that in 1941 a much ER larger portion of recipients received allowances for shelter and fuel than was the case in 1933, when expenditures on food accounted for 958% of the direct relief budget tr tj9 - _/" 'j;-?-"/ - Since the question posed was "how much did they get?" I thought it useful to extract from the - detailed monthly relief data for 1933 and 1941 what relief recipients who received the most actually IR got per month Note that the vast majority of recipients got considerably less in both 1933 and '?', - r:: What the Top Five Recipients of Direct Relief Received in 1933 and 1941 in Dollars To12 Five in 1933 Food Fuel Shelter Clothing $Total Jan Family of Dec Family of Apr Family of Feb Family of Jan Family of To12 Five in 1941 Jan Family of Feb Family of Mar Family of Feb Family of Jan Family of Source: Extracted from monthly reports, Statement of Expenditure - Direct Relief, Town of The Pas Manitoba, 1933 and 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum For comparison, albeit for 1936, I found the following information for two other Manitoba municipalities in Struthers (Appendix IV, p221) There was no indication as to the proportion of recipients receiving the maximum Maximum Monthly Relief Allowances for a Family of Five in Two Major Municipalities Municipality Brandon Winnipeg $Food $Fuel $Rent $Total* * Total may include other allowances 71

82 I did not find any other information on maximum monthly allowances or how they may have changed across the years of the depression It is important to emphasize that, while maximum monthly allowances were set, it was up to each municipality to decide on the specific allowances allocated to people, so long as they did not exceed the maximum A handful of recipients in The Pas seem to have received close to the maximum monthly allowance The assumption seems to have been that one could feed a family of around 7 people for about $100 a day - hard to believe that would have been possible, even with the thrift and ingenuity that some people were able to summon For the majority of recipients in The Pas in 1933 relief did not extend beyond food vouchers, a situation that had improved markedly by 1941 Even after careful study of the data available, I was not able to find any direct and consistent relationship between family size and the amount of direct relief a family received Nor was I able to uncover the basis for providing some with allowances for fuel and shelter In terms of the allowance for food in I discovered that a family of 2, a family of 5, a family of 9 and a family of 12 were each provided with $2500 It is possible that some families on direct relief had some employment income, but not enough to provide for the whole family so that they qualified for direct relief to meet the short fall The monthly accounts for 1941 have a column labeled "No in family at Work", and such families were still receiving relief While there was no such listing in 1933 it is possible that this may have been a consideration in determination of the allowance a family received, and may account for some of the apparent discrepancies Additional Social Service Costs Prior to the onset of the depression responsibility for providing relieflay with municipalities, whose resources were soon overwhelmed by the impacts of mass unemployment By 1931 the federal and provincial governments had each assumed 1/3 of the cost of providing direct relief, with the balance being paid by each municipality Although this was critical in easing a financial burden that The Pas would not have been able to handle alone, the town still had to cover the cost of a range of other health and social services While the Dominion and provincial governments shared the cost of actual relief, they did not cover the cost of dispensing it Administration of direct relief and its associated costs were the responsibility of each municipality The province, for its part, wanted assurance that a municipality was exercising due diligence The Pas was required to submit monthly accounts in quadruplicate of the direct relief payments to families and single individuals, duly signed by both the town's secretary-treasurer and the mayor In addition, the town regularly bore a number of health and welfare costs, making disbursements to the health department and the hospital, and carrying the cost of social relief or social welfare for town residents In the table on health and welfare costs to the town, these are itemized for the purpose of comparison, the town's share of direct relief costs is also recorded Only in 1933 did the cost of the town's share of direct relief exceed all the other health and welfare costs borne by the town during the years of the depression 72

83 Most of the disbursements to the Health Department were to pay, in whole or in part, the salaries of the town's nurse, the health officer, and the sanitary inspector Costs here were quite modest, ranging from ahighof$1,387in1930 to lows of$610in1932and$640in1933,probably as a consequence of cuts to salaries Disbursements to the hospital ranged from ahighof$5,526 in 1932 to a low of$1,916 in 1939, and averaged just over $3,000 Most of the cost here was incurred as a consequence of the town having responsibility for the hospitalization expenses of the indigent of the town What I have labelled as municipal aid is, in some years, identified in the records as social relief or social welfare It presumably went to the resident needy who did not qualify for direct relief There are indications that increasingly stringent provincial regulations increased the number of people who did not qualify for direct relief, and had to turn to assistance from the municipality This may be, in part, reflected in the increase in the cost of municipal aid from $1,143 in 1937 to $3, 093 in 1938 Health and Welfare Costs in the Town of The Pas 1930 to 1941 till lm 111 "%----,, ;::c '1---- '\-- iliilllla -j 'C'---\,_,,-z:, ''%,c-,-, Source: * Health DeQt Hosnital Munici:Qal Aid Town's Share Total of Direct Relief 1,387 2,115 1,522 5, ,481 1,086 3,012 7, ,526 3,449 9, , ,633 10, ,468 1,006 4,992 11, ,595 1,200 3,885 9,538 1,098 2,765 1,176 3,335 8,374 1,029 2,766 1,143 4,059 8,997 1,071 3,270 3,093 * 4,467 11,901 1,070 1,916 3,187 * 4,031 10,204 1,198 2,009 2,506 * 3,064 8,777 1,145 2,390 2,217 * 2,045 7,797 Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Maintenance and Operation Expenses, to 1936, 1940and1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Towno/The Pas, Revenue and Expenses, Exhibit "B", , TownofThePas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Indicates inclusion of the cost to the town of administering direct relief, averaging $1, 000 annually However, the town also bore the cost of administering direct relief Prior to 1938 these were not identified under municipal aid, and were likely subsumed under general administration costs In this table, therefore, the cost of municipal aid is under reported from 1931 to 1937 The cost of administering direct relief was itemised from 1938 to 1941 It averaged about $1,000 annually, and therefore contributed to the larger costs of municipal aid across these four years 73

84 The Social Welfare Commission Clearly most of the costs of social services were borne jointly by both the federal and provincial governments and the municipality during the depression years Considerable additional social service costs were borne solely by the municipality The Social Welfare Commission was the formidable sounding title for an organization of volunteers that organized charitable activities to assist the town's needy Its major annual initiative was the raising of money for the Christmas Cheer Fund Each year, as Christmas neared, the newspaper carried reports on the progress the group was making to raise money for the fund On December 23, 1933 it was reported that about $19100 had been collected for the fund, enough to distribute Christmas hampers to nearly 60 needy families A report of December 24, 1938 stated that generous hampers had been delivered to 81 needy families A report on the front page of The Northern Mail on December 24, 1935 elaborated on the fund raising efforts Social Welfare Christmas Cheer Fund "Several last minute specials feature our column today They include a goodly share of cash and gifts in kind The Public School children have once more taken part in this community effort by giving their nickels and coppers We are specially grateful to the little folks for this self denying action and we hope that Santa Claus will be very good to every one of them We thank the teachers too who no doubt inspired the children's giving Some other goodfriends have contributed the other amounts and goods and we extend our hearty thanks to them all The packing room at the old Northland Drug stand presents a busy scene today as the working committee make ready and despatch the hampers to all corners of The Pas The Christmas Cheer committee wish to thank Transport Ltd/or donating the use of their delivery truck, and all others who have helped in today's task After the festivities of Christmas Day are over we shall be able to announce how much has been accomplished in the way of providing the necessities and a few treats for homes that might not have a very good Yuletide Meanwhile we extend to all friends of the Social Welfare and to everyone in The Pas our best wishes for a joyous Christmas Gifts in kind today include 10 pounds of tea from W Grocers, 4 cases dried fruit, 1 case cranberry sauce from National Fruit, 30 loaves breadfrom The Pas Bakery, 10 roasts from The City Meat Market W!l!ll Previously acknowledged A Friend Another Friend Rev Sherritt, of Hunter, ND Public School Children Two Bridge Players Old Country Football Optimists Total $ $

85 The Social Welfare Commission was active beyond promoting and organizing the annual Christmas Cheer Fund A headline of November 12, 1935 read "Social Welfare Group to Ma Drive for Clothes" In January of it was reported that new garments purchased for distribution numbered 171, and that 129 used articles were distributed The financial statement of the Social Welfare Commission from January 1, to January 18, provides a good picture of their sources of funds and the range of their charitable activities Receipts Memberships Grants- Town of The Pas Donations- Rotary Club Knights of Columbus Individuals Proceeds - GECooking School Teachers' Tea Concert Collection box in bank i Expenditures Christmas hampers for December, 1937 Clothing Drugs and Medicines Transportation of Patients Dentistry Opticians Services School Mille Fund Sundry Small Items Total Total Christmas Cheer Fund Bank Balance Brought Forward Balance on Hand TOTAL TOTAL >) \ j ) -) - 75

86 How Did People Support Themselves and Their Families? Many people were either unemployed or receiving relief for considerable periods during the thirties Others who were fortunate enough to be fully employed received little more than 10 to 20 dollars a week during the 1930's How did people support themselves, and in many cases their families too, on so little? In 1931 Andrea Deter' s grandfather received one dollar a day for a 10 hour day working on a public works program in town digging sewers Single transient males on direct relief in The Pas received daily food vouchers to the value of 35 cents, between $1000 and $1100 a month Families that varied in size from 4 to 8 people on direct relief received food vouchers to the value of $2000 to $2500 for a month A single man working in the warehouse of National Fruit in the mid 1930's received 18 cents an hour - about $900 a week In 1934 the salary of a single male employee of Keddie and Fowler grocery store rose from $8 00 to $10 00 a week As late as laborers working on the road to Clearwater Lake, a public works initiative, were receiving 30 cents an hour, or $1440 for a 48 hour week Making Ends Meet People found creative ways to make ends meet during the long years of the depression and dirty thirties Men and boys hunted and fished Gardens were dug, planted, tended and harvested Family groups gathered wild berries Women baked, and bottled and preserved a great range of fruits and vegetables Mary Melko (nee Sus), in the volume edited by SJAllen, described some of the ways her family made ends meet, writing: "Although one could buy a loaf of bread (not sliced) for as low as 3 cents, or two for 5 cents, Mother baked her own Flour was bought in 1 OOlb weight, and the cotton print flour bags were used for making aprons and such All that time we kept chickens and two milk cows in our yard We sold milk at 12 quartsfor$100 which we children would deliver" (pp ) According to McCarthy (p31) Mike Palanychka, while working for The Pas Lumber Company, also supplemented his income by keeping cows in town and selling the milk at 12 quarts for one dollar A number of accounts in The Northern Mail lead one to the conclusion that, in The Pas in the l 930's, keeping cattle was fairly commonplace In July of 1934 a headline read "Cattle Owners Requested to Observe Herd By-Law" Apparently the herd by-law prohibited cattle grazing along streets and lanes, and the practice of tethering cows along the streets and lanes of The Pas would have to stop By 1936 concern was being expressed about sanitary issues related to the keeping of cattle in town In 1937 a by-law was being drafted that might include zoning by-laws which would allow domestic animals (cattle, horses, etc) to be kept only in certain areas of town and would prevent any more building permits for quarters for doinestic animals from being issued On November 2, 1937 the paper reported that JFoggie, Chief Sanitary Inspector had said that: "In a properly orga"f]ized town there should be no objection to a number of residents 76

87 keeping cows, provided the method of keeping and maintaining the stables, yards, etc in a clean condition is satisfactory and that the production of milk is carried put according to regulations" I was not able to find out how many people kept cattle right in town for their own use and/or to supplement their income Since the matter received considerable attention I think it is reasonable to assume that it was not uncommon, and that the Sus family and Mike Palanychka were not the only two In March 1939 a newspaper headline read "Province to Continue North Garden Plans, 156 Truck Gardens Planted by Needy families in 1938 " This was apparently a northern Manitoba initiative spread across 17 settlements in the north Seed was supplied by the government, and instruction in gardening, building of root cellars, and other phases of truck farming were provided The article did not name the 17 settlements where this initiative was undertaken However, many families in The Pas during the 1930's came from farms across Canada and elsewhere Many others were from rural villages and brought with them direct experience of raising, preparing and preserving their own food They had backyard gardens in The Pas where potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbage, etc, were cultivated Consequently they were not in great need of instruction onhow to grow garden crops successfully, or how to store and preserve the output A friend described her grandmother's garden to me The entire back yard, apart from the wood pile, was cultivated Crops grown included potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage, onions, garlic, cucumbers, peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, dill, and various other herbs All these were used in season and the excess was stored or bottled, pickled and preserved A large oak barrel on the back veranda was used to make sauerkraut A device with a lattice of sharp blades was set on top of the barrel, and the cabbages were pushed through to shred them Layers of shredded cabbage were alternated with layers of salt as the preservative When the barrel was full a wooden cover, held down by a heavy rock, was placed on top When ready, the sauerkraut was scooped out as needed Most of the cucumbers, along with dill, garlic, pickling salt and water, preferably rainwater or well water and never chlorinated water, were used to make pickles Similarly most of the tomatoes were used to make green tomato relish, as the varieties then available seldom ripened fully in The Pas A trap door in the kitchen floor led down to a spacious root cellar under the house, cool in sununer and above freezing in winter The potatoes were stored here in the dark, and boxes of sand were used to store other root vegetables Shelves along the cellar walls held jars of preserves, jams, relishes and pickles When available in the stores, boxes of peaches, apricots, etc were purchased in bulk to make preserved fruit Wild mushrooms were gathered as available Flour was purchased, and all the bread that the family consumed was made at home Although not all families would have had such a storehouse, this pattern of growing, gathering, preserving and baking, supplemented by fishing and hunting, would have been repeated in many households to comparable or lesser degrees throughout the 1930's 77

88 How Far Would a Dollar Go? Nevertheless some items had to be purchased From newspaper advertisements in the years from 1932 to 1936 I have extracted the following in terms of prices for foodstuffs Price of Household Staples in The Pas in the Early 1930's Item Ouanti:ty Price Item Oui!nti:ty Price Butter 1 lb 25 Tea, bulk 1 lb 25 Lard I lb 10 Tea, Blue Ribbon 1 lb 45 Sugar 8 lbs 19 Coffee, bulk 1 lb 25 Salt, iodized 2 for 25 Maxwell House Coffee 1 lb 50 Eggs, ex lge doz 20 Fresh Milk 8 qts 100 Canned Milk, talls 2 for 25 Potatoes 90 lbs 90 Macaroni, 5 lbs 35 Potatoes 90 lbs 125 Spaghetti 5 lbs 35 Potatoes bushel In October of 1934 the newspaper reported that local dairies were increasing the price of milk It would now be eight quarts for one dollar The price increase was attributed to the 75% increase in the cost of feed for cattle in little over a year Before that the price of milk had likely been 12 quarts for one dollar I did not come across any ad that gave the price of flour, a significant household staple or the price of a loaf of bread However, The Pas Chamber of Commerce, in the Historical Society's 70th anniversary volume edited by SJAllen, wrote that it was not so long ago: "When bread was 3c a loaf or 40 loaves for a dollar at Mou/es Sunrise bakery, even gave you a flour sack to put them in When you could buy 14 quarts of milk for a dollar if you bought tickets in advance" (p149) Newspaper advertisements also provided information on the prices of fresh and canned meat and fish in town in the 1930's Price of Fresh and Canned Meat and Fish in The Pas in the 1930's Item Quantity Price Item Quantity Price Fresh Pork Shoulder 1 lb 12 Boiling Beef 1 lb 07 Pork Steak 1 lb 15 Beef Shoulder Blade 1 lb 10 Pork Chops 1 lb 18 Hamburger Steak I lb 10 Fresh Pork Sausage 2 lbs 25 Prime Rib Roast l lb 12 Beef Liver I lb 12 Boiling Veal I lb 10 Round Steak I lb 13 Veal Roast, any cut I lb 14 T-Bone Roast I lb 15 Veal Steak 1 lb 17 T-Bone Steak llb 17 Veal Chops 1 lb 18 Sirloin Steak I lb 17 Corned Beef 1 tin 15 Ducks I lb 09 Sausage 2 tins 35 Geese 1 lb 09 Side Bacon 2 lbs 35 Chickens llb 09 Choice Turkeys I lb 12 Sardines 4 tins 25 Pink Salmon 2 tins 25 78

89 I did not come across any advertisements for :fresh or frozen fish in the paper, but given that there was a substantial commercial fishery in lakes near The Pas, fish would have been both pjentiful and reasonably priced Booth Fisheries was a wholesale fish dealer in town An account in the newspaper on August 23, 1937 read in part: "So far 80,000 lbs of whitefish have been shipped down from Moose Lake and it is expected that fishing will continue there until September 15, Mr Schmidt said" Mr Schmidt was the proprietor of the City Meat Market in town Fish were also directly available to anyone living in town As noted in the 70 1 h anniversary volume edited by SJAllen, "All the unemployed man, and women too, used to line the river shore from The Pas River to the Saskatchewan River bridge and dip the fish out with chicken wire nets by the dozens just after spring break up " (p14 9) But, as a banner in one of the parades of the unemployed in the early 1930's read, "We Cannot Live On Fish Alone" A wide range of vegetables and :fruits, both fresh and canned, were available for purchase in The Pas in the 1930's Store advertisements in the local newspaper are the source of the following list of prices Price of Fresh and Canned Fruits and Vegetables in The Pas in the 1930's Item Amount Price Item Amount Price Turnips l lb 02 Rhubarb 7 lbs 25 Beets l lb 05 Bananas 2 lbs 25 Lettuce head 09 Oranges 1 doz med 35 Cabbage 3 lb 10 Pears 1 doz 45 Cauliflower each 15 Peaches 1 doz lge 55 Carrots 5 lbs 25 Plums bsk, 6 lbs 110 Onions 5 lbs 25 Apples case, 40 lbs 175 Green Beans 3 lbs 25 Potatoes 90 lbs 90 Baked Beans 2 tins med 19 Raisins (dry) I lb 15 Com 2 tins 25 Pumpkin 1 tin 15 Tomatoes 2 tins 25 Pineapple 1 tin 15 Peas 2 tins 25 Plums 2 tins 25 Pk and Beans 3 tins, med 25 Prunes 3 lbs 25 Peaches 2 tins 45 Other advertisements indicated the prices of a range of items that many households would have purchased, including a range of dry cereals, jams, cleaning products such as soaps and bleach, and bottles and sealers for canning produce 79

90 Prices of Some Other Household Staples in The Pas in the 1930's Item Quantity Price Item Quantity Price Com Flakes 3 pkgs 25 Plum Jam 4 lb tin 45 Shredded Wt 2 pkgs 25 Orange Marm 4 lb tin 50 Red River Cr box 25 Rasp Jam 4 lb tin 55 Heinz Ktchp lge bottle 25 Peanut Butter 1 jar 19 Pint Sealers doz 95 Ammonia 2 bottles 25 Quart Sealers doz 115 Pearl Soap 7 bars 25 Soap Flakes 5 lbs 70 Households survived by employing strict domestic economies, which included home production and/or preparation of the family's food, and limited and careful selection of store bought products So, you try feeding a family of four on $600 a week yourself, using the prices of goods in the early '30's See what sort of menu you can come up with My wife and I have attempted to develop and cost out a week's worth of breakfasts, midday meals and teas or suppers It is a real challenge, even if you assume that you start with staples in the cupboard such as sugar, tea and coffee, and some home-grown produce,,, dtt - (,, ( Or, you are a single man out of work in The Pas in the 1930's and you get a daily food voucher for 35cents You do have two friends, so you decide to pool your resources Now the three of you have $105 to spend on food for the day Between you there's a couple of pots and a fry pan, and one of you is a competent camp cook How will you spend your $I 05 today? Getting Disconnected: More Household Cost Cuts Many people today seem to feel that it is necessary to be connected 24/7 I see people talking on their cell phones while driving even though this is illegal in Ontario Kids, and adults, walk across busy streets talking; and texting, on their phones oblivious to what is going on around them I, on the other hand, am a luddite - no smart phone, just a land line with an answering machine By the 1920's The Pas did have a municipal telephone system with business and residential subscribers In March of 1928 it was sold to the Manitoba Telephone System Before the year was out a new telephone building had been constructed on Third Street, and a switchboard with a total capacity for 1,200 lines was installed Also in 1928, at a cost of $50,000 a land line connected The Pas to Swan River, and long distance phone service had arrived As the table of residential telephone listings for 1929 to 1941 shows, the number of households with telephones increased significantly between 1929 and 1931, when it peaked In the early years of the depression most of the town's unemployed were single transient men, who certainly did not have personal phone lines As the realities of the depression set in, its impacts were more widely felt Unemployment of townspeople increased and salaries for the employed were cut From 1931 to 1939 the residential listings declined continuously, from 224 in 1931 to only 125 by 1939, a 44% reduction 80

91 iiiiiliiiiiiil C/,,7- - r?, Ill - -,-,, - 2,';<" - >"- - :-;< ':':< > / ; - Residential Telephone Listings, The Pas 1929 to 1941 Year Number Year Number Source: Compiled from telephone directory listings for The Pas as published in the Manitoba Telephone System directories for the years 1929 to 1941 The decline in residential phone listings is considerably greater than the decline in the number of households in The Pas over the same period Telephone service had become a luxury unaffordable for many households For some male householders, if it was a choice between cutting back or giving up cigarettes or discontinuing telephone service there was probably no contest Some households were likely disconnected due to non-payment of the phone bill Receiving and Giving In the depression years communities across Canada came together to assist each other in unexpected ways In the early 1930's, when times were so hard in The Pas, the town and its families were the recipients of assistance from the town of Dauphin, Manitoba Buried in a lengthy report of October 6, 1931 on relief planning I found reference to a letter read to The Pas town council The newspaper reported that: " the town of Dauphin was offering a donation of surplus vegetables with provision that receiver pay freight to destination The vegetables were offered for distribution to needy families " Mayor Robertson had accepted a carload for the town of The Pas Council was advised by the town clerk, Mr Symington, that the carload of vegetables was scheduled to arrive in a few days The Pas was, therefore, a beneficiary of depression-era kindness, from one community to another Later in the 1930's The Pas, in turn, sought ways to assist people in other hard hit communities An account in The Northern Mail in August of provided a grim perspective on the depth of the crisis across much of Saskatchewan "REGINA, Aug16 In excess of 500, 000 people, more than half of the population of Saskatchewan, will be on relief this winter, according to an estimate made Saturday by Hon RJMParker, Minister of Municipal Affairs Last year's peak number of relief recipients was 280, 000 residing in 206 rural municipalities, eight cities, 42 towns and 12 6 villages" In Saskatchewan, in 1937, nearly 14 million acres were planted to wheat The average yield was only 26 bushels per acre, down from the province's second worst yield of75 bushels per acre in

92 - tiim James HGray' s book, Men Against the Desert, provides a superb account of the years of drought on the prairies, of the job ofre-grassing and reclaiming the hundreds of thousands of acres of abandoned land, and the introduction of dry-land farming methods The free verse poem by Anne Marriott, The Wind Our Enemy, creates an evocative picture of farm life in a drought-stricken area of Saskatchewan The last stanza reads: "God, will it never rain again? What about those clouds out west? No, that's just dust, as thick and stifling as winter underwear No rain, no crop, no feed, no faith, only wind" I found a number of reports from the fall of detailing an initiative by the people of The Pas and district to aid a community in Saskatchewan The initiative was organised by a local committee in which the town's clergy took a leading role -'iii rillllj - -'iiji,, Till This was, in tum, part of a much larger undertaking by the joint committee of the churches for western relief, a national undertaking The objective for 1937 was to deliver 500 carloads of vegetables and fruits to drought-stricken areas of the prairies, particularly to southern Saskatchewan The railways provided free transportation for this major undertaking The committee in The Pas solicited donations of potatoes and other vegetables, home-canned fruits and jams, and cash It needed the use of trucks and cars to bring donations to the rail car located on the spur line beside the Monarch Lumber Company During late September and early October 1937 local clubs, including Rotary and the Elks, The Pas businesses, district farmers, and many families and individuals responded promptly Bags of potatoes, turnips, beets, and carrots were loaded into the rail car Cash donations, and preserved fruit and jams from local women, were received at two depots, the Lutheran Church and the Co-operative Creamery The local committee received a wire from the Central Relief Commission in Winnipeg that Nokomis was to be the destination for the shipment from The Pas The Northern Mail reported on October 12, 1937 that: "Representing the first car of vegetables ever to be sent to the south from north of 53, over 17 tons or approximately 35,000 lbs of potatoes and assorted vegetables were shipped from The Pas to Nolwmis, Sask today This gift of the north to the southern area was made possible through donations of produce from farmers and gardeners of the district and contributions in cash from citizens of the town" A letter of thanks from Nokomis, addressed to the local committee chairman, Rev F W Armstrong ofwestminister United Church was published in The Northern Mail on October 30, 1937 It read: "Dear Mr Armstrong The local voluntary relief committee desires to express their heartfelt thanks and wish you to extend it to all who so kindly contributed to the car of vegetables etc sent to Nokomis The ca was divided among 170 needy families and will go a long way 82

93 toward helping them through the winter It was divided to the best of the committee's ability and we can assure you it was received in the same spirit that it was given (yours, grateful to give, ours grateful to receive) We, in Nokomis, wish you folk the blessing of continued advancement in settling of your land and the development of your community Again accept our thanks - you have done the neighborly act Yours very sincerely, JI Jamieson, Sec ofl VR Committee" - The 35,000 lbs of potatoes and other vegetables would have provided an average of about 200 lbs of produce to each of the 170 families that were recipients Between 1931 and 1937 western drought areas received about 1,900 carloads of produce from other areas of Canada Ontario was the leading donor province About half of all donations were made in 1936 and 1937 Remembering the 1930's Residents of the Pas retained vivid memories of their experiences during the depression years in The Pas Andrea Deters superb account of her grandfather's recollections provides insights regarding the impact of the depression on the people who lived through those years in The Pas "In January, 1930, grandfather started employment again with The Pas Lumber Company doing the same job in the yard, loading lumber to the planer The pay was twenty-jive cents an hour At this time was the start of the Great Depression Business was slow for the Company Therefore, the men were cut to two days of work a week At this time there were many unemployed men from all over Canada in The Pas seeking work They slept wherever they could, in boxcars, barns, sheds and parks Many ]ished along the Saskatchewan River and cooked their fish and slept on the bank Long lines of demonstrations were held to the Court House (town council), demanding work or relief Many were arrested and deported to the country were they came from if they did not have Canadian citizenship papers In January, 1931, The Pas Lumber Company shut down for lack of business Grandfather received a one dollar daily relief voucher for him and his wife This did not last too long as work was started laying lines for waterworks on Larose Avenue Grandfather got work at ten cents an hour, ten hours a day, making one dollar a day All this digging was done by hand as there was no machinery The work lasted until winter, about four months In the winter of 1932 Grandfather went on relief again In the spring of , extra gangs were formed, and men with Canadian citizenship papers were hired Grandfather started employment in May, , at twenty-five cents an hour The work lasted until fall He then spent the winter of 1933 on relief again 83

94 In the spring of 1933, granclfather was rehired by The Pas Lumber Company at twenty-two and one-half cents an hour, for two or three days a week At this #me there was only one shift working Many men lost their jobs Grandfather stayed with the Company until its closing in the spring of 1957 Grandfather had a total of thirtyone years with The Pas Lumber Company In 1951 he received a gold watch for twentyjive years of service In he received a gold chain for the watch for thirty years of employment" (pp6 and 7) The book prepared for the 70th year anniversary celebration of the founding of the town, The Pas: Gateway to Northern Manitoba, edited by SJ Allen and produced by The Pas Historical Society in 1983 is also a wonderful source of observations about the depression years in The Pas These memories tell us a great deal about the experience of individuals and families during those difficult times Remember when there was a: "Jungle town, south of the HBR stockyards off Gordon Ave, the bush was full of primitive shelters" (p149) Remember: "All the unemployed men, and women too, who used to line the river shore from The Pas River to the Saskatchewan River bridge and dip the fish out with chicken wire nets by the dozens just after spring breakup" (p149) "Hundreds of unemployed lined the streets of The Pas including transients from the rail lines searching/or work during the depression decade " (p150) "The Great Depression struck in 1929 and the thirties brought much unemployment, people on relief and hunger marches in the streets by men carrying signs saying "We can 't live on fish alone" " (Colgan Family History, p 216) "In 1930 the Depression set in and there were 400 men on the "breadline", a sight I hope never to see again Riots began and it was then that Mr Lindsay was appointed a special constable and later became an Assistant Gaoler" (I'he Lindsay Family, p341) "Dad was managing director of The Pas Construction Co, successor to The Pas Canoe Co Ltd, until it went bankrupt in 1930 " (Boose, June Rose, p188) "During the spring of I travelled across Saskatchewan on the freight trains and eventually arrived in The Pas in May just as a demonstration protesting lack of work was being held I willingly joined with the marches and demonstrations until a group of 20 provincial police with clubs were sent in to breakup the protesters Many were arrested and eventually deported, but some were given a free meal and with assistance to board a train told to go where we had come from" (Melko, Michael, 84

95 p364) "My father worked for The Pas Lumber Co until the depression when the mill closed We went on relief until he was offered a job with the CNR on the Hudson Bay line where he worked for 22 years: 12 of which were as foreman I recall some anxious days when his citizenship paper, essential to keep his job, arrived only a week before the deadline At that time, we kept chickens and two milk cows in our yard We sold milk at 12 quarts for $1 00 which we children would deliver" (Melko, Mary, nee Sus, p365) "The Pas was suffering from the depression as was the rest of the country Many stores were empty with boarded-up fronts: the big Fingerville Mill was operating only part-time; a price war was on and bread was 8 cents a loaf' (Hester Irene(McKevey) Pinchbeck, p380) "Steve worked for The Pas Lumber Company for two years before the depression struck causing him to struggle through that period as one of the many unemployed" (I'he Senchuk Family, p 415) "Conditions in the early days were rough, the depression was hard on all members of a family and pleasures were limited to dancing, curling and skating" (Grant, Audrey M, p263) "The period of the depression caused great hardship but people improvised and scrounged to make ends meet and happily they survived" (Balfour, John, p176) "In the depression she took in boarders to supplement the family's dwindling income" (Wilfred Guymer and Lorrie (Hutton) Guymer, p 2 7 4) "In 1929 I then returned to the sawmill and logging camps till they shut down in 1932 due to the depression" (C WK Risley, p296) "Much of their purchasing was done from Eaton's catalogue in an effort to economize Boys had more difficulty getting work than girls, some of them went to the "Relief Camp" at Young's Point, where they worked in the bush and other jobs for their board and some tobacco" (Agnes Brauneis (Hughes), p189) "We were never allowed to go up town during the summer holidays by ourselves especially during the depression years as there were too many people just walking the street" (Hutton, Lorrie (nee Guymer), p294) "Occupations were scarce for high school graduates in the mid thirties, the depth of the Great Depression Bud worked for National Fruit as a warehouseman (18c per hour) and as a cost accountant for Western Grocers ($5000 per month) (Colgan Family History, p214) 85

96 "During the depression Marie and I worked in the market garden, she cooked for ten men for $15 00 per month and I worked in the garden and hay fields for $1 00 a day We were never hungry but never had any money" (Morran, George A, p370) Ill Note: Where a Family History section is the source, the family name associated with the commentary is recorded in addition to the page number 86

97 Business Decline and the Commercial Scene,_, - - IJll!l!llllllW """" - _ - 3-:- The business environment during the decade of the thirties was very different from that of the boom years of the late twenties It would be simplistic, and I believe incorrect, to attribute all the business decline in The Pas to the effects of the depression of the 1930's Several factors including but not limited to the financial collapse of 1929 and the onset and the persistence of the depression contributed to the steady attrition of business activity in The Pas Businesses by the Numbers The incredible growth of population and business activity in the late l 920's was a function of the coincidence of a number of events, several of which had a finite life With the completion of the railways to Churchill, Flin Flon and Sherri don the impact of their construction on the town largely came to an end When townsites, infrastructure, and businesses, etc, were established at Flin Flon and Sherri don the town's service role for these places was greatly diminished For example, in 1929 six mining companies had offices in The Pas, including Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting and Sherritt-Gordon Mines Ltd By 1930 only the Manitoba Basin Mining Co was listed in the telephone directory, and it too was gone by 1931 There was also an attrition of listings for brokers, engineers and surveyors in the early l 930's The following table is based on businesses listed in The Pas telephone directory for each year from 1929 to 1941 Businesses are categorized and the totals given under the following headings: Professional and Financial Services; Accommodation and Food Services; Retail Trade (grocers, bakeries, etc); Retail Trade (clothing, building supplies, auto dealers, etc); General Services (taxis, barbers shops, plumbing, heating, etc); and Recreational Services (dance halls, movie theatres, etc) Number of Listings for Retail Trade and Business, Professional and Personal Services The Pas, 1929 to 1941 Year Total A B c D E Source: Compiled from telephone directory listings for The Pas as published in the Manitoba TeleEhone Sstem directories for the ears 1929 to F

98 Notes for columns: A: Professional and Financial Services: Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists, Banks, Insurance and Real Estate, etc B: Accommodation and Food Services: Hotels, Rooming Houses, Restaurants and Cafes C: Retail Trade: General Stores, Grocers, Fruit and Produce, Confectionery, Meat Markets, Bakeries D: Retail Trade: Drug Stores, Dry Goods I Clothing, Tailors I Dyers I Dry Cleaning, Hardware I Furniture, Lumber and Building Supplies, Garages I Auto Dealers, Specialised Retail E: General Services: Transfer I Cartage, Taxis, Barbers Shops I Beauty Parlors, Funeral Homes, Plumbing I Heating I Electrical Services F: Recreational Services: Billiard Halls I Pool Rooms, Bowling Alleys, Dance Halls, Movie Theatres af Professional and Financial Services (A): Most of the decline in this category was accounted for by lawyers, banks, insurance and real estate In 1929 nine lawyers were listed By 1935 the number was reduced to 3, where it remained through to 1941 Of the 5 banks listed in 1929, the Banlc of Toronto was gone by 193 2, the Bank of Montreal by 1936, and the Bank of Commerce by 1938 Only the Royal Bank and the Dominion Bank were still listed in 1941 In 1929 listings for insurance, real estate, etc, stood at 5 and was reduced to 2 by 1933 where it remained through to 1941 One of the firms listed in was the FlinFlon Realty Co Doctors and dentists, numbering 6 and 3 in 19:29 were 4 and 2 respectively by 1941, more in keeping with the population decline Accommodation and Food Services (B): Not surprisingly, given the fall-off in activities to the north with all the coming and going this entailed, accommodation and food services declined rapidly from 25 listings in 1929 to only 9 by 1933 Ten restaurants I cafes were listed in 1929, but only 4 in 1931, the same number as in 1941 In 1929 the directory listed 9 hotels and 5 rooming houses Most of the decline had occurred by 193 3, and by 1941 the listing was reduced to 5 hotels and 1 rooming house Of the 5 hotels present in both 1929 and 1941 four, the Cambrian, Opasqua, A venue and Alouette, had beer parlors, which probably played a key role in their survival The 5th, The Rupert House, in part functioned like an apartment building, with residents occupying small suites Retail Trade ( C and D ): The decline in listings of retail trade establishments was quite modest, and the decline in both types was similar Both listings increased slightly in the early l 930's, before a decline set in In Category C most of the decline was in businesses listed as general stores, from 13 in 1929 and 1930 to only 7 by and on through to 1941 Other business types listed under Category C remained relatively constant The greatest attrition in Category D was in specialized retail, while the other types remained fairly constant Garages I auto dealers actually increased, from l listing in 1929 to 3 by 1933 on through to

99 > -\ -i t >; w Genal Services (E): Listings in this category remained quite constant across the period from 1929 to 1941 Some increased slightly, while others declined slightly For example, the listing for taxis was 3 in 1929, up to 5 in 1941 Across the period, however, there were 11 different taxis listings, some lasting only a year or two in duration Listings for plumbing I heating I electrical services stood at 3 from 1929 to 1931, declined to 2 in 1932 and 1in1933, where it remained through to 1941 Recreational Services (F): There were 3 listings for billiard halls in 1929 and 1930, 2 in 1931and1932, and none from 1933 to 1941 except for a single listing in 1937 I find it hard to believe that the town was without a billiard hall I pool room and I am inclined to believe that one or two persisted without a telephone listing The town's premier dance hall, Crystal Gardens, was listed from 1929 to and Adanac Dance Hall only in 1932 However, I am sure that the town still had venues for dancing Crystal Gardens was purchased by the Legion in 1934 and was, I presume, still used for dances The A venue Bowling Alley was listed in 1931and1932 only I believe this was the building purchased by the Elks in 1938, and was subsequently an important venue for dances The Board of Trade publication claimed that there were two movie theatres in The Pas in 1929, though none were listed in the telephone directory I am fairly sure that the Lyric Theatre was showing silent movies as late as 1929 Apparently the Crystal Gardens was also used as a movie theatre around this time The Lido Theatre wail listed from 1930 to 1941, and was the sole listing in the Recreational Services category from 1934 to 1936 and again from 1938 to 1941 The total telephone directory listings for Retail Trade and Business, Professional and Personal Services peaked in 1930 at 121 By 1941 the listings were reduced to 74, a 39% reduction The decreases were greatest for the Professional and Financial Services and the Accommodation and Food Services categories and substantial for the two Retail Trade categories Retail Mercnandise Trade An examination of the number of stores engaged in retail merchandise trade, the number of employees and their wages, and net sales offers insights into the impacts of bust and depression The number of stores listed in the table includes all the retail businesses listed under Categories C and D in the previous section, plus Restaurants and Cafes Today restaurants and cafes are viewed as part of the retail service sector Source: Summary of Retail Merchandise Trade, The Pas 1930and Population 4,030 (1931) 3,181 Number of Stores Full-time Employees Male Female Salaries and Wages $ 109,500 $ 66,300 Net Sales $1,523,600 $1,105,000 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada, 1931and

100 As the table shows, the number of businesses engaged in retail trade in The Pas declined about 20%, from 66 to 53, almost matching the 21 % decline in the population It is interesting, however, that despite the decrease in the number of stores, the number of full-time employees was about the same in 1941 as it had been in 1930 While employee numbers remained virtually the same salaries and wages declined by nearly 40% If one divides salaries and wages by the number of full-time employees one fmds that average salaries and wages declined from about $98600 a year in 1930 to about $ in 1941 Note that this would include the salaries of working proprietors of the stores Any wages paid to part-time employees would further reduce average salaries ail ail lliji The dollar value of net sales declined by 27%, while the population declined by about 21 % This difference may in part reflect a decline in prices if these were lower in 1941 than in 1930 The net sales per store was around $23,000 in 1930 and a bit over $20,800 in 1941 Merchants engaged in retail trade struggled to survive the depression years, and quite a number were forced out of business As one contributor to the "Family History" section of the volume edited by SJAllen noted: "Many stores were empty with boarded up fronts " (p380) The town council appears to have responded in part to the problem by attempting to distribute direct relief food vouchers equitably among the businesses selling food stuffs, although this may well have had an element of municipal self-interest from a tax revenue perspective - to keep stores from closing or going into tax arrears Other merchants trying to stay in business faced a different and increasingly pervasive reality More and more households purchased goods from catalogues Eaton's offered goods for sale across a broad range of merchandise at prices that local merchants were had pressed to match cjll Business Tax Revenue The business tax revenue raised by the town provides another piece of evidence about the changing level of business activity in The Pas during the I 930's Business Tax Revenue: Town of The Pas, 1927to1941 (1929 = 100) Source: Year Revenue Year Revenue $ 9, $ 7,822 12, ,671 17, ,178 16, ,930 13, ,830 10, ,644 8, ,349 7, Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum "B'',

101 ) ), Overall business tax revenue in The Pas had nearly doubled between 1927 and 1929 By 1941, however, business tax revenue was reduced to about one third of what it had been at the peak in 1929 The most precipitous decline was in the early years of the depression, so that as early as 1934 it was less than half of what it had been in 1929 Most of this decline can probably be attributed to the decrease in the number of businesses operating in The Pas Initially this should have been more than offset by an increase in revenue from the business tax because between 1930 and 1931, the mill rate, which controlled the business tax assessment, was increased from 39 mills to 48 mills, a 23% increase Consequently business tax revenue should also have increased by 23% (the business tax levy was in addition to, but based on, the property tax in that it was calculated as a percentage of the property assessment, and was 15% of that assessment) In the town reduced the mill rate from 48 to 46 mills The business tax rate remained unchanged at 15% The change in the mill rate would have resulted in decline of about 42% in business tax revenue Non-payment of the business tax, known as business tax arrears, also played a role in the decline in business tax revenue As early as June of 1930 the town's treasurer, in a letter to the mayor and council, expressed concern about business tax arrears It was his opinion that steps should be taken to collect these taxes He noted that the only method of collection under the business act was by "distress of goods and chattels", a method that had never to date been used in The Pas This seems to be a procedure comparable to taking a party in arrears to small claims court It contrasts markedly with the well established procedures for dealing with property tax arrears, which is elaborated in the section on Property Tax Arrears and Tax Sales I did not come across any evidence that the town used any procedure to collect business tax arrears Non-payment of business taxes continued to be an issue, as indicated by a resolution of the Board of Trade to the town council The text was reported in The Northern Mail on January 21, 1932, and read in part: "That whereas a large portion of the assessed business tax of The Pas had not been paid and certain persons have not paid such business tax continue to carry on business And whereas it is noted in certain cases places of business open and continue to carry on for a few months and then discontinue without payment of taxes The board therefore recommends that some action be taken by the council with respect to enforcement of the by-law applying thereto or revise the same" Town council addressed the business tax arrears and non-payment indirectly by the decision it took sometime in 1932 It ordered that vouchers issued to direct relief recipients be distributed equitably among town merchants selling groceries rather than allowing relief recipients to take their vouchers to the merchants of their choice This move by council was designed to help keep businesses viable, and therefore able to pay their business taxes On April 18, 1933 a headline in The Northern Mail read "ReliefRecipientsAskfor Former Voucher Plan, Want Right to Cash Relief Tickets Where They Like" The petition presented to council and 91

102 signed by 86 people was turned down A couple of petitioners complained that they were being overcharged The complaints were referred to the health and relief committee In August of 1933 the municipal office received a letter from a local business man that read: "Dear Sirs: In connection of my Business tax for the year 1933 I wish to state that I would pay my tax if your law was inforced and all the business concerns paid their taxes, but as I see that not all concerns pay their taxes therefore I am going to take the same advantage as the rest of them I am not looking/or the special privilege but I am lookingforward that the law is inforced for all alike Yours truly " It is therefore fair to conclude that business tax arrears and the non-payment of business taxes were a problem in the depression years and a good indicator of how pervasive the impacts of the depression were for many business people There is, however, no way to establish how much this contributed to the decline in the town's business tax revenue It is probably that a number of businesses failed to pay any business tax for some time before going out of business Other businesses that operated for only a short time may have paid no business tax at all Business Attrition in the 1930's The business scene in The Pas in 1941 was very different from what it had been in 1929 Much of the attrition cannot, however, be attributed to the depression alone With the end of the incredible level of activity to the north that largely fueled the town's boom of the late 1920's many of the businesses in The Pas would have closed or downsized anyway For example, once Flin Flon and Sherridon were established Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting and Sherritt-Gordonno longer needed offices in The Pas By 1934 Western Grocers had a branch in Flin Flon with a warehouse, presumably diminishing the business activity of the Western Grocers operation in The Pas The two business categories that suffered the greatest decline, Professional and Financial Services and Accommodation and Food Services, were the two most dependent on activities to the north to sustain them For example, a town of 4,000 people would, under normal circumstances, not have boasted 5 banks and 9 lawyers, nor would it have had so many cafes, hotels and rooming houses The telephone directory listed 10 cafes in 1929, 9 in 1930, and only 4 in 1941 Hotels and rooming houses were reduced from 9 and 5 in 1929 to 5 and 1 in 1941, and it is probable that the beer parlors in four of those hotels played a role in their being able to continue in business through to 1941 At the same time part of the business decline can be attributed to the depression and to the substantial decline in the town's population Those businesses that remained survived rather than thrived across the depression years of the thirties iliillllll!ll,, lilllli1ll!iil 4iilllllill Wl'1"l' Wl!"l'1 8ili!illi 8ili!illi WllF'" a1llililiill WllF'"

103 I came across only one account that mentioned expansion of a business-related activity during the I 930's A headline of September 2, 1938 read "Distributing Plant Nearing Completion" The accompanying article said: "To store about 100, 000 gallons of gas and oil for wholesale distribution to northern Manitoba a new warehouse and storage plant of Imperial Oil Limited is fast nearing completion on the outskirts of the town, on Gordon Avenue Three large tanks from the site of the old plant near the Power House have been moved to the site, and a new one has arrived and three more are expected within a few weeks The $7, 000 plant is expected to go into operation within six weeks Tank cars will be drawn up beside the warehouse and contents will be pumped into the storage tanks and barrelled for distribution to the north" By the end of the 1930's The Pas was still the "Gateway to the North", but with a much diminished role compared with the late l 920's 93

104 Municipal Money Management As the overall optimism, growth, and business expansion of the late 1920's gave way to concern, contraction and unemployment the mayor and council, assisted by the town's secretary-treasurer, were faced with the difficult task of balancing the town's budget on an annual basis The task was made all the more formidable by several factors largely outside its control, including: - thesize of municipal debt that the town carried into the depression and the requirement to pay interest annually, put money in the sinking fund, and pay down or pay off the principal; - a steep decline in property tax and business tax payments, the major sources of revenue for any municipality; - the necessity of maintaining existing town infrastructure; - and rising expenditures for a range of social services, of which the town's share of direct relief was a significant item The situation was so dire that in 1930, contrary to the provincial municipal act, the town ran a deficit In response the province demanded first, that The Pas provide reasons for the deficit, and second, that the town produce a plan of action to ensure that this did not happen again One immediate step that the town took was to raise the mill rate, in hope of increasing revenue from property taxes The following sections document how the town of The Pas dealt with its debt burden; the decline in property tax revenue; and how it cut and constrained costs The final section details the town's struggle to balance rising expenditures with dwindling revenues during the depression years, and its success in balancing the budget despite arrears and loss of both property and business tax revenue Dealing with Municipal Debt The town of The Pas entered the depression years with a formidable load of debt that it had incurred as a consequence of taking out debentures and loans to finance various types of town improvements The town's statement of debenture indebtedness for December 31, 1929 indicates that, as of that date, the town of The Pas' s net debenture indebtedness totaled $318, 798 Across the first three years of the depression local improvements and relief works, undertaken to provide work for the unemployed, added an additional $33,552 of debt The town's debts are itemized under the annual statements of debenture indebtedness Three different categories of debt are identified Three Categories of Debt First and largest is the major debenture debt that the town incurred in order to build basic infrastructure For example, in 1915 the town assumed a debt of$50,000 to build the electric plant This debt had a 20 year term and a 5% interest rate The annual cost of interest on this debt was $2,500 No principal was being retired Twenty years after the date of issue, unless some partial refinancing arrangement had been made, the $50,000 was to be paid to the bank that provided the loan By provincial law the town was required to put money annually into a "sinking fund", presumably to pay off the $50,000 But the actual sinking fund requirement was not large enough to fully meet the town's :fmancial obligation which fell due in 1935 Consequently, as of December 31, 1934, 7 months before the term was up on the electric plant debt, the sinking fund reserve was only $32,865, insufficient to cover the outstanding debt 94

105 ll, :111 Second are the debts incurred for local improvements and, in the 1930's, for local relief works These are itemized on the annual statements with an amount of issue, a term, and an interest rate, For these debts the annual payment required was well in excess of the amount of annual interest alone On these debts, therefore, not only was the interest paid annually but some of the principal was also paid down Consequently each year the size of the debt got smaller To cite one example, in 1927 the town incurred a debt of$5,300 for local improvements The term was 10 years at 5-\12 percent interest The annual interest would amount to $29150, but the actual annual payment was $ Therefore each year some of the principal was retired, and by 1937 the whole debt was retired The third item on the annual statement of debenture indebtedness is a housing loan According to information from the Town of The Pas Fonds at the Sam Waller Museum this loan, of $41,500, was received from the province in two stages, $16,500 in 1920 and an additional $25,000 in 1921 The precise purpose of the housing loan was not specified lll1 <"" Major Debenture Debt The mayor, Herman Finger, and the town councillors were determined that The Pas would be a modem community and were optimistic about the town's future By 1916, four years after incorporation and with a population of 1,270 The Pas had already incurred debenture indebtedness of $250;000 The debentures for sewer and water of $200,000 may have included the original power house building, or this may have been paid for with part of the $100,000 cash grant the town received from the province shortly after incorporation The electric plant added another $50,000 Many towns in Canada of similar size or larger would not have had such facilities by 1916 In 1921 a debenture of $15,000 was assumed for a skating I hockey rink and a curling rink important for the town's recreational and social life By 1928 and 1929 new electric plant and power house building had added another $90,000 of debenture debt Consequently, on the eve of the depression decade, the town had a total debenture debt of$355,000 However the sinking fund reserve for these debentures totaled $74,539 by December 31, 1929, so that the net debenture debt was a more modest $280,461 Town of The Pas: Major Debentures as of December 31, 1929 Pumose Date of Issue Term Interest Rate Amount of Issue Year Payable Sewer and Water 10/04/ yrs 5% $120, Sewer and Water 02/08/ yrs 5% $ 80, Electrlc Plant 02/08/ yrs 5% $ 50, Skating Rink 01/12/ yrs 7% $ 15, Electric Plant 16/05/ yrs 5-\12% $ 50, Power House Bldg 31/12/ yrs 6% $ 40, Source: Town of The Pas Statement of Debenture Indebtedness as of December 31, 1929, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum 95

106 As indicated on the table detailing the town's major debentures, the sewer and water debenture of $120,000 was payable in 1933 On April 10, 1933 an account in The Northern Mail read in part: "Today the Town of The Pas pays ojf $120, 000 in debentures, due and payable this morning Twenty years ago, these debentures were sold by The Pas to obtain funds for the building of water and sewerage connections The debentures fell due today and the money - despite the depression - was in the Royal Bank of Canada this morning to meet them It will be necessary to refund (reissue) approximately $76,000 of sewer and water debentures and steps are being taken to bring this about at an early date Payment of the $120, 000 in debenture debt today is one bigfinancial hurdle the town has passed, and one which relieves the situation o further heavy burdens until 1935 In 1935 $130,000falls due in debenture debt" In fact, only $44,000 of the sewer and water debenture debt had been retired The town assumed a new debenture of $76,000 at an interest rate of 5Yz percent or $4, 180 annually, and with an annual sinking fund requirement of $13,500 This was a saving of $1,820 in annual interest compared with that paid annually on the original debenture of $120,000 The annual sinking fund requirement on the sewer and water debenture, on the other hand, had been $4,500, while the new sinking fund requirement was $13,500, an increase of $9,000 On the town's 1934 statement of debenture indebtedness no term in years is given for the new debenture of $76,000 From what I can gather from the annual statements of debenture indebtedness the $130,000 due in 1935 was handled in similar fashion The $130,000 was paid, but yet again the town took out anew debenture of $78,000 It would seem that this $78,000 debenture was consolidated with the 1933 debenture of$76,000, as the 1935 statement of debenture indebtedness reads: "Purpose - Reissue; Date 1, 11, 1935; Term 11 years, rate 5%" On the consolidated debt of$154,000 the annual interest would be $7,700 but the annual sinking fund requirement would for some reason be only $9,000, considerably less than on the debenture of$76,000 that had been re-issued in 1933 There was, in addition, a fundamental difference between this new 1935 consolidated debenture, presumably held by the province, and the earlier debentures held by the banks The annual sinking fund monies, it would seem, went directly to the province and reduced the principal In 1936 the amount of unpaid issue was reported as $145,000 (that is, $154,000 minus $9,000) Because the annual sinking fund requirement on unpaid issue was then raised to $10,000, by 1939 the amount of unpaid issue had been reduced to $115,000, and the annual interest that had been $7,700 in 1935 was down to $5,750 Another debt consolidation occurred late in 1939 that involved the debenture discussed above and the town's other remaining debts, namely those for local improvements and for relief works, and the housing loan The status of these debts through to 1939 are dealt with next 96

107 Local Improvements and Relief Works Debt During the boom years of the late 1920's the town of The Pas had incurred debts to carry out local improvements that amounted to $16,876 In the early 1930's the town took on additional local improvements and relief works debt, amounting to $33,552, in order to provide work for the unemployed in town By 1932, therefore, the total local improvements and relief works debt amounted to $50,428 Debt Incurred for Local Improvements and Relief Works in the Town of The Pas as of December 31, Purpose Date of Issue Term Interest Rate Amount of Issue Year Payable Local Improvements 16/05/1927 loyrs 5Yz% $ 5, Local Improvements 19/03/1928 loyrs 5% $ 6, Local Improvements 15/06/1929 loyrs 5Yz% $ 5, Locallmprovements 07/05/1930 loyrs 6% $ 8, Local Improvements 01/01/1931 loyrs 6% $16, Relief Works 01/04/1932 lyr(lo) 3Yz% $ 7, Relief Works 01/04/1932 lyr (5) 5Yz% $ 1, Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Debenture Indebtedness as of December 31, 1932, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Note: In 1933 the terms for the two relief works were extended to 10 years and 5 years as indicated in the brackets These debts were handled in a different fashion than the earlier major debentures On those earlier debentures, annual interest was paid but the entire amount of issue was due on the year payable and some payment toward the principal was placed in a sinking fund In the case of local improvement and relief works debt annual interest was paid, and some of the principal was also retired For example, the required annual payment on the local improvement debt of$5,300 issued in 1927was $70315 Interest on this debt, at5 Yzpercentamounted to $29150 The balance of$41 l65 paid annually contributed to retiring the principal Before the debt consolidation of November 1, 1939 the town had paid off four ofits debts, namely the three local improvements debts with 10 year terms that had been issued in 1927, 1928 and 1929, and the relief works debt issued in 1932 with a 5 year term The debt still outstanding on the other three, totaling $31,966 at the time of issue, had been reduced to just over $5,918 The Housing Loan In 1920 the town secured a housing loan from the province It arrived in two stages: $16,500 in 1920, and an additional $25,000 in 1921 The interest rate on this loan was 5%, which would amount to an annual interest cost of $2,075 No term was given for the loan, and I found no clear indication whether some of the principal was to be retired annually in addition to interest being paid From evidence available from The Town of The Pas Fonds at the Sam Wallar Museum, it seems that the town ir1 turn loaned this money to local residents for housing improvements, at an annual interest 97

108 rate of 6% I uncovered no information on the terms and conditions of these loans A letter from the town's housing committee to the mayor and council on July 3 0, 1920 recommended that loans be granted to five residents, ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 All the loans recommended were for basement excavation, and installation of sewer and water connections My understanding is that the town was eager to get residences hooked up to the sewer and water system, and that the town had sought the loan from the province to expedite this process I could find no information on whether the recommendation for these loans by the housing committee was approved by council, and no further information on any housing loans made for any purpose ill iii /lit As of December 31, 1929 about $18,700 had been paid off on the housing loan, and theremaining debt was $22,800 Clearly principal was being retired as well as interest paid From 1930 to 1939 the debt was paid down on an annual basis, but the annual payments were not at all consistent, ranging fromahighof$2,318 to alowof$1,617, and averaging $1,934 However, from 1932 to 1939 inclusive, monies past due on the housing loan were transferred to current liabilities In late the $3,461 that remained of the housing loan debt was consolidated with other debts I then checked the town's annual balance sheets of revenue assets and revenue liabilities From this source I found housing loan liabilities (that is, the housing loan debenture debt) of $20,483 in 1930, but housing loan assets (mortgages receivable) recorded as $19,105 I do not know the terms and conditions of the mortgages receivable If they were yielding an interest of 6% then they would yield an annual interest of about $1, 146 to help offset the cost of servicing the housing loan debenture debt which was about $2,318 in 1930 By 1939, the year in which the remaining housing loan debt was consolidated with other debts, the housing loan debt was down to $3,461 Housing loan assets, that is mortgages receivable, were down to about $5,715 Across the years of the depression during which the town was paying down the housing loan debt it was receiving revenue from the housing loan assets (in the form of the mortgages receivable) This presumably made the handling of the housing loan debt less onerous However, how much revenue the town actually received from those mortgages receivable remains unanswered Another Debt Consolidation In late 1939 another major consolidation of the town's debt occurred The re-issued debenture debts of 1933 and 1935 that had been consolidated in 1935 were, in tum, consolidated with what remained of the debts for local improvements and relief works that had been issued between 1927 and 1932, and also with what remained of the housing loan The amount of issue of this consolidated debt was given as $139,860, with a term of 13 years and an interest rate of 4% The annual payment required on this debt was $14,500, which included a / 98

109 payment on the principal of over $8,900 The Town,s Debt in 1941 By the end of 1941 the town's debt scene was very different from what is had been at the beginning of the depression years By the end of 1940 the sinking fund for the skating rink debenture totalled over $14,000, so not much additional money was required to pay this off in full The entire skating rink debenture of$15,000 was retired on December 1, 1941 In l 941 only three debentures were listed on the town's statement of debenture indebtedness These were of two types, the Electric Plant and Power House Building debts, and the consolidated debt Town of The Pas: Majo:r Debentures as of December 31, :11) - -,,',,J,,' c,, - f Purpose Date of Issue Term Interest Rate Amount of Issue Year Payable Electric Plant 16/05/ yrs 5Y2% $ 50, Power House Bldg 31/12/ yrs 6% $ 40, Consolidated 01/11/ yrs 4% $139, Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Debenture Indebtedness as of December 31, 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum The Electric Plant and the Power Building debt required that annual interest be paid off, and that the town put money annually into a sinking fund such that sufficient money would be set aside to pay the debenture in full in its year payable Whether or not this was the case would, I presume, have been revealed on the statements of debenture indebtedness in 1948 and 1959, when these were due The consolidated debenture required that annual interest be paid, but this was only about 3 8% of the annual payment required The balance, as discussed under the section on consolidation of debt, was used to pay down the principal The Pas had entered the depression years with a net debenture debt of $318, 798" In the early 1930's a further $3 3,552 had been added to that debt for local improvements and relief works By December 31, 1941 the town's net debenture indebtedness was down to $172,095 How did the town manage to bring down the municipal debt during such a difficult period? Servicing the Debt Debts have, of course, to be paid down, and there are servicing costs attached to each debt The cost of servicing the various debts the town had incurred can be disaggregated into a number of components including annual interest, sinking fund requirements, and payments on some of the loans It is important to note that much of the data presented in the Annual Cost of Servicing the Debts table required the calculation of interest, and additions and subtractions I am, for example, uneasy about the value of $16,577 for 1932 in the local improvements and relief works column It stems from the listing of an annual payment of $8,363 for relief works in 1932 on an issue of$7,927 in 99

110 that same year In 1933 and subsequently the annual payment is listed as $1,052 The values in brackets use $1,052 as the annual payment on this itm in 1932 All the values listed are rounded to the nearest dollar Annual Cost of Servicing the Debts: Town of The Pas, 1930 to 1941 Year Debenture Sinking Fund Payments on Payments on Total Interest Reguirement Local Imnrv Housing Loan &ReliefWk 1930 $18,700 $12,637 $ 3,307 $2,318 $36, $18,700 $12,637 $ 5,486 $2,008 $38, $18,700 $12,637 $16,577 ($9,266) $1,821 $49,735 ($42,424) 1933 $16,880 $ 8,137 $ 7,964 $1,617 $34, $16,880 $ 8,137 $ 6,909 $1,699 $33; $13,900 $12,262 $ 6,909 $1,785 $34, $12,820 $13,262 $ 6,909 $1,876 $34, $12,950 $13,262 $ 6,909 $1,970 $35, $12,450 $13,262 $ 5,834 $2,070 $33, $11,950 $18,262 $ 5,031 $2,175 $37, $ 6,200 $ 3, $14, $23, $ 5,150 $ 2, $14, $22, Total$ 165, ,459 71,835 29,000 19, ,913 {64,5242 {408,602) Source: Towno/The Pas, Statement of Debenture Indebtedness, annually from December 31, 1929 to DecemberJi, 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Most of the debt servicing costs stemmed from servicing the major debentures On the table above the costs of servicing debenture debt are listed under debenture interest ($165,280) and sinking fund requirement ($130,459) The costs of serving the consolidated debenture of November 1, 1939 through 1940 and 1941 amount to an additional $29,000 In total the cost of servicing the town's debenture debt was $324,739, or 78% of the total debt servicing costs of $415,913 A portion of these costs are itemized as fixed costs on the expenditure side of the detailed statements of revenue and expenditure of the Electric Light Department Across the period 1930 to 1941 the Electric Light Department paid debenture interest, met sinking fund requirements, and also paid interest and principal on the consolidated debenture of 1939 to the amount of $134,000 In a similar fashion, the Waterworks Department made payments of about $67,000 These costs, totaling $201,000, did not have to be met from the town's annual tax revenue The Electric Light Department, while meeting $134,000 of debenture servicing costs, had revenue in excess of expenditures evyry year, and contributed about $120,000 to the town's revenues from 100

111 1930 to 1941 The Waterworks Department, while meeting payments of $67,000, was also not a drain on the town's revenues, since it turned a modest profit of about $1,000 from 1930 to 1941 Consequently these two utility departments yielded a net revenue of $121,000 One can add this sum to the $201,000 identified above, for a figure of $322,00, and argue that virtually the entirety of the major debenture servicing cost of$324,739 is now accounted for, with no drain on the town's tax revenue This still, however, leaves a debt servicing cost of $91,174, of which $71,835 can be attributed to payments on local improvements and relief works, and $19,339 to payments on the housing loan The annual cost of servicing these debts from 1930 to was variable, but averaged about $9, 112 Some portion of the housing loan was also transferred into current liabilities Such costs would have been met out of the town's annual revenue These costs ended in 1939, because what remained of the local improvements and relief work debt ($5,918) and payments on the housing loan ($3,461) became (along with the still outstanding major debenture debt) the consolidated debenture of $139,860 As noted above, $76,000 of$120,000 the debenture debt payable in 1933 was reissued, and another $78,000 of the $130,000 of debenture debt payable in 1935 was also reissued, and then both were consolidated into a new debenture debt of $154,000 With yet another consolidation in 1939, the debenture debt now totaling $139,860 did not have to be paid down until 1953 From this it is clear that servicing of the town's debts from 1930 to 1941 was handled in such a way that they did not place a huge burden on the town's annual revenue These financial arrangements made it possible for The Pas to manage its debt burden across the years of the depression Property Tax Arrears and Tax Sales At the onset of the depression in 1930 the town recorded a deficit between its revenues and expenditures Property taxes are a major source of municipal revenue Consequently The Pas increased its mill rate, from 39 to 48 mills, between 1930 and 1931 Intended to increase property tax revenue, this move may have exacerbated the tax arrears problem as more and more people found it difficult or impossible to pay their property taxes It is impossible to calculate the balance of gains and losses What is clear is that the town experienced annual losses of thousds of dollars in unpaid property taxes As property tax arrears increased, so did the size of property tax sales, as people defaulted on their annual property tax payments - Property tax arrears were not unique to the depression Consequently the province had developed a formal procedure that municipalities were required to follow in order to handle the situation when property owners failed to pay the municipal tax owing on their property These tax sales were an annual event normally held in the October to early December period in The Pas, and, I presume, in other municipalities as well Tax Sales Procedures Tax sales occur as a consequence of property owners being in tax arrears to a municipality for three years The sales involve a formal and lengthy procedure A list of properties for which taxes are in 101

112 arrears for three years is drawn up by the municipality, which in turn advertises that a tax sale on those properties is to occur starting at a given date First the property owner is given an opportunity to redeem the property by paying the tax arrears, plus the cost involved in drawing up the list and advertising the sale In The Pas in the 1930's this additional cost was a nominal 50 cents The redemption period for owners lasted for about a month If the taxes were still unpaid, the town then proceeded to offer the unredeemed properties for sale by public auction at the price of the tax arrears plus a nominal additional cost The municipality then acquired ownership of all properties that had either not been redeemed by the owner or not sold at public auction However, the original owners could still redeem their property from the town for a period of up to 18 months after the tax sale, by paying the outstanding taxes then owing plus costs The preamble to the listing of properties in the tax sale in The Pas in 1936, for example, read: MUNICIPALITY OF THE TOWN OF THE PAS SALE OF LAND FOR ARREARS OF TAXES By virtue of the warrant issued by the Mayor of the Town of The Pas in the Province of Manitoba under his hand and the Corporate Seal of the said Town, to me directed, and bearing date of the 23rd day of October, AD1936, respectively due thereon together with the cost of advertising the same, I do hereby give notice that unless the said taxes and costs are sooner paid, I will on Tuesday the first day of December, 1936, at the Community building in the Town of The Pas, at the hour of 2 o'clock PM proceed to sell by public auction the said lands for the said arrears and costs respectively Following thelisting of the properties, the tax arrears on each, and the costs (the nominal 50 cents), the final few lines read: DATED THIS DAY AT THE TOWN OF THE PAS JN THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA THIS 23 DAY OF OCTOBER, AD 1936, JR SYMINGTON, SECRETARY-TREASURER Disposition of Tax Sales Properties Detailed information on property tax sales was available from the town's records for 1930 to 1936, and for 1937 and 1938 from The Northern Mail, making it possible to identify how many properties had been listed as in arrears, how many were redeemed by the owner or sold by public auction, and how many the town subsequently acquired The number of properties listed rose swiftly and sharply, to reach 137 in 1932, and stayed at high levels in 1933 and 1934 before declining to more modest levels Of the 563 properties listed as in arrears from 1930 to 1938, 103 or 183% were redeemed by the owners, and only14 or 25% were sold at public auction Over the years for which the data is complete, the town acquired 446 properties, 792% of all the properties in tax arrears 102

113 Year Property Tax Sales, Town of The Pas, 1930 to 1938 Redeemed Sold at by Owner Public Auction 14 No of Pro12erties Listed Acguired by Town ND 40 ND 23 (25) 17 Source: Municipality o/the Town of The Pas, Sale of Lands for Arrears o/taxes, 1930to1936, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum, and The Northern Mail, Dec 1, 1937 and December 1938 Iii - z"- The proportion of properties redeemed by their owners ranged hugely over the period, from only 6 of 126 in 1933 to 23 of 40 in 1938 It is also clear that there were very few buyers at the public auctions, despite the fact that acquisition of a property for just three years of back taxes plus a nominal 50 cents would seem like a real bargain Such action would, however, have required both money and optimism on the part of a buyer The town acquired 4 71 properties Of these 446 come from adding those acquired by the town across the years where the data on property tax sales are complete To this I have added the 25 for 193 7, the year where only the number of properties acquired by the town was available Yes, you read that correctly Benyeen 1930 and the town acquired 4 71 properties for non-payment of taxes Some of these properties may subsequently have been redeemed by the former owners by payment of the arrears owing on the property Former owners had an 18 month window of opportunity for such action I am sure that the town was only too eager to sell off the properties to any willing buyer at a reasonable price, as such properties would then yield tax revenue Property Types Acquired by the Town The properties acquired by the town are identified on the tax sales lists by lot number, block number and plan number, in addition to the tax arrears owing in dollars From these listings, however, one cannot tell with any certainty whether the property is an empty lot, a lot with a dwelling, or a lot with a business on it, be it a rooming house, grocery store or bank An empty lot in the area of Fischer or Edwards A venue would likely have a higher property assessment than a lot with a modest dwelling in a residential area of town ;;> I was, however, able to determine details of each property acquired by the town for tax arrears from the "Town of The Pas, Community Heritage Site Inventory- Maps" that I acquired from the Sam Waller Museum The description of the maps reads: "The maps that follow are reproducedfrom a 1929 Insurance Plan of the Town of The Pas All buildings that existed in 1929 are illustrated on the plan", and 103

114 "Each building listed in the inventory is described with a legal location - Plan, Block, and Lot Number"_ The maps provide not only Plan, Block and Lot Numbers, but also details of their 1929 land-use I was, therefore, able to determine the precise nature of each property acquired by the town for property tax arrears for the years 1930 to 1936 by matching the lot and block numbers of tax arrears properties that the town acquired with their locations on the maps I was able to identify not only the location of each lot, but also whether it had a building on it, and whether the building was a business or a dwelling - -! 111 The table that follows is based on this detailed and very laborious procedure Since it is reasonable to assume that not much new construction occurred between 1930 and 1936, I believe that the properties acquired by the town, as listed on the table, are reasonably accurate Years Types of Lots Acquired by the Town of The Pas, 1930 to 1936 Lots with Lots with Empty Lots Total Businesses Dwellings A B TOTAL Source: Municipality a/the Town o/the Pas, Sale of Lands for Arrears o/taxes, 1930to1936, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum, and Town o/the Pas, Community Heritage Site Inventory - Maps, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Column A - lots located in the area covered by the detailed inventory maps Column B - lots located south of the area covered by the detailed inventory maps - the area is south of Ninth A venue west of Gordon A venue and for the most part south of Eighth Street east of Gordon A venue in the area referred to as The Pas Annex Lots with Businesses on Them Between 1932 and 1936 the town acquired 29 properties on which businesses were located in 1929 because of property tax arrears In two cases the properties were the location of four businesses as indicated on the inventory maps, and in one case the location of two busine sses, for a total of 36 businesses on 29 lots Of the 36 businesses, 13 were located on Fischer Avenue (on 10 properties), and 12 were on Edwards A venue (on 8 properties) Of the remaining 11 businesses, 4 were on Larose A venue, five in Fingerville (2 on Second Street, 1 on First Street, 1 on Patrick A venue, and 1 on Paul Avenue) The remaining 2 were on Bignell Avenue and Gordon A venue The property tax arrears on these properties averaged about 556 and totalled over $16,000 The tax arrears ranged from a low of 104

115 about $101 for a fur storage warehouse on Larose Avenue to a high of nearly $1,700 on two properties (one on Fischer A venue, one on Edwards A venue) which were each the location of four businesses in 1929??'' Tax arrears on business properties made a substantial contribution to the town's tax revenue losses, particularly in 1932 and 1933 In 1932 the total property tax arrears on the 116 properties acquired by the town was about $20,029 The arrears on the 13 business properties were $7,914, nearly 40% of the property tax arrears for the year, but only about 11 % of the properties acquired by the town in that year In the 7 business properties acquired by the town due to tax arrears accounted for 27% ($5,590 of $20,652) of the year's arrears, but only 6% (7of118) of the lot acquisitions fi"' -' y,-;-"- This does not, however, provide a definitive picture of business attrition in The Pas over the period Some of the businesses identified may have been in rental properties that the town acquired for tax arrears Such a business could have moved to a new location Conversely, a building not in property tax arrears could have been the location of one or more businesses that closed Furthermore, business closure or survival, non-payment of business taxes, and decline in the town's annual revenues due to non-payment of business taxes is a separate issue - one that cannot be determined based solely on the town's acquisition of business properties '{?- ')'-->' - -""'," -" - 7,0 - - _,]?" -YC" "' Lots with Dwellings on Them Betweenl 930 to 1936 the town acquired 200 lots on which the 1929 inventory maps indicate that dwellings were located Most of these acquisitions occurred from 1932 to 1934 Using the 1929 inventory maps I did a count of the lots with dwellings on them The total came to 653 Even if a further 100 dwellings were built after May-June of 1929, the 200 lots acquired between 1930 and 1936 for property tax arrears represent a substantial portion of the town's inventory of dwellings The town also had an inventory of apartments: the Harold Block, the Hudson Block, the Northern Mail Building, and a handful of second storey apartments in buildings along Fischer and Edwards A venues These also provided residential accommodation I find the number, 200, overwhelming It suggests that the town acquired 200 homes Possibly some of these were subsequently redeemed by the former owner, or purchased from the town by another party The town, surely, would have been eager to dispose of this housing stock Of course, between 1931 and 1936 the town experienced an absolute population decline of 625 (from 4, 030 to 3,405), and given natural increase (more births than deaths), there was a net out-migration of around 87 5 While this out-migration largely consisted of single males, they did not account for all the out-migration Some of the folks leaving The Pas for real or perceived better opportunities elsewhere may have had to walk away from homes for which no buyer could be found Some may have been unable to pay their property taxes for two or three years prior to their departure I was not able to uncover any information on the portion of the town's housing stock that was owner occupied as opposed to rented If a family on direct relief lost their house through non-payment of their property taxes, what position would the town have taken? Eviction of the family would have served no purpose in such a situation Did the town allow the family to continue to occupy a property 105

116 now owned by the town? Does this provide some explanation as to why, in 1933 so few families on direct relief received an allowance for rent? I found no reference to any of this in the local newspaper Empty Lots In total the town acquired 200 empty lots as a consequence of property tax arrears Column A on the table gives a count of the lots located in the area of town covered by the inventory maps in and adjacent to the business, commercial, industrial and developed residential areas For the most part these 126 lots were dispersed in a relatively random fashion and were intermixed with lots with dwellings on them that the town also acquired for tax arrears Column B is a count of the acquisitions of empty lots located beyond and to the south of the area covered by the detailed inventory maps, the area known in part as The Pas Annex Of the 74 lots acquired by the town in this area 42 were single lots, while the other 32 were multiple lots - that is, each acquisition consisted of more than one lot Consequently the town actually acquired 3 73 empty lots through these 74 acquisitions Two of the acquisitions consisted of34 lots each Twelve of the acquisitions consisted of 10 or more lots Given the size of these acquisitions from one single owner it seems reasonable to conclude that blocks of land consisting of numerous lots had, at some time in the past, been purchased by speculators anticipating the continued expansion of the town to the south They chose to walk away from their investment, deciding that holding on to empty lots in this area was no longer a sound financial decision, or that, in these difficult economic circumstances, they could no longer pay the property taxes to retain ownership Loss of Tax Revenue Attributable to Unpaid Property Taxes For the years from 1930 to 1936 it is possible to determine the number of properties on which taxes were not paid, and for the years 1930 to 1934 it is also possible to determine the dollar value of the tax arrears on those properties Properties with Unpaid Taxes and Value of Unpaid Property Taxes Town of The Pas, 1930 to 1936 Year Number of Properties Unpaid Property with Unpaid Taxes Taxes $ 6, $ 14, $ 17, $ 12, $ 6, incomplete data incomplete data Source: Compiled :from Municipality of The Pas, Sale of Land for Arrears of Taxes, 1930 to 1936, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Additional information on the number of properties acquired from The Northern Mail, December 1, 1937 and December 3, 1938 Note: In calculating annual unpaid taxes, the arrears were adjusted in light of a mill rate of39 in 1930, a rate of 48 from 1931 to 1934, and a rate of 46 :from 1935 onwards 106

117 ?';' In 1932, for example, the tax arrears on properties acquired by the town actually totaled $20,029 This represents the tax arrears across three years In 1930 the mill rate was 39, but was raised to 48 in both 1931 and 1932 The loss of property tax revenue on the properties acquired by the town in 1932 was $5,809 in 1930, $7,110 in 1931 and the same, $7,110 in 1932 I calculated, therefore, that the town experienced an annual loss in revenue attributable to unpaid property taxes across the years from 1930 to 1934 that ranged from $6,399 in 1930 to an extreme of $17,874 in 1932 In 1934 the loss of property tax revenue due to unpaid taxes was still nearly $7,000 The data for 1935 and 1936 were incomplete However, by 1936, given the decline in the number of properties with unpaid taxes, it is likely that the loss had diminished to about $3,500 Given the annual loss of thousands of dollars of property tax revenue, it is hardly surprising that the town had to adopt cost cutting and cost constraining strategies to deal with financial realities that not only included the decline in property tax revenue, but also a precipitous decline in business tax revenue, as discussed in the section Business Decline and the Commercial Scene 'ti-;- -:> - - "'- - - Cutting and Constraining Municipal Costs The town of The Pas experienced a steep decline in net tax revenue throughout the 1930's At the same time it faced ongoing, and often rising expenditures for a range of social services, of which the town's share of direct relief was the single largest item It is hardly surprising, then, that the town adopted an array of cost cutting and cost constraining strategies to deal with these difficult financial realities Cutting Wages and Salaries A report of the fmance committee to council, carried by The Northern Mail on July 19, 1932, read in part: "Your committee finds that owing to the long continued depression and lack of remunerative employment with the natural consequent increasing non-payment of taxes and steadily decreasing revenue from the town's public utilities as power, light and water, etc a further reduction in the number of staff in the town's employ and in their salaries seems imperative " This report makes it clear that, by the middle of 1932, cuts had already been made, and further cuts were called for The annual salaries of a few of the town's higher paid employees were identified in the minutes of a special meeting of town council held on January 13, 1930 These included: Mr Williams, Superintendent of Utilities $3,600 Mr Symington, Secretary-Treasurer $2, 700 Mr Coghill, Chief of Police $2,400 These were substantial salaries for any small Canadian town to be offering in

118 Information on salary cuts was found in a copy of a hand-written memo acquired from the Sam Waller Museum If I have deciphered the memo correctly the cuts between in 1931 and 1933 were: GA Williams, Superintendent of Utilities $3,600 to $2,520 J Symington, Secretary- Treasurer $2,700 to$ 2,040 G Coghill, Chief of Police $2,400 to $1,860 JE Kerwin $2,400 to $1,800 Mr Kerwin worked either in the Waterworks Department of the Electric Light Department - -iii ''*' ' The same memo noted that in 1931 there were five other salaries of $1,800, including that of the police constable By 1933 one of these positions had been eliminated, and the salary of each of the remaining four had been reduced to $1,350 Most of the costs incurred for general town administration would have been in the form of salaries and wages These costs are detailed in the table on General Administration: Annual Expenditures General Administration: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas 1930 to 1941 (1930=100) Year Cost % Year Cost % 1930 $8, $6, $7, $6, $7, $6, $7, $6, $5, $6, $5, $6, Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B", 1930 to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum By 1934 the town's expenditure on general administration was only 63% as large as it had been in 1930 While general administration costs subsequently increased, the cost in 1941 was still well below that of 1930 Additional details on cuts to salaries and wages come from the town's detailed statements of expenses, available for the years 1930 to 1936 and 1940 to 1941 These data are presented in the table Index of Salaries and Wages: Town of The Pas 1930 to1941 Remuneration declined from nearly $29,800 in 1930 to just over $17,500 in 1934, a decline of 412% The total remuneration for the mayor and council in 1930 was, at $1,550, quite modest Nevertheless they set a good example, taking a nearly 70% cut by 1934 While wages and salarie_s increased again after 1935, and in one case after 1935, by 1941 they were still in aggregate nearly 25% below 1930 levels 108

119 Index of Salaries and Wages, Town of The Pas 1930 to1941 Year A B!: D E f Total l A: Mayor and Council, indemnities D: Scavenging Department, wages B: Magistrate, salary E: Waterworks Department, wages and salaries C: Police, salaries F: Electric Light Department, wages and salaries Source: Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Maintenance and Operation Expenses, 1930 to 1936 and 1940 to 1941; Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Electric Light Department, Exhibit "D", 1930to1936and1940to1941; Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Waterworks Department, Exhibit "E", 1930 to 1936 and 1940 to 1941, Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Police Department, Exhibit" H", 1930 to 1936and1940to1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Constraining Maintenance and Operating Costs Across the depression years the town continued to have maintenance and operation expenditures Maintenance costs for the water and sewerage system, for street maintenance, for sidewalks and crossings and street lighting, were much higher in 1930 and 1931 than in later years, and ranged from a high of $24,884 in 1931 to a low of $10,088 in 1934 In 1930 and 1931, and spilling over into 1932, the town was engaged in public works projects, some of which were jointly funded, to provide employment for the unemployed By early 1932 joint funding of public works had come to an end, and direct relief was the vehicle to provide support for the unemployed Maintenance and Operating Costs: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas 1930to1941 Year Cost Year Cost 1930 $23, $12, $24, $14, $15, $13, $13, $14, $10, $12, $12, $11,750 Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B", 1930 to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Note: Maintenance and operation expenditures for the Water and Sewerage System, Street Maintenance, Sidewalks and Crossings and Street Lighting 109

120 From 1932 to 1941 the town was not so much cutting these costs as constraining them As the statements of debenture indebtedness showed, money had been borrowed for local improvements from 1927 to 1929, in those years ofhighoptimism, and in againl930 and 1931, the first couple of years of the depression Nothing more was added froml932 to 1941 In 1934 The Northern Mail, reporting on the town's budget for 1934, noted that there were to be no capital expenditures, and that the town was to operate on a strictly cash basis Economies were sought where possible, and no item was too small for consideration On February 7, 1933 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Smaller Street Lights to be Tried in The Pas, Lesser Voltage in Outlying Sections of Town" In a presentation to council, Mr Williams, the superintendent of utilities, claimed that the savings in fuel and the cost of lamps would amount to about $300 Council passed a motion authorizing the plan In February of 1935 Mr Williams reported to council on various aspects of the waterworks utility His report read in part: "The system is in very good condition considering its age I am of the opinion that a number of leaks exist, that if found and fixed would reduce our losses, and this matter will again be brought to your attention As has been formerly reported to you, our intake has been giving us trouble, but this is now being repaired The pumping and filtration equipment is being well maintained and is in excellent condition" Mr Williams, superintendent of utilities, was responsible for the town's electrical utility system, the water and sewerage system, and seemingly also for the town's streets, sidewalks, street lighting, etc, from 1914 until 1960 His competent and astute management was, I believe, largely responsible for maintaining and even improving existing infrastructure, while constraining maintenance and operation expenditures across the years 1932 to 1941 Short Term kelief: The Public School Levy The town of The Pas paid a public school levy to the school board It covered only part of the cost of public education The public school system also received grants from the provincial government I also believe that some part of the taxes paid by the lumber mill went to the public school system Public School Levy: Annual Expenditures, Town of The Pas 1930 to1941 ( 1930 = 100) Year Cost % Year Cost % 1930 $20, $17, $20, $20, $16, $19, $14, $19, $14, $18, $17, $20, Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B", 1930 to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum 110

121 The public school levy is listed as an "uncontrollable expense" on the town's statement of revenue and expenses, since the local Board of Education, with input I imagine from the provincial government, detennined what the cost to the town would be, The public school levy was $20,500 in 1930, but only $14,459 in 1933, a 29% reduction Most of this reduction occurred across the two year period between1931to1933 On November 13, 1933 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Costs of Education Here Outlined by Treasurer, Sharp Decrease in Costs Shown in 3 Years" The total education costs for The Pas Public School and The Pas Collegiate were $35,574in1931, $31,045in1932, and$25,951in1933 This amounts to a 27% decline across the two years According to the report by the school board secretary-treasurer, the cost for 1933 included all grants by the provincial government, the municipal levy (that is, the town's share, which was $14,549), and interest on capital expenditures Also included in the costs for 1933 was the payment of $4,489 in debentures accruing from borrowing to build the red brick school and two frame buildings I imagine that the two frame buildings referred to were the annexes on either side of the brick building A substantial part of the cost saving was achieved by reducing the teachers salaries, even while the number of teachers increased The reported cost of teachers salaries was: for 14 teachers for 15 teachers for 16 teachers $21,530 $20,570 $16,032 This represents a reduction in the cost of teachers salaries of over 25%, and a reduction to the average teachers' salary from $1,538 to $1,002, a decline of nearly 35% The public school levy was at its lowest in 1933, but increased again to reach $20,693 in 1937 I did not come across any newspaper account that dealt with this question, and cannot offer any explanation for it The town's savings on expenditures because of a substantial reduction in the public school levy was very short lived A Shining Light in the Financial Gloom The Electric Light Department was, in my view, the shining light in the financial gloom for the town of The Pas During the entirety of the depression years the electric light department made a substantial, if variable, profit - a profit which helped ease the town's financial difficulties Across the twelve year period from 1930 to 1941 net annual revenue (gross revenue minus expenditures) for the electric utility ranged from a low of $5,657 in 1930 to a high of $14,315 in 1941, and averaged $10,076 Its contribution to the town's total revenue ranged from a low of 6% to a high of 164%, and its average contribution from 1930 to 1941was111%In1932, and in every year from 1935 to 1941, the net revenue from the electric utility was larger than the town's business tax revenue 111

122 During this period some expenditures stayed constant The utilities' fixed costs were just over $11,000 annually, and were related to debt servicing (debenture interest and contributions to the sinking fund) The Electric Light Department Net Revenue (revenue minus expenditure) and Percent of the Town's Total Revenue Town of The Pas 1930 to '"'-';"! Year Net Revenue % of Total revenue Year Net Revenue % of Total Revenue 1930 $ 5, $ 7, $12, $11, $12, $ 9, $ 7, $13, $ 7, $10, $ 8, $14, Source: Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B", 1930 to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum In the early years of the depression, from 1930 to 1933, the revenue of the electric light department fell by about 33% ($65, 123 to $43,384) However, this decline was more than offset by a decline in expenditures of about 40% ($59,467 to $35,683) As revenue declined some expenditures also declined as a consequence (fuel oil being an example) Across the same period cuts in wages and salaries of over 40% made a significant contribution to the decline in expenditures Even by as late as 1941 wages and salaries, as documented earlier, were still about 26% below 1930 levels I found only one account, in January of 1940, that detailed the cost of producing the electricity and price at which it was sold to the public In the report the average cost of production was given as cents per kilowatt and the average selling price as 718 cents If my arithmetic is correct, the difference represents a mark up of about 33 3% I do not know how representative this is across the entire period But it helps me to understand how the electric utility system, with its substantial fixed costs of about $11,000 annually, could turn such a large profit In 1939 the town had 861 consumers of electricity, an increase of 54 customers over the previous year Unfortunately the detailed statement of revenue and expenditures for the Electric Light Department is not available for 1939, but the 1940 financial statement gives a value of$53,503 for the sale of electricity With 861 customers (a conservative estimate for 1940) this translates into an average cost per customer of $6200 However, users of electricity ranged :from those with consistently high demand, such as St Anthony's Hospital or the Cambrian Hotel, to households equipped with six to eight 40 to 60 watt light bulbs and possibly a radio For many households the cost of electricity was probably less than v 112

123 two dollars a month I have just done a quick inventory of my present dependency on electricity Over and above lighting I came up with the following: electric stove, refrigerator, freezer, dish-washer and micro-wave; washing machine and clothes dryer; furnace fan and air conditioner; vacuum cleaner, electric lawnmower; plus two TV's, a radio, and two computers - a rather modest inventory for 2011 In most households in The Pas would have been without the majority of these electric conveniences that we now regard as necessities Better than a Balancing Act With the onset of the great depression in the fall of 1929, the mayor and council of the town of The Pas, like government at all levels nationally and internationally, had little if any idea of what was in store in the decade ahead, how deep the depression would be, how widespread its effects, or how long it would last In the late 1920's the town had assumed debts of $90,000 for the new electric plant and power house building Between 1927 and 1929 it took on additional debt, amounting to more than $16,800 to pay for local improvements In 1928 the surplus of revenues over expenditures for the town of The Pas was $12, 4 23 Most of the revenue was derived from collection of property and business taxes, and much of the balance came from revenues generated by the town's electric light department In 1929 the surplus was reduced to $2,253 In 1930, the first full year of the depression, The Pas ran a deficit of $2,394 This was in violation of the Municipal Act, which prohibits municipalities from running deficits The town would have been told in very direct terms to get its fiscal situation in order and to ensure that it balanced its books The town promptly raised its mill rate, from 39 in 1930 to 48 in 1931, presumably in response to the deficit situation A mill rate increase of this magnitude would increase property taxes by 23% Since business taxes were levied as a percentage of property taxes on business premises, business taxes would have also increased by an equivalent amount The dramatic increase in the mill rate was intended to increase tax revenue from both property and business taxes However, it is likely that it also contributed to an increase in both property tax arrears and business tax arrears, since so many people were either unable or unwilling to pay By 1935, though, the situation had changed sufficiently that the town felt able to make a modest reduction in the mill rate, from 48 to 46 The town also initiated some severe cost cutting measures For example, by 1936 wages and salaries for the town's employees were only about 60% of what they had been in 1930 Maintenance and operating expenditures dropped from nearly $24,900 in 1931 to $15,100 in 1932, and to a low of around $10,100 in 1934 From 1932 to 1941 these expenditures averaged only $13,

124 The following table shows the town's annual revenues and expenditures from 1930 to 1941 Revenues and Expenditures Town of The Pas, 1930 to 1941 Year Net Tax Total Revenue Revenue Total Expenses Reserve Surplus I Deficit Total Expenditures ,206 93, ,162 97, ,658 95, ,712 89, ,392 86, ,530 98, ,862 94, ,612 96, ,782 90, ,335 93, ,441 87, ,344 81,583 96,292 91,500 71,261 67,646 61,837 78,724 76,953 83,000 86,488 85,466 79,274 68,947 7,500 10,000 21,000 7,000 13,398 9,311 2,294 5,768 5,107 6,164-2,394 6,166 97,666 16,811 95,572 11,915 89,561 3,781 86,618 12,913 98,637 4,187 94,538 4,043 96,354 1,356 90,138 2,202 93,436 2,881 87,262 6,472 81,583 Source: Town o/the Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B", 1930 to 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum Note: The Reserve is referred to as "reserve for uncollectible taxes" from 1932 to 1934, and "reserve for abatement and loss against current levy" from 1935 to 1941 Both the Reserve and the Surplus are itemized on the expenditure side of the ledger When both of these are added to Total Expenses the Total Expenditures balance (are exactly the same) as Total Revenue In 1930 the Deficit (net excess of expenditure over revenue) is transferred to the revenue side to balance the annual statement of revenues and expenditures In 1930 the town of The Pas ran a deficit of $2,3 94 Somehow, in the following years, the books were more than brought into balance After 1930 the town did not run a deficit Indeed, from 1931 through to 1941 the town recorded a surplus of revenue over expenditures in every year, ranging from ahighof$16,81lin1932 to alowof$1,356in1938, and totalling $72,727 over the period The town would have been free to use this surplus as it deemed appropriate In part the surplus varied as a :function of how much the town chose to put into the reserve fund From 1932 to 1941 a total of$87,542 was put into a "reserve for uncollectible taxes" or a "reserve for abatement and loss against current levy" On December 31, 1936 the interest on consolidated tax 114

125 arrears (reserve money) was recorded as $1, 786 Assuming an interest rate of 5%, this amounts to interest on a sum of $35, 720 By the end of 1936, then, about $23, 100 had been transferred from the reserve to tax revenue, to offset ongoing tax losses By December 31, 1941 interest on consolidated tax arrears was down to $176 With interest at 5%, this would suggest a remaining sum of about $3,520 By 1941, then, a total of about $84,000 had been transferred to the revenue side of the ledger The mayor, council and administrators of the town of The Pas employed a number of strategies to deal with their financial problem, including a major increase in the mill rate, huge cuts to wages and salaries, and reduction of maintenance and operating expenditures Several other factors made substantial contributions to the finely balanced book-keeping One was the profit of nearly $121, 000 generated by the Electric Light Department between and 1941 Another was the practice of transferring monies from the reserve fund to the revenue side of the ledger to offset losses A third was the deferral of both the $76,000 of debenture debt due in 1933 and the $78,000 due in 1935 until 1953 These strategies enabled the town to deal with the losses in both property and business tax revenues, meets its responsibilities for direct relief and other social service provisions, and more than balance its books What the town administration achieved was better than a balancing act 115

126 The Lumber Mill and Logging Camps in the Depression Years In the early years of the depression the lumber industry suffered the same fate as much of the rest of the economy Demand for lumber collapsed both domestically and internationally This was not a short term problem In 1929 gross national expenditure on residential construction was $245 million By 1933 it had declined to only $53 million, followed by a gradual recovery to only $121 million in 1939 (Leacy) Across the country mills closed or ran on reduced shifts and logging camps failed to open The Pas Lumber Company adopted a range of strategies in its struggle to remain viable The Worst Years Most of the lumber milled in The Pas in 1929 remained unsold because there were few construction projects and little demand for lumber The situation was worsened by the fact that much of the mill's production was sold in the United States In an act of protectionism, the US passed the Smoot Hartley bill in 1930, setting a duty of $3 per thousand, and an additional surcharge of $100 more, on Canadian timber (McCarthy) Under these conditions, according to McCarthy: "The Pas Lumber Company had a cash loss of seven dollars per thousand for a full year on all lumber it sold" (p31) To add to the company's difficulties, in June of 1930 about 60 million feet of standing timber were lost to forest fires in the company's timber berths in Saskatchewan (McCarthy) Low water levels in 1931 made it impossible to get logs which had been cut in the winter of down the Carrot River, and when the mill opened in April of 1931 it used logs cut during the winter of and brought down river in spring 1930 By the spring of 1931 only one shift was employed at the mill, and work came to an end in late August This closing date was about 2 months earlier than was the custom in the late 1920's Unsold lumber filled the yard, and enough unmilled logs were left for a season's run in 1932 Given this, the following account, related by McCarthy, comes as no surprise: "The company did not operate logging camps during the winter of nor did the mlll open in the spring An eerie silence fell over the town, used for so long to the noise of the mill and the whistles that defined the hours of the work-day Many of the employees could find no work; some left town to find work in the mines Those who did continue to work/or The Pas Lumber Company had to take positions much below their qualifications Ed Kennedy, who had been Assistant Superintendent of Logging, worked that year as watchman at the mill" (p 31) The Road to Recovery The Wintons were not about to walk away from the plant and equipment that they owned in The Pas and the timber berths held in Saskatchewan Rather they determined to find ways to cut costs A headline in the The Northern Mail of October 18, 1932 read: "CO-OPERATION OF TOWN AIM OF LUMBER CO, Ask Reduction in Taxes to Reduce Overhead, Council is in Favor, Will Urge Provincial Government to Co-Operate" The Lumber Company pointed out that since 1925 it had experienced a three-fold increase in local taxes It requested a cut of at least $5,000 per year in taxes, about 1/3 of its annual local taxes In return it would open a winter logging camp which would absorb many unemployed local residents and would also assure a long cut at the mill in the following summer Employment at the winter 116

127 camp would only go to men with an employment slip from the company office in The Pas A newspaper report of October 21, 1932 indicated that both the town council and the school board had passed resolutions in favor of the lumber company's request The town's resolution read: "That subject to the approval of the municipal and public utility board and the Manitoba tax commission's corifirmation the town will for the years 1933, 1934 and 1935 assess the plant and stock ofthe Pas Lumber Co, in the unorganized territory (at its present site) at an amount which will reduce the taxes of the company by $5, 000 less than this year's taxes This period of three years being the limit to which council many by law commit itself This resolution to be herewith submitted to the Manitoba tax commission for their approval, and all other necessary steps taken to give effect thereto" "Company Warns Against Walking In, Employees to Get Slips in The Pas", was a headline in The Northern Mail on October 22, 1932 Part of the statement that DD Rosenberry, manager of The Pas Lumber Co, requested that the paper carry read as follows: "When we do start taking men into the camps we will, insofar as is possible, select them from men who are in the community at present and who are familiar with bush work We will bring no men in from outside, other than some few that are required for special jobs which cannot be filled locally" Having secured tax relief the Wintons had to deal with other cost issues in an attempt to keep the operation viable Even prior to getting concessions from The Pas they had to deal with the Saskatchewan government which in 1930, like Manitoba, had gained control ofits natural resources According to McCarthy, by changing regulations it aimed to have lumber companies pay royalties on lumber produced when manufactured (milled and planed) rather than when sold At a meeting in Regina DD Rosenberry and DJ Winton convinced the Saskatchewan government to waive interest on royalties for six months With this delay at least some of the lumber could have been sold before royalties had to be paid The Saskatchewan government, reacting to pressure not only from the Wintons but also from smaller operators in the province, reduced rates for material cut in 1932 and 1933 Since The Pas Lumber Company had not done any logging in 1931or1932 McCarthy suggests that, for the Saskatchewan government, the prospect of some income from logging was better than none at all Like other business operators in Canada, the Wintons turned to their employees for further reductions in costs, by reducing salaries and hourly wages The most fundamental change occurred in the way in which winter logging camps were organized According to McCarthy, the total cost of logs was known, but the cost of various phases, such as felling, skidding, loading and transporting was not known David Winton, who with his cousin Jack spent some time at the company's logging camp in 1932, provides in his book,ws, Back to Back, a detailed account of the new scheduling system put in place A piece-work system of payment was also introduced The impact of these development on cost cutting are detailed by McCarthy, who comments: " in the spring of 19 33, with the winter cut of six million feet decked on the bank of the Carrot River, he felt justified because winter expenses were less that half the usual amount Since the decision whether to continue the business at The Pas 117

128 depended to a great extent on the results of this logging year, these economies had enormous impact on thefature of The Pas as well" (p32) The piece-work system was not popular with the loggers, and in January 1934 all the camps were short-handed due to men quitting (McCarthy) Nonetheless the lumber company, with new measures in place and some improvements in the markets, was able to report an earned surplus in both 1934 and 1935 By July of 1938 the US excise tax on western white spruce was removed to the further benefit of the company (McCarthy) While the US market for lumber continued to recover, it is interesting to note an initiative undertaken by the company in 1934 A headline in The Northern Mail of May 31, 1934 read "The Pas Lumber Company To Ship Through Churchill, 2 Y2 Million Feet to Go to Britain Via Port" The order was in the nature of an experiment, but DD Rosenberry, general manager, was quoted as follows: "We are very much interested in the development of Churchill as an outlet for our product, and if we can get a good volume of lumber moving through that port each season it will go far toward making a success of the route as a whole" McCarthy (p33) provides a discussion of this venture She concludes by noting that DM Stephens, Deputy Minister ofnatural Resources, had recorded that the trial shipment had proved unprofitable and no further shipments were made It seems, then, that there were different evaluations of its success A newspaper headline of June 18, 1936 read: "Timber Berth Exchange Gets Sask Govt OK" Approximately 72 million feet of timber in a single block north of Nipawin was exchanged for a number of smaller blocks of a similar quantity of material in the Carrot River area By this exchange The Pas Lumber Company acquired accessible timber along the Carrot River in exchange for berths that were inaccessible to it These berths, in what became known as the Red Earth Compartment, were of major importance as much of the timber in the Carrot River- Sipanok channel area had been harvested (McCarthy) A series of reports in The N orthem Mail provide evidence of the size of the winter cut across the late years of the 1930's: about 30 million feet in , 26 million feet in , and around 35 million feet across each of the three following winters through to In each of these years about400 to 500 men were employed in the logging camps A report of March 27, 1936 indicated that of the 450 men given work in the camp that year, 200 were from The Pas Probably most of the balance were farmers from Saskatchewan In the same report it was noted that for the first time logs were hauled by diesel tractor and that: "The freight load went as high as 200, 000 feet, approximately 500 tons at one haul This was made up of 35 loads As the thaw approached and the ice roads became perfect there was almost no limit to what could be moved to the river" :ti While in the later half of the 1930's the mill never attained the levels of production of the late 1920's, reports indicate that something in the order of 30 to 35 million feet of lumber was produced each 118

129 - L/- year The mill operated double shifts, but the milling season tended to end earlier in the fall than had been the case in the late 1920's A report in 1936 stated that 250 men were to be employed at the mill while a report of stated that about 3 50 men were employed there, and added that this was about the same as last year In March of 1939 general manager DD Rosenberry was quoted as saying: "The sawmill and planer regularly employ approximately 400 men during the summer months" Whatever the number, it was obviously a key source of employment for the town which probably had a total labor force of somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 by the late 1930's Picnics and a Club McCarthy notes that annual picnics by The Pas Lumber Company for its employees were initiated in 1920, and adds: "These annual picnics remain among the most memorable activities for those who were children of workers in the company" (p27) I do not know whether these continued to be annual events during the depression years The first account of the company picnic in the 1930's that I came across was in August of 1935 The picnic for company employees was held up the Saskatchewan River at Avila St Godard's farm The David N Winton, with a covered barge, was used for transportation Games, dancing to music supplied by a local orchestra, and lunch with plenty of ice cream for the children, was provided By 1938 the picnic was on a grander scale It was reported that about 250 children and 600 adults would attend, both employees of the mill and members of the Community Club The venue was Clearwater Lake, and crews of men had cleared underbrush and were preparing a diving raft Most of the trucks in town and cars as well were to be leaving First Street and Crossley A venue at 1000 am and 12 noon The picnic was to feature water sports, athletic events, etc The report closed by saying that "the annual outing has become a greatly anticipated event in the lives of many residents of the town" The Commmiity Club referred to above was the Winton Club According to Andrew Goldstrand, in the Family History section of the volume edited by SJ Allen, in the fall of 1937 The Pas Lumber Company employees organized the Winton Community Club As related by Goldstrand: "The old boarding house, which was located where the Jack Johnson residence on First Street is located today, was converted into a recreation centre I was appointed Instructor and General Manager The centre had a gymnasium, 40 X 70 feet and a 12 foot ceilng, a library with approximately 2, 000 books and a suite where we resided" (p262) It seems that club membership was initially $100 for mill employees and families only It later became a Community Centre with a family membership of$600 The Lumber Mill Legacy I do not have an intimate knowledge of The Pas Lumber Company, but from all I have read and heard it was a good corporate citizen of The Pas The Winton Club, later the Community Club, and the maintenance for many years of a golf course, are just two indicators of this As related by a friend of mine, in the early 1950's annual membership to play golf was only $400 for juniors While, as is the case for any company, The Pas Lumber Company had a bottom line it had to meet, it seems 119

130 to have treated its employees with consideration After a long period of wind-down, The Pas Lumber Company closed in May of 1958 The Pas Lumber Company, though gone from The Pas, did not cease to exist In the summer of 1965 I was driving through the B C interior A bit north of Prince George I saw a sign on a side road to the west - it read "The Pas Lumber Company" When the company closed in The Pas it offered jobs at their mill in B C to any employee who wanted to move but, as reported by McCarthy, most stayed in The Pas and sought other work Many were likely at or near retirement 120

131 THE' DISTRICT DURING THE DEPRESSION YEARS Much changed in the district smtounding The Pas during the depression Depression-era public works were not restricted to towns and cities The largest public works programs in Manitoba, apart from a few major initiatives in Winnipeg, involved the improvement and construction of highways Public Wo:rks: Road Construction Activities around The Pas were, at the outset, funded on a 50:50 basis by the federal and provincial governments These initiatives did not, unfold smoothly Newspaper accounts are full of charges and counter charges between federal and provincial politicians, particularly regarding the construction of the highway south from The Pas in the period from 1931 to 1935 A major departure from the 50:50 funding formula occurred in 1936 TA Crerar, federal minister of mines, announced that the federal government would put up $200 for every $100 spent by a province on roads that linked mining areas in the north with the more settled region of the province to the south The highway from The Pas to Mafeking was deemed eligible to be part of this program The Main Objective: A Highway to the South For more than a decade completion of a highway from The Pas to the south was one of the town's highest priorities The first reference I came across regarding construction of a highway south from The Pas was in The Prospector and Northern Manitoban on October 15, 1928, well before the onset of the depression A few months later a headline in The Northern Mail read "Bracken Assures Action on Highway - Survey from The Pas to Mafeking Promised" This was soon followed in February 1929 by a headline which read "Ma/eking Highway Project Said Feasible" The report noted that the surveyor, R W McKinnon, was on his way to report to the government This was further elaborated on in April 1929 with a headline "Mafeking Highway Route is Announced", and statement that the route looped east between The Pas and Mafeking and would skirt the top of Lake Winnipegosis leaving only a 16 mile stretch that was low-lying but passable The Northern Mail of May 1, 1929 provided a map of the proposed route In August of 1929 The Pas Highway Association was formed, with DD Rosenberry, manager of The Pas Lumber Company, as president and a 20 member executive committee The association planned to develop branches in towns along the route to the south that would experience economic benefits of a highway extending further north, towns that would, therefore, be promoters of a link to the north R W McKinnon' s report must have been a preliminary survey A headline of October 29, 1929 read "Mafeking Highway Survey Gets Underway" This was followed on March 28, 1930 by a headline reading "Highway Survey from Mafeking is Completed" The accompanying report noted that 17 men employed on the job had reached The Pas, and that Mr Corbett, the surveyor, was to make a report to the provincial government,"''"'' The Pas Highway Association and citizens of The Pas had no idea then that nearly 10 years would pass before the highway to Mafeking was completed 121

132 Destination Hudson Bay Junction: The Road that Never Was By late 1930 work was underway on a highway south It was a public works relief project On December 17, 1930 The Northern Mail reported that 20 men would go to the construction camp the next day and that the full camp would be made up by December 29 Officials of the relief committee stated that the final registration of the men to be engaged would start on December 18 By January 26, 1931 the right of way had been cut to Freshford, and on February 16 it was reported that Westray was to be reached in two weeks As it was government policy to spread the work out to as many men as feasible 30 workers were on rotation On March 19, 1931 a headline read "Road Now Cleared to Westray" Seventy-five men were employed in the work underway in Manitoba, and it was reported that work crews would meet at Tumberry, on the Manitoba I Saskatchewan border The destination had become Hudson Bay Junction, not Mafeking The route chosen was essentially parallel to the railway from The Pas via Turnberry to Hudson Bay Junction There were several newspaper accounts on the progress, and the delays, in building a highway between The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction in the early l 930's The burning questions: why the change and why the delays? - ;;Mililllllv' - l The Northern Mail reported on April 2, 1931 that road cutting to Tumberry was nearly complete There was no report on progress in Saskatchewan An article in The Northern Mail on April 30 claimed that the grading of the road south from The Pas was to start shortly, but the date for completion of work in Saskatchewan was still indefinite By October 31, 1931 work on the highway had stopped, as no approval for funding had come from Ottawa Less that three weeks later a headline read "Ottawa Sanctions Road to Turnberry " With $45,000 approved, the province would proceed with highway work On April 12, i932 The Northern Mail reported that there was less than two miles to go on the link with Hudson Bay Junction, that the Saskatchewan portion was all grubbed (cleared), and completion of the last two miles would leave a clear stretch between The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction ready for graders It is, however, difficult to comprehend how nothing more than a cleared right of way could possibly be ready for graders! "Sask Will Continue Highway Work" was a headline on April 22, 1932 Cutting the right of way from Hudson Bay Junction to Tumberry had been completed, and work camps would be kept open until all corduroy had been laid on muskeg stretches and temporary pole bridges constructed over creeks With completion of these jobs, Saskatchewan's portion of the right of way would be far ahead of Manitoba's If action was long delayed in Manitoba, it was noted, clearing would have to be resumed because of re-growth A year later, in early June of 1933 a relief camp for single unemployed men was established 4 or 5 miles south of The Pas The men's job was to work on highway construction Judging from subsequent reports on the slow progress on road construction from the relief camp (see The Pas Area Relief Camp) it is difficult to see how a highway could be completed in any foreseeable future 122

133 c c "'"-">' :c After December of 1933 I found no further reports of significant progress being made on the highway between The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction Rather there are numerous articles dealing with disputes between the province and the federal government on funding arrangements or the lack thereof, and growing impatience on the part of The Pas town council, Board of Trade and citizens of The Pas directed toward the province, and complaining about the lack of progress The town of The Pas was not about to give up on getting a highway link to the south On February 7, 1933 a headline read: "Council Urges Summer Work on The Pas Highway: Resolution to Gov 't is Passed Here, Relief Work on Road Stressed to Gov 't" The resolution read: "Whereas hundreds of men are being maintained on relief by governments and municipalities at the present time; And whereas, next spring, unemployment will obviously continue on a large scale; And whereas there is work ready and waiting for men on the projected highway from The Pas to Turnberry, the right-of-way for which has already been cut; And whereas the highway would be of tremendous benefit to the north and to the whole province, returning money to the government and citizens generally on the investment made; And whereas it could be completed as an unemployment relief measure next summer; And whereas the men employed on it would lessen the number of men seeking competitive jobs; Now therefore be it resolved that this council urge the provincial government to make this highway a part of the relief plans for the coming summer and that a start on its construction be made as early as possible in the coming spring" Councillors recommended that copies of the resolution be sent to Premier Bracken, BM Stitt, federal member for Nelson of which The Pas was a part, Col G McLean, federal director of unemployment relief for Manitoba, Premier Anderson of Saskatchewan, A C Stewart, minister of highways for Saskatchewan, and WC Buckle, MP for Tisdale constituency whose constituency, I presume included Hudson Bay Junction The hope was obviously to get all parties on side -8 On April 28, 1934 a headline read "The Pas Highway Not Included in Public Works", by now a familiar refrain An announcement six months later brought the issue front and centre yet again and led to a further round of charges and counter charges The announcement was that $25 million dollars had been appropriated for roads and bridges in southern Manitoba, half of which was to be paid by the federal government At a meeting of The Pas Board of Trade, members recalled a promise made three years earlier by Premier Bracken, that the northern highway was No l on the provincial government list and would be the first to receive attention when highway building was resumed by the province As related in the newspaper: "The opinion of the executive members was that when Mr Chubb (provincial minister of highways) forwarded last April his proposed program to Ottawa, and included nothing at all for the Ma/eking highway both of Mr Bracken's promises were broken" 123

134 Board of Trade member and local business man NS McDonald expressed the opinion that there was much significance as to whether the federal government or the provincial government was the dictator in the policy of roads, saying: "The federal representative BM Stitt always maintained Ottawa authorities appropriated or loaned the money but did not state where it was to be spent On the other hand Premier Bracken maintained that the province had nothing to do with where the money was to be used" The paper added that McDonald thought it was time to quit soft-pedaling and put the question squarely to Premier Bracken as to whether he was using the present appropriation for political purposes Of course, this was not the end of the matter On October 2, 1935 The Pas Board of Trade received a wire from Premier Bracken that read in part: "Your wire re construction of 25 miles The Pas Highway received here during my absence Moneys appropriated by the Dominion were for the purpose of roads specifically named in agreements prepared by Dominion Provincial government has no power to appropriate any portion of said moneys for any other undertaking For your information I may say that in the program of works submitted to the Dominion government last April a specific request was made for assistance towards completion of works started under the 1931 program That program you will recall included The Pas highway " z:jlj! lijll Premier Bracken's telegram led to the following telegram from ColRHWebb, Conservative Organizer for Manitoba, printed by The Northern Mail on October 11 "I read in the October second issue a telegram from Mr John Bracken to The Pas board of trade He states the Dominion Government specifically named various road projects that have recently been agreed to and that the federal government did not appropriate any portion for The Pas highway I have copy of Bracken government famous letter of April 27'h There was nothing in that letter in regard to The Pas highway, neither did they discuss it at Ottawa in May or June when their program was under discussion I being there at the time " Webb's telegram concluded: " each proposal agreed to by the federal government were those that the provincial government had specifically applied for and I reiterate there was nothing said about The Pas highway" The question as to why a highway to The Pas was not part of the $25 million jointly funded road building program in Manitoba remains unanswered Anyway it soon became academic On October 15, 1935 the federal Conservative government was swept from office, and the Liberals under McKenzie King became the federal government with which Premier Bracken would have to deal As I reviewed the confusing accounts of the on-again off-again progress of highway construction south from The Pas I searched for an understanding of how and why, with all the early talk about a road to Mafeking the destiyation became Hudson Bay Junction On November 29, 1935 The 124

135 Northern Mail carried a copy of an editorial from The Swan River Star and Times boosting the link south to Mafeking The Swan River editorial noted that just the previous week a new organization was formed in The Pas, "The Northern Manitoba Highway Association", which, it argued, was really the old" Ma/eking Highway Association", brought to life again with one definite aim- to get an all Manitoba highway built to the north as soon as possible It further stated: "The last organization was side tracked when Premier Bracken promised them instead of an all Manitoba road, that he would build to the Manitoba boundary if Saskatchewan would built from Hudson Bay Junction to join up All this is now ancient history It was a game of "passing the buck" and nothing was accomplished The people of the north have decided to forget about it and start all over again" Perhaps a look at the map helps explain why Hudson Bay Junction rather than Mafeking became the destination during the early years of the depression Both are about 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of The Pas, but Tumberry on the Manitoba I Saskatchewan border is only about 65 kilometres ( 40 miles) from The Pas With Hudson Bay Junction as the destination, Manitoba's share of the cost of a road link south would be greatly reduced Could this have influenced the fiscally conservative and prudent Premier Bracken? There never was a road from The Pas to Hudson Bay Junction in the l 930's, or in the 1940's, or the I 9SO's On June 30, 1963 the Otosquen Road linking The Pas and Hudson Bay Junction (by that time re-christened Hudson Bay) was officially opened Rather than following a route along the railway via Tumberry it runs southwest from The Pas on the Carrot River road before turning south to Hudson Bay The road south from The Pas to Mafeking was officially opened in June of 1939 The Relief Camp Relief camps' were a feature of the depression years across Canada Gray (1966) provides an informative discussion of the nature and problems of the camps The federal government assumed responsibility in 1933, and placed the camps under the administration of the Department ofnational Defence During the four years they were in operation more than 170,000 men spent time in relief camps Depression Era Relief Camps in Canada In Gray's opinion, while the idea of the camps was sound, a major problem arose when they were placed under the authority of the Department of National Defence, which in tum made the King's Rules of Order the "procedural Bible" In his view: "This step guaranteed that whatever grievance did develop in the camps would be bottled up until it reached explosive proportions No organization of any kind was permitted in any camp, and no petition could be circulated, and no committee could be formed to complain about anything Anyone with a grievance could take it to the foreman of his gang, then appeal to the foreman of the sub-camp or the supervisor of the project But he could do it only by himself without the vocal or moral support of a comrade Anyone who tried to organize a protest in a camp faced expulsion " (pp ) 125

136 Berton noted that there was widespread support by the newspapers for the camps, but cautioned: "What the newspapers left unsaid was that those who left for any reason were den;ied all further relief Men either stayed or starved Nor did the press understand that while the camps rejected military discipline, they held to military law, which made it difficult and dangerous to complain" (p158) Gray also viewed the pay of 20 cents per day as equally to blame for low morale and trouble in the camps He commented that: "There was something about twenty cents a day that came to symbolize everything that was wrong with the lives of everybody on relief It affronted human dignity as little else could have done It was just the right size to be insulting" (p148) The Pas Area Relief Camp I found six reports in The Northern Mail about the relief camp south of The Pas, from which men were to be working on highway construction The first, on June 8, 1933, reported that a decision had been reached by t_he single men's relief commission of the Manitoba government to establish a camp that would house about 100 men They would undertake work on the highway south from The Pas The men would receive 20 cents a day plus board Any man who refused to go to the camp would be cut from the relief list, and the camp would be under military supervision While the federal camps were administered by the Department ofnational Defence, locals were usually hired as camp supervisors Military law (ie the King's Rules of Order) would be in effect, with all this implied as detailed by Gray Even with this I doubt that every camp was run with equal strictness On June 17, 1933 it was reported that the camp was to be established at the Morgan pit (a gravel pit) Huts had arrived and were being unloaded at the railway siding The collapsible huts and cabooses were sufficient to house 100 men The camp was about 4 miles south of town, not far from Young's Point It was to the east of both the highway and the railway, which are close together at this location By the date of the camp's establishment a road of sorts extended as far south as Freshford A headline of August 21 read "Cars Wanted to Take Artists to New Road Camp" RevFW Armstrong, pastor of Westminster United Church, had taken the initiative to provide entertainment for the men at the relief camp The Canadian Legion band was going to the camp to give a concert The objective was to provide entertainment on a weekly basis for men at the camp The need was for transport to take each concert party to the camp and back Many of the relief camps across the country would have been too isolated for such events, which would provide some improvement to the quality oflife for the men One only hopes that this initiative in The Pas had continuing success The most poignant and informative article regarding the relief camp was an account in The Northern Mail on December 26, 1933 I report this superb account in its entirety RELIEF CAMP ON HIGHWAY SLOW SCHEME Would Take J()() years to Complete Road Wheel Barrow in 3() Below Need Machinery to Push Highway Along Under present government relief programs, it will require exactly 100 years to complete the highway connecting The Pas with the outside world Of course everyone knows that the motor road 126

137 to the prairies will be completed before that It may come during the next wave of prosperity Right now, however, it is nothing short of tragic to view the highway as it turns south from The Pas, and yet, on visiting the relief camp some redeemingfeatures express themselves There is some hope in the slight progress; and there is an object lesson in the attainments of a battalion of the jobless; men of the "farthest north" camp Tried every Way For years the north has requested, cajoled, pleaded and fought for an overland link with business and industry in neighbouring sections of Manitoba and Saskatchewan The Pas, a town of 4, 000 persons, distributing centre of the Hudson Bay Railway country, requires a road to improve business relations with the prairies In a survey was made from Ma/eking to The Pas, a distance of 130 miles Then part of the right-of-way was cleared of brush, this line running to Turnberry This year a relief camp was established in the spruce woods, four miles from The Pas Several huts were placed on the right-of-way The vanguard of out-of-works trekked out, and signed up at 20 cents a day, plus food, lodging and clothes, to wheel-barrow their way to the Saskatchewan border A Farce To men out-of-workandwilling-to-workitwas ludicrous To the residents ofthe Pas, it was a farce To the rank and file it was merely a case of scores of men "holing-in" for the winter and doing nothing at the expense of the state Government officials admit it is ridiculous, in this age of machinery, to set men out with picks and shovels in 40-below zero weather, and expect them to produce highways But there stands their work Approximately 115 men are on the job They have constructed about as nice a piece of dirt road as you could wish to look at It is high and dry There are deep ditches on both sides The grade is about as long as a city block Isn 't it tragic? Easy Building Topographical surveys have shown that for the most part the right-of-way to the Saskatchewan border, or south to connect with Manitoba roads, runs through country of easy grades, where building programs would be inexpensive; and everybody from the engineers to the bull-cook in the relief camp knows that the job is one for horses, drag-lines and graders To attempt it, as it is being attempted now, is to return to the dark ages; men banking one puny shovelful of frozen earth upon another; and getting nowhere There are, however, some compensations From time to time the "red" bogey of revolution flaring in such camps stirs the populace to new fears But in this place, no one denies that a healthy outlook prevails among the men Good Workmanship The very fact that they realise that the job is nonsensical, and must soon right itself, or be righted, may be supplying them with inspiration to go on producing fine workmanship These road-builders have a variety of work There are days of blizzards, when tramping out on the line, and contributing their mite, is out of the question On these days they labour in the camp It is noticeable here that the conscience of man expresses itself, and that the love of beauty for beauty's sake, that rare gift, is apparently bestowed upon all Here are more than 100 single men of scores of trades and professions, many of them with little in common, all brought under the common roof for reasons which still bewilder the world They are ambitious They want to establish themselves They want to slug and make money They have hopes of making homes 127

138 Their hopes are not dead, or even sleeping, Even as Christmas approaches, when all thoughts turn to the old homestead of other days, the self-expression exerts itself They are home-butlding in the only way possible at present; and they are making a beautiful and permanent job of it A Tear for Midas It would moisten the eyes of a care-hardened Midas to look upon the achievements of this community of office workers, miners, bushmen, farmers, factory time-clock-punchers, and jacks-of-all trades Since the first tar-paper-covered shacks were placed in the forest they have thought in terms of town planning They marked off their main street They set up their buildings "on the square" They constructed an office building 22 by 30 feet, which is being used also as a commissary and a store room, and also provides space for a first aid department One might expect that these men, thrown by Fate into a depressing situation, would find rancor, whispering revolution You might expect them to throw up any kind of an "office' to serve the present needs of transients who in spring might find themselves on the tramp again Each to His Calling These men, however, each to his calling, and the best of his ability, has worked for something finer They have selected the best wood in the forests They have squared heavy timbers With patience they produced hand-made floors Everything in that office building was produced with the broad-axe except the door latch The result is a work of art They dug seven wells in the gravel They chose their water carefully They have wells of hard water and wells of soft They take their well digging seriously They have a bath-house In one corner is a soft-water well In the centre a stove Along the sides are hand-made benches, and at the end, a home-made shower-bath system But their dining room is their pride and joy It is a large T-shaped building, constructed of heavy hand-hewn timbers, squared with the broad axe The main building is 35 by 70 feet This hall has a seating capacity for 250 men, and space for entertainments The kitchen, on the short side of the T, is large and airy A door leads to the cellar with a well, and beyond is a tunnel leading into a root cellar underground Noon Hour Song The cookee chimed his noon-hour notes on the big triangle at the cook house door We filed in Hot soup, beef, potatoes, cookies and pie Good chuck The men ate in silence, according to traditional camp rules, and then returned to work They moved among streets of evergreens, created by their own hands, and paying slight attention to the frost-pointed spruce of the great ever-green archway They were busy on a new job They were constructing a log ice-house, a probable requirement for the years to come when the camp may be used as a base for the construction of the highway A Feature Perhaps the big redeemingfeature of this camp is, that it demonstrates clearly that these men, in spite of their bitter experiences, have certainly not lost faith in the future Their work shows it They are not lying down We asked Mr Campbell, provincial engineer, if he had any trouble with agitators He said: "In a camp this size, you naturally expect a couple of disgruntled trouble-makers, but they have received short-shrift from their fellow workers Practically every man on the job has shown a determination to make the best of things with a smile, until something better opens up to give them a chance to get going in their chosen trades, and we are working out a new plan of employment with pay now" rji 128

139 However, a headline on April 28, 1934 read: "Strike of 4 2 Men at Relief Camp - Forty Two Walk Out After 7 Are Fired" A few days earlier 7 men had approached the camp foreman asking that they be allowed to come into town to place their complaints before the government engineer in charge of relief work in Northern Manitoba The request was declined, but they were told by the foreman that he would get in touch with the government engineer, li!llllp "" llllljjlll!!i' ' On a visit to the camp by the government engineer the men requested SUllllller clothing, assurances of a field for athletics, and some other concessions They were told that they did not speak for the whole group and they should get back to work This they refused to do, and were fired The rest of the crew were told that if they were dissatisfied with the situation or the treatment of the seven leaders, the road was open Forty-two men left the camp and walked into town, leaving 64 men at the camp site No statement was made as to what the final outcome might be Full details of the walk-out are not provided From what is reported, there is no indication of any conciliatory action by the government engineer in charge - not even a suggestion that if they would return to work he would consider the request on its merits I did not come across any follow-up report as to the fate of those fired, or of the 42 who walked off the job, although there was an indication that some wished to return to the camp The last reference to the relief camp near Young's Point that I found was from May 20, 1936 It stated that, with the arrival of 15 men, 85 men were at the camp, doing day work on the highway under the existing relief basis of $10 00 per month This was an improvement over the $5 00 a month (20 cents per day) that was the rate in 1933 when the camp was established I do not know when the pay scale was improved, possibly after the federal Liberals won the election in 1935 Nor do I have any information on the size of the labour force at the camp between April of 1934 and May of 1936, nor what progress they had made on the highway If they continued to work with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows across the intervening months one can assume that little progress had been made When serious work got underway on The Pas to Mafeking highway in the sullllller of 1936 there were work camps including the camp near Young's Point They were not operated under the relief camp rules Wages and conditions of employment were initially as just outlined, that is $1000 a month plus lodging and board Picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, while probably still in use, were supplemented with teams of horses, graders, trucks and drag lines One of the dilemmas during the depression years was the trade-off between employing the maximum number of men on relief on public works projects and the use of machinery which would in turn require fewer men on the job This may help explain the lack of progress in the early years of highway construction south In an article in The Northern Mail of August 12, 1936 Premier Bracken acknowledged that MrBMStitt, MP for the constituency which included The Pas, had obtained in excess of $116,000 for highway construction, but little had been accomplished 129

140 To Ma/eking at Last The Pas was still determined to get a highway link to the south, despite the fiasco of the previous five years On November 14, 1935 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Highway Association is Reorganised in The Pas, Ma/eking Route to be Pressed, Resolution to be Forwarded Bracken and Crerar" On November 16 the paper carried a copy of the resolution sent to both John Bracken and TA Crerar "Whereas direct highway communication between north and south Manitoba is essential to the future development of the whole province And whereas a survey has been conducted from Mafeking to The Pas for an all Manitoba route proving that route to be logical and feasible, and traversing country particularly attractive to tourists and in places suitable for agriculture And whereas this road would connect agricultural Manitoba with northern mineral areas And whereas the work is needed now not only as a solution to the unemployment problem but as the most essential public work in the whole province Therefore be it resolved that this association urgently requests that you, as member for this constituency, take the necessary steps leading to the immediate construction of a highway from Ma/eking through The Pas to Cranberry Portage in Manitoba " John Bracken, MLA for the constituency of which The Pas was a part, was also Premier of Manitoba TACrerar, having defeated Conservative BM Stitt, was the newly elected Liberal MP for the federal constituency which included The Pas Crerar had also been appointed federal minister of mines and natural resources in the new Liberal government Getting Underway Action was not immediate But five months later, on April 23, 1936 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Ma/eking Road Agreement to be Signed Shortly, Conference to be Held in Ottawa, Relief Agreements to be Signed Then, HIGHWAY JS INCLUDED" It was further stated that "The agreement providing/or construction of the Ma/eking highway will be signed in Ottawa within the next few weeks, according to word received from Ottawa today and from Premier Bracken by P C Galbraith, president of the Northern Manitoba Highway Association" A report of May 11, 1936 gave :further confirmation A news release from the Canadian Press, carried locally, stated that "Construction will start this summer on a colonization road from Ma/eking to The Pas, Premier Bracken announced today upon his return from Ottawa " This was followed by a headline on May 12 that read "Work to Start Both Ends of Mafeking Road", and a further statement which read: On definite thing is that work will be started at an early date on the highway from Mafeking to The Pas It is expected this whole project will be completed in a two-year program It will be a colonization road, that is an 18 foot top, which is narrower that the standard grade Wooden bridges it is expected, will be used over the Overflowing River and the Red Deer River" 130

141 - - = -Ill a - ) l > } \ :J? Ja \ Ja \ A report of May 29 observed that details of the agreement between the federal and provincial governments were still lacking but that in the meantime the province was proceeding with plans to start work on a day labour basis Financial Arrangements On May 20, 1936 a headline in The Northern Mail read "ROAD ESTIMATES PASSED; Crerar Tells House of Northern Road Plans; Dominion Putting Up $2 00 for Every $$1 00 spent by the Provinces; Total Expenditure in Manitoba on Mining Roads to be $390, 000; Work to Start on Highway to The Pas" The highway to The Pas was to be part of a program by the federal government with an appropriation of $15 million to cover the cost of a road building program to link northern mining areas with more settled southern areas Manitoba's share of this was to be $260,000, thus bringing the total to $390,000 with the provincial contribution included Manitoba's minister of mines observed that all plans had been prepared and that the province was ready to go as soon as the agreement was signed Other roads in Manitoba, of a much more modest nature, were included in the program Most of the money was for the road between The Pas and Mafeking The next reference to funding that I came across was a headline two years later, on June 2, 1938, that read "$1,300,000 Allocated For Mining Area Roads" It was reported that Manitoba's share of this proposed allocation was to be $225,000 With the funding model unchanged, the provincial share would then be $112,5 00, bringing the total to $3 3 7,500 Since some of this was for other road projects in the province, the speculation was that this was barely sufficient to finish the highway between The Pas and Mafeking VH Campbell, the district road engineer in charge of work on the highway, declined comment on the pending agreement On July 23, 1938 a headline read "Development of District Roads Stimulated by Grants: TOTAL GRANTS OF $281,000 ARE APPROVED" It was further reported that the funding was two-thirds federal and one-third provincial From what I can determine of this sum over $253,000 was for The Pas to Mafeklng highway and smaller amounts were for the Clearwater Lake Road, ($5,000), the Grace (Regina) Lake Road ($1,000), and the Rall's Island Road ($2,000) I am unsure as to the final cost of The Pas to Mafeking highway Its share of the initial $390,000 designated in May of 1936 is unclear, but a report of July 10, 1936 suggests it was around $300,000 In July of 1938 it would seem that a further sum of about $253,000 was earmarked for its construction In both instances the cost sharing was two-thirds federal and one-third provincial In a report of June 28, 1938 one finds the statement "Brushing is now fully complete over the entire 99 miles of the $1, 000, 000 road" -presumably an exaggeration of the cost A report of October 3, 1938 suggests a total cost of $750,000 Whatever the correct figure, I think it is safe to conclude that the funding model proposed by TA Crerar, our local MP and federal minister of mines, was an offer the province could not refuse Wages and Conditions of Employment The first reference to wages and wage rates was on June 25 and pertained to the relief camp at Young's Point As reported: "The arrival of men here brings the strength of the local camp to 85 men, which is to be augmented as equipment arrives and new camps are established along the right-of 131

142 way At present men in the camp are doing day work on the highway under the existing relief basis of $10 00 per month On July 1 the wage scale and conditions will change and workers will be on an hourly wage scale basis, but Winnipeg has not definitely announced what the wages will be" It is unclear how long men at the relief camp near Young's Point were receiving $1000 per month, which also included lodging and board While meagre, it was an improvement over the rate of 20 cents a day or $500 per month that was the rate when the camp was first established in June of 1933 Conditions of employment and wage scales were available in reports on June 27 and July 2, 1936 The June 27 report was largely in the form of a letter from Premier Bracken to PG Galbraith, President, Northern Manitoba Highway Association, and read in part: "The work will be entirely handled by the Single Men's Relief Commission, and it is hoped in this way to keep a close tie-up between carrying out the project and the necessity of placing single men to work, and it is the Commission's plan to keep a large number of single men at work on this job, not only in the summer but well into the winter A condition of the Dominion Agreement is that at least half the men required to be taken from the list of those who were actually on relief during the month of April, This regulation will be carried out first, by absorbing relief men in the area for whom the work is suitable, and second by building up the number from relief rolls to at least fifty percent from other areas of the Province This will leave fifty percent to be selected from the needy unemployed and it is planned to absorb as many of the local single unemployed men as are available and are suitable for the work Of course any married men who wish to take advantage of the work will be given an opportunity to do so, but it is not anticipated that there will be many married men on this work as it will be straight camp life" Wages and deductions were detailed on July 2, 1936 Wages were to be 21 cents per hour with an 8 hour working day, a 48 hour work week Lodging and board was to cost $600 for the 7 day week, and medical fees were $1 00 per month So if my arithmetic is correct, the weekly wage would be $10 08 With lodging and board ($600) and weekly share of the medical fee (about 25 cents) deducted, a worker's net pay would be about $383 per week - certainly more than enough to keep one in cigarettes, but hardly generous Less than two weeks later, on July 15, a headline read "PAY SCALE IN HIGHWAY CAMPS INCREASED TODAY" The report indicated that there had been some dissatisfaction at the pay scale of2 l cents per hour and weekly deduction of $600 for board and lodging and that a petition had been forwarded to government officials asking for an improvement The men were on strike at No 1 camp (Young's Point) and two had been fired for attempting to get the men in the camp at Freshford to join in the strike One can only presume that the strike concerned the pay scale The men at No 1 camp refused to return to work unless the two fired men were reinstated A report the following day said that the difficulties had been ironed out and the full complement of men were back at work and were pleased with the pay scale 132

143 "7"o;:? - The new pay was 25 cents per hour, or $1200 for a 48 hour week The weekly deduction for lodging and board was reduced from $600 to $500, and the monthly medical fee from $100 to 50 cents With these conditions the net pay would be about $687 per week, compared to about $3 83 under the earlier arrangement While there were suggestions that the rate be increased to 30 cents an hour, as far as I can determine the above wage scale for labourers, deductions for board and lodging, and monthly medical fee prevailed until the highway was completed I did not come across any reports as to what fate might befall single unemployed men on relief and deemed fit for highway construction work if they refused such employment Certainly one possibility is that the would be cut off from receiving relief There is no information in the newspaper accounts regarding wages for teamsters, dragline operators, bridge builders, etc, or the role, if any, of contracts to companies undertaking highway construction work i - ' Building the Highway As reported earlier, the route from Mafeking to The Pas had been surveyed by March of 1930 However, shortly after work began in 1936 it was announced that the route would be rechecked with the use of aerial maps The result was that about 15 miles were cut off the original surveyed distance of 114 miles - it would be 99 miles from The Pas to Mafeking The Pas moraine, one of the most distinctive physiographic (landform) features of the Manitoba lowland, forms a great arc from north of The Pas to terminate as Long Point jutting out about 25 miles into the north end of Lake Winnipeg The moraine forms the narrow height of land between Lake Winnipegosis and Cedar Lake At The Pas, the Saskatchewan River cut a narrow straight channel through the moraine, a logical point for bridging the river South of The Pas both the railway to Hudson Bay (Junction) and the highway to Mafeking were built on the moraine as far as Westray, about 20 miles south of town At Westray the highway crossed the railway and followed the south-east curve of the moraine for another 25 miles Construction of this section of the highway, the first 45 miles from The Pas, was reasonably straightforward and for the most part high and dry From this point, the highway left the moraine and headed about due south to near the mouth of the Overflowing river where it enters Dawson Bay of Lake Winnipegosis The distance here, about 15 miles, was across "the bog", the most difficult section of the highway to build The clay base of the bog was anywhere from 3 to 10 feet below the muskeg with its tangle of roots and its sparse cover of stunted black spruce and tamarack One report noted that corduroy was to be laid over the bog in winter, and another that corduroy planking was to be laid on about 7 miles of the worst spots 7/"" From Overflowing River to the Red Deer River, a distance of about 21 miles, the highway remained fairly close to the Dawson Bay shore of Lake Winnipegosis The distance from the Red Deer River to Mafeking was about 18 miles A costly aspect of road construction on this section of the highway was the building of bridges across the Overflowing River, the Red Deer River, and the Steeprock River about 4 miles north of Mafeking I came across over 20 reports in The Northern Mail on the progress of highway construction between 133

144 The Pas and Mafeking from June of 1936 until October of 1938 From these I gleaned details of progress being made In late June of 1936 only one camp had been established for highway work It was at the site of the relief camp, about 4 miles south of town By early July a second camp was being established at Freshford, and by September 29, 1936 five camps with 275 men were at work I think the new highway was wider than the claim in a report of May 11, 1936 that "it will be a colonization road, that is an 18 foot top, which is narrower than the standard grade" In an article ondseptmdbrhl, 1936 it was redpedkethadt "T,h'he roadbwll be an elxceldlent hhighwayk, with a 20 ft top, - an mam ztc es, cu 1 verts an o 1 rta itc es are emg comp ete as t e wor progresses Construction was undertaken from both ends Advance crews were engaged in clearing the right of way Draglines were used for ditching, putting up dump, and doing some of the preliminary grading Teams of horses pulling scrapers were utilized, and trucks were kept busy hauling gravel A Monarch tractor with blade was used for grading Mechanized work was supplemented with manual labour as needed Crews were engaged in putting in culverts where required IJl/t' Teams With Scrapers Work, however, was not uninterrupted During the winter months there was a lull in construction In the summer of work was delayed because of bad forest fires On October 18, a headline read "Roughed in Through Bog Over Weekend" and it was reported that: "Two 40 foot arms of steel attached to heavy earth moving machines in the centre of The Pas - Mafeking highway late Saturday night touched with their last scoops of earth to link the north and south sections of the new road, and complete in rough the $750,000 project" A little over one month later, on November 24, a report noted that graveling work on the "big bog" had been completed Twenty eight trucks ere used on the job, and a dragline was used to load the trucks It was further noted that, although the section over the bog might require additional gravel in the spring, all camps along the highway were now officially closed 134

145 Even before that initial graveling a car made it through Back on October 18 a headline read "Ancient Car Makes Trip From Ma/eking to The Pas" "Five hours was the first unofficial time set for the 100 mile drive from Mafeking to The Pas when an ancient car rolled into town last night Except for an eight mile stretch over the "big bog" where Mr Woosley said he believed the going would have been impossible for a heavier car, the trip was uneveniful and the little party arrived here in fine spirits" The Opening Ceremony By the end of November 1938 construction of The Pas-Mafeking highway had been accomplished All that remained was the formal opening of the road The first comment on an official opening came in a headline of February 1, 1939 that read "Road Opening in September Is Too Late" At a meeting in Swan River the newly formed No IO Highway Association had tentatively set opening ceremonies for September 2of1939 Premier Bracken felt this was too late and so informed The Pas Board of Trade The Board of Trade in tum sent copies of the following to Premier Bracken, the No l 0 Highway Association, and the HonTA; Crerar, federal MP "This board is not in agreement with the official opening of the extension of the No10 Highway to The Pas on September 2m1 and would recommend that this opening be held not later than July 1 and earlier than that as may be agreed upon by the representatives of the provincial and Dominion governments " Agreement was reached at a meeting of the Board of Trade in The Pas on February 10, 1939, with both Premier Bracken and federal MP TA Crerar in attendance, The opening ceremony was to be held on June 10 at Pine Ridge, about 35 miles south of The Pas This location is where the highway is along the hlghest and widest section of The Pas moraine Concerns were raised by the Manitoba Motor League, the No10 Highway Association, and the Manitoba Board of Trade Many members of these associations believed that the road would not be in condition for consistent traffic by June 10 At a meeting of the No I 0 Highway Association in Dauphin in mid April the decision that The Pas highway be officially opened in a purely northern ceremony on June 10 was confirmed In addition a motorcade would be held on September 2 to commemorate the first year of the road There was still concern expressed about what condition the highway would be in by June 10 despite the fact that The Pas Board of Trade representative informed the meeting of Premier Bracken's assurance to the Board of Trade that the road would be in good condition by then A headline in The Northern Mail, April 29, 1939 read "Maintenance Work To Be Started on Bog" It was reported that the northern section of the highway would compare with any road in the province There was, however, about a 4 miles section of the "big bog" that was quite badly rutted It would need to be graveled again Travelers arriving in The Pas agreed that the road was in good condition except for a stretch in the bog, and even there they encountered no real difficulty 135

146 "Program for Highway Opening Ceremonies" was the headline carried on June 9, 1939 The program was outlined as follows: 1230 Meeting of cars at Pine Ridge - Mile 67 Refreshment Booth - Basket Picnic 130 Ribbon cutting ceremony Speakers: JR Pipes, President o/the Pas Board of Trade; Hon WR Chubb, Minister of Public Works; Hon John Bracken, Premier of Manitoba; Hon TA Crerar, Minister of Mines and Natural Resources 430 Cavalcade arrives in The Pas 530 Banquet in Legion Hall (Program and Speakers) JRPipes, Chairman's remarks; Mayor LB Dembinsky, Welcome to visitors; Mayor John Queen of Winnipeg, reply to Mayor Dembinsky; R G Taylor, Swan River, President of No 10 Highway Association; Representative of Manitoba Motor League; P C Galbraith, General Manager of Alberta Publishing Company and Past President of The Pas Highway Association; Hon John Bracken, Premier of Manitoba; Hon TA Crerar, Minister of Mines and Natural Resources Sports in Devon Park 600 Softball game -Reserve vs The Pas 7 00 Mocassin Football 730 Indian Canoe Races - One man and two man canoes 815 Wheel and Arrows - Indian game (Chee-Chee Ponitua) 9 00 Platform programme - Folk Dancing (Ukrainian and English) Indian Double Jig, Ukrainian String Orchestra Fireworks display on Saskatchewan River Dance in Elks' and Legion Halls { ( II On Monday, June 12 The Northern Mail carried a number of accounts of the extended opening ceremonies About 200 cars from points south joined over 100 from The Pas for the picnic and ribbon cutting ceremony at Pine Ridge They then proceeded to The Pas in a motorcade of over 300 vehicles The Pas received over 500 visitors including delegates from most boards of trade in the province, from highway organizations, and from southern towns About 250 people attended the banquet at the Legion Hall It was reported that three generations of dancing Crees "stole the show" from all other performers at the open air celebrations at Devon Park A 75 year old woman led her two grandsons in the "Red River Jig" while her son supplied the fiddling The paper described the scene "For a short while after the dancers took the platform only the rhythmic thumping of mocassins and the merry strains of the fiddle could be heard Then the spectators began to shout encouragement and as the dancers left the platform they drew the greatest applause of the evening" One headline of June 12 read "Vis(forsfrom US Vie For Distance Honors" There was a retired Canadian business man residing in Tampa, Florida, a woman from Pensacola, Florida visiting her parents in The Pas, and a man from Alladena, California These trips could be viewed as noteworthy today, let alone in

147 At last The Pas had its highway south, and with the spirit it had demonstrated through good times and bad, it knew how to celebrate the event Retrospective on the Highway to the South Some of us can remember when it was a long and often dusty drive to Mafeking on a gravel road Olensky's comer store at 7th Street and Gordon Avenue had a couple of gas pumps and a sign that read "Last Gas for 100 Miles" When friends arrived home from the south by car one asked "How was the road through the bog?" The bog enjoyed almost mythic status The road across the bog could be quite a problem in the spring thaw or after a period of heavy rain Until the vegetation grew up along the embankment on the west side of the road one could see out across the seemingly endless bog to the west with its widely spaced stunted black spruce and tamarack As a teen, I worked one summer on a railway extra gang between The Pas and Hudson Bay (Junction) The railway crosses a section of the bog which covers a huge area When a train came through, very slowly, the tracks undulated, and one could see the scattering of small trees 100 to 200 yards away move up and down A short distance south of Westray there was a forestry tower If you climbed even a short way up it you could see for miles across the bog To the south-west you could see the Pasquia Hills, and to the south the Porcupine Mountains, both rising up to over 1,500 feet above the elevation of the bog Today people from The Pas driving to Winnipeg have a shorter, alternative route Rather than going via Mafeking on Highway 10 you can take Highway 60 It branches off about 41 kms south-east of Westray to join up with Highway 6 coming south from Thompson Highway 60, about 150 kms long, follows The Pas moraine for its entire length The distance from The Pas to Winnipeg via Mafeking is about 707 kms, while via the shorter route it is only about 602 kms The last time I drove from The Pas to Winnieg, in the summer of 2004, I went by the Mafeking highway for old times sake District Roads Throughout the 1930's The Pas town council worked hard to convince the provincial and federal authorities that construction oflocal district roads were appropriate public works undertakings In this they met with considerable success Getting to Clearwater Lake Clearwater (Atikameg) Lake was a summertime destination for people from The Pas before construction of a road Huge community picnics were held there Mile 17 (Atikameg) on the Hudson Bay Railway was only a short distance from one of the lake's most beautiful bays, now referred to as Pioneer Bay By the late 1920's a number of townspeople had cottages at Pioneer Bay In 1925 my dad and one of my uncles built the Keddie family cottage there, carrying lumber down from the railway station at Mile 17 In June of 1930 town council passed a resolution to request that the provincial government undertake construction of a "motor road" to Clearwater Lake A survey was soon underway The first part of the 137

148 road was to be along the existing route to Big Eddy By July it was announced that work would soon start on completing the stretch to Reader's Lake, or roughly to Prospector, where the road was to cross the rail line to Flin Flon In addition, the four mile stretch from Prospector to the nearest bay on Clearwater Lake was to be surveyed In March of 1931 it was reported that the road to Clearwater would be finished that year, and work would begin once the cut to Tumberry was completed Only bona-fide local residents would be employed since only a small amount of work was needed for the job Work on improving the road to the lake through the reserve was to be given to Indian residents under terms of an agreement with the federal Department of Indian Affairs By the middle of June men were employed on the road work, and 18 teams were hauling gravel Cutting the right of way on the four mile stretch from Prospector to the lake was also well under way It was anticipated that cars would be able to reach the lake by August At the lake an area was to be surveyed and lots put up for sale in a manner similar to the Pioneer Bay area at Mile 17 on the Hudson Bay Railway The road to the lake was probably completed on schedule A newspaper headline of May 16, 1932 read "Clearwater Road in Fair Shape; Travel is Heavy" The report estimated that at least 40 cars traveled to Clearwater Lake on Saturday and Sunday The perception of "heavy traffic" is obviously very much time and place dependent Substantial work on improving the road to the lake was underway in 1937, as evidenced in a petition by road workers for a pay increase The August 2, 1937 petition read: "We the teamsters on the Clearwater Lake highway consider that the rate of pay, 55 cents per hour is too low because of the high cost of feed We think that 75 cents per hour would be a fair rate of pay for teamsters At the same time the laborers consider that 30 cents per hour is too low and wish an increase to 40 cents per hour" It was subsequently reported that VH Campbell, district engineer, pointed out that financial allotments did not permit a further increase in pay and therefore the request for higher wages could not be met He suggested that working hours could be increased from eight to ten hours so that the men would have more money in their pay slips at the end of the week This proposal was rejected by the workers No reason for their rejection was given A likely explanation is that the workers had little to gain from a longer work week The job would simply be completed sooner and there were few prospects of other work At the time of the petition there was no indication of the stand the men would take if their request was refused, and I did not come across any follow-up report Given the realities of the depression, labor did not enjoy a strong bargaining position Thirty cents an hour, or $1440 for a 48 hour week seems like a meager wage for a laborer This was, however, a vast improveme!lt over the 20 cents a day with board that men living in the relief camp 138

149 south of town and working on road construction received in 1933 /;]/- Y'"' \ In September 1937 subscriptions were being solicited and received to pay for the extension of the Clearwater Lake road to Mile 17 (Pioneer Bay) on the Hudson Bay Railway By early September about $150 had been contributed, and FC Deslaurier and a small crew had cleared about 1 Yz miles On September 22, a headline read "Committee on Lake Road to Make Canvas" Apparently all the persons in the community that the committee thought might be interested in seeing the project completed were identified and were to be approached by the canvassers The objective was to raise an additional $450, as it was deemed that $600 was required to get the entire right of way cut, and leveling done Fund raising was apparently successful, and the provincial government was soon involved By early July of 1938 provincial crews had commenced work repairing the road to the resort which had been built in 1937 through community contribution Despite the poor condition of the new road two cars carried parties to Pioneer Bay A report of July 17 noted that work had been halted on the new portion of the road to Clearwater However, VH Campbell, district road engineer, was seeking a grant of$5,000 from the provincial government for work on the lake road, including the new extension The paper later reported that the Hon TACrerar told members of the Board of Trade that appropriations for other projects might be diverted for work on the Clearwater road, including the extension The involvement of Crerar, Minister in the federal government and the federal MP for Churchill constituency of which The Pas was a part, reminds us that road work was still a joint provincial-federal undertaking On July 23, 1938 the paper indicated that a grant of $5,000 had been approved By mid July of work was underway on improving the extension of the Clearwater Lake road to Pioneer Bay It was anticipated that the road would be in fairly good condition within a month This may have been optimistic, as a newspaper report of August 15, 1939 described the extension to Pioneer Bay as "'an improved trail" Rail's Island Road In September of 1931 work had started on the road to Rall' s Island, four miles downstream from town The road would serve as a link between the town and the farming settlement on the island A fascinating picture of one approach to the problem of unemployment emerges It was reported that about 217 men were on the bread line in The Pas The plan was to give each man work for one day each week In return each man who worked a day would be given meal tickets allowing him one meal a day for a week in return for his day's work Those who did not work their allotted day were to be taken off the bread line According to employment officers only 29of35 men ordered to report for work on the first day were on hand If the plan was followed as outlined, the six who did not turn up were taken off the bread line As far as I can ascertain, the road to Rall' s Island was built in the fall of 1931 The next report I came across was from July indicating that $2, 000 had been approved for maintenance work Later that fall a large Monarch tractor and blade graded 4 miles ofroad from The Pas to Rall's Island, while a 139

150 November 4, 1938 report indicated that a number of culverts were installed The last report I found was from August 1939 and had to do with improvements to the surface, extension of the road, and re-routing of the entrance to town The re-routing meant that the link to town was to be east of the lumber mill, for at that time the road passed under a log-chute at the mill Other improvements were to be a regrading of the road to the "nuisance grounds" (the garbage dump) in preparation for graveling, and extension of the road by one mile on Rall' s Island Grace (Regina) Lake Road On June 19, 1934 it was reported that the town council would lend its support for a road to Grace (Regina) Lake, where a new base was to be established by Arrow Airways Arrow Airways was owned and operated by Jack Hone Its fleet consisted of a single engine Fokker monoplane and a Waco It was noted that planes would make use of the new base once it was established, and Mayor Neely urged council to do all in its power to encourage the establishment and use of the base It was not until February of 1935 that the paper reported that a survey would be made for a road to the proposed new airport at Grace Lake About two miles of road would be needed to connect the business section of the town to the airport, but apparently about a mile of this was partly graded Work was further delayed for it was not until July 10, 1936 that a headline read "Highway to Airport to Get Started", with an announcement by RW MacKinnon, chief engineer of the reclamation branch of the provincial government, that work would start Monday morning Twenty men were to be employed clearing the right of way, and another twenty would subsequently be engaged in grading work Wages were to be 30 cents an hour A short time later it was announced that clearing of the right of way was completed and teams would soon begin grading Not long after, on August 6, 1936 the paper reported that: "Men working on the Regina Lake highway received assurance from Winnipeg today that they would be supplied with knee rubber boots for work in the muskeg stretches of the right of way In some portions of the road workmen are working in cold muskeg water and boots are badly needed" Apparently the situation warranted even more dramatic action By mid-september 1936 a drag line with a boom of 50 feet and a bucket capacity of32 cubic feet began work on the road It had three operators and three oilers, and was put into 24 hour service, with short lay offs for the crews Its job was to work that part of the road unsuitable for work by teams of horses A week later a report stated: "Working six days the dragline put up approximately 32 stations of good solid dump with an average height of 3 Yz feet The distance covered ground unfit for horse work" I presume the road to Grace Lake was completed shortly thereafter A report of July 23, 1938 indicated that an expenditure of$1,000 had been approved for maintenance of the road The drag line was moved south to work on the highway to Mafeking 140

151 Carrot River Road: Improvements and Extensions Prior to the mid l 930's what passed for roads in the Carrot River fanning area west ofth,e Pas could best be described as trails By 1913 the Finger Lumber Company had built a "tote" road along the south bank of the Carrot River that was used by early settlers The development that would make the area more accessible occurred in the fall of 1925 On October 9, 1925 The Pas Herald and Mining News carried a headline that read "Work Will Proceed on Pas River Bridge" It was reported that, while the federal government maintained that The Pas (Pasquia) River was a navigable stream, it would not object to a bridge being built above the ore dock ar 1r: ( The ore dock, where the high grade copper ore from the Mandy mine had been loaded into rail cars for shipment to Trail, BC, was only a short distance up from the mouth of the river Two further points were stressed in the report The building of the bridge, it was suggested, would be the first step in building a road up the Carrot River valley to Tisdale, and thus the outside world Such a road was eventually built, but long after the highway to Mafeking was completed A more pertinent observation was that: "The erection of the bridge at the point proposed, however, will be of even more benefit to the town immediately, as it will give access to a vast stretch of meadow land immediately adjoining the town This land affords ideal pasturage for cattle and will encourage the dairying industry, a thing badly needed in The Pas" Indeed, this access proved to be very important to the harvesting of hay in the Carrot River valley, a sizeable activity in the early years of drought across the prairies commencing in 1929 In the summer of 1931 work was undertaken to improve what passed as a road by grading as far as the boom camp near the mouth of the Carrot River It was claimed that this would provide a good road for hay operators "Carrot R Farmers Ask Road, Petition is Circulated Asking Highway" was a headline in The Northern Mail on May 12, 1934 The petition was to be presented to the Hon John Bracken, Premier of Manitoba, and member for the local constituency Homesteaders and land owners argued that the opening of the Carrot River area to fanners was in the best interests of the province and that a road was needed to connect fanners with markets in The Pas The report stated: "The farmers and ranchers will ask that the province make a grant of sufficient money to improve the rough trail leading westwardfrom The Pas to the Carrot River At present the settlers who live along the river have to traverse lowlands to reach town, and the trail is in bad condition The river colony extends about 25 miles from The Pas toward the Saskatchewan boundary, and owing to the fact that road conditions are bad some growers have to transport their produce by canoe" Some modest road improvement was in progress The same article reported that gravel from the old Mandy (ore dock) spur line had been placed in some low spots on the trail 141

152 By December of 1934 a survey for a road had been completed from the boom camp near the mouth of the Carrot River to the west boundary of Range 28 The distance from the boom camp to the west side of Range 28 is approximately 16 miles, about 6 miles short of the Saskatchewan boundary, the west side of Range 29 The new road was described as follows: "This road replaces an old path through the bush on the river bank The new survey is out in the open grasslands It traverses a settled country " The "old path" referred to is the "tote" road built initially for use by the Finger Lumber Company, and subsequently used, when passable, by Carrot River farmers Being close to the river it was presumably on the natural levees that periodic flooding had built up along the river bank - Subsequent reports regarding road construction and improvements in the Carrot River area were included in more general updates about road construction in The Pas area One in late September reported that 14 miles of improved roadway would shortly be ready for traffic Improvements had been made to 4 miles of old trail and 10 miles of new road had been graded This work was done using a Monarch tractor and blade that was to be used on the highway to Mafeking As a result of a grant of $1,500 by the reclamation branch of the provincial government :further work was undertaken in the summer of 1938 This involved :further improvement of the 10 mile stretch upgraded in and extending the road :further to the west More details on improvements to be made were reported on September 16, The road, now about 15 miles long, was to be :further raised, and an extension westward was to be 3 or 4 miles in length The grader to be used had a 12 foot blade and was to be pulled bya 75 horsepower caterpillar tractor By mid October of 1938 the raising and grading of 17 miles of Carrot River road had been completed The last report I came across, from the spring of I 93 9, commented that the road, badly cut up by farm wagons in the spring thaw, had been returned to fair shape A story about an outing on Carrot River roads appeared in The Northern Mail on August 27, The extended headline read: "PARTY ESCAPES AS CAR SINKS IN BURNING MUSKEG, Near Tragedy Marks Outing of Residents, Seven Women and Children Leave Auto in Muskeg" The group was out to gather mushrooms and ventured down a side road when they: ''felt their automobile plunge through the ground and watched it burn in smouldering muskeg which had undermined the road" Apparently the car dropped about three feet A man also gathering mushrooms assisted them in leaving the car but the car could not be extracted The owner of the vehicle, who went to the spot after hearing of the mishap, reported the car as: "demolished by the fire with only two front wheels and headlights remaining above the ground" In I 934 the Carrot River area had a road, best described as a trail, only as far as the boom camp near the mouth of the Carrot River - a stretch of about 2-3 miles By 1939 the road extended about 20 miles west of The Pas, and the stretch along the Carrot River was nearly to the Saskatchewan border Apart from a brief reference in 1934 to the use of some gravel from the old railway spur line there is no mention of the use of gravel in building the Carrot River road There was, of course, no gravel 142

153 available anywhere along the route From what I can determine, the building of the Carrot River road was entirely a provincial initiative, with no federal assistance Federal policy directed assistance for road building to areas deemed suitable for mineral development, not agricultural development Roads and Highways in 1939 In the Family History section of the volume edited by SJ Allen, Laine Coad noted that when he arrived in The Pas in 1929: "There were no roads here at all, except the one to Lakeside Cemetery, and it wasn't much of a road The people here at The Pas were trying to get the Manitoba Government to put a road in through Ma/eking to here They told us that they could never put a road in from Ma/eking on account of Overflowing River which overflowed its banks periodically and would prohibit a road Also they said it was impossible to put a road across the ten mile bog However, they did get a road through here in It was a very tough road over the bog, with soft shoulders and narrow We were always glad when we were on a trip, to get safely over that part of the road Now the road over the bog is one of the best parts And incidently the Overflowing River never overflowed the country like they told us it would do It was great to have a road out of here Some of the people born and raised here had never been out of The Pas at all" (p211) The road to Lakeside Cemetery would have been about 3 miles in length, and as Laine Coad remarked "it wasn 't much of a road" By 1939 the situation was very different, with about 150 miles of road constructed Number 10 highway to Mafeking was a distance of 99 miles It was 25 miles by road to Pioneer Bay on - Clearwater Lake The road to Rall' s Island was about 5 miles in length, and it was a couple of miles ' to Grace ((Regina) Lake By 1939 the Carrot River road extended about 20 miles west of The Pas As far as I can ascertain though, by 1939 not much had been achieved beyond Prospector in the direction of Cranberry Portage In the summer of 1939 it was reported that men settling at Wanless were to be employed during the day on highway work between Prospector and Wanless Note: For the most part I have given distances in miles as all reports were in miles Multiply miles by 16 to get a close approximation of distance in kilometres Conversely divide by 16 to convert kilometres to miles) 143

154 Muskrats and Marshlands In "Manitoba: A History" historian WL Morton affirmed the importance of the rehabilitation of the marshlands of the lower delta of the Saskatchewan river, saying it was: "The first and finest example of this co-operation of people and government had been the rehabilitation of the muskrat marshes of the Saskatchewan Delta There the muskrats had been decimated by the falling water levels, and the trappers, Indians and half-breeds of The Pas and surrounding country reduced from poverty to destitution by poor catches and low prices In 1934 the Department of Mines and Natural Resources, following the bold lead a/tom Lamb, trapper and fur buyer of The Pas, began to restore the water levels by building dams and controlling the flood waters which maintained the marshes Then as the muskrats multiplied in their restored environment, the Department imposed closed and open seasons, fixed the number of furs a trapper might take, paid an initial price for the catch, made additional payments as prices permitted, and formed a reserve against the return of hard times" (p436) Tom Lamb's Rat Ranch Tom Lamb surveyed a large area of marshland on the lower delta of the Saskatchewan River in the spring of 1930 According to Stowe, he then presented his muskrat rehabilitation proposal to AG Cunningham, director of the Game and Fisheries department in Winnipeg, then to Deputy Minister Charles Atwood, and to Director of Lands Samuel McCall On all three occasions he was turned down flat As Stowe tells it: 'The bureaucrats wouldn't even give Tom a chance to present his carefully researched topographical facts But Tom was in desperate straits, and never a man to accept vetoes by uninformed and unimaginative officials For nearly two years he made repeated efforts to convince various agency chiefs that his muskrat proposal ought to be implemented, only to be brushed off with increasing curtness The ultimate insult came when one top executive kept Tom cooling his heels in his outer office for hours at a stretch over a two week period and deliberately avoided giving him even five minutes of his time" (p115) Eventually, however, Tom was able to talk to Donald G McKenzie, Minister of Mines and Natural Resources in the Bracken government McKenzie did not take long to recognize the potential of the scheme and convinced Premier Bracken to listen to the proposal Bracken was soon on side and Tom was able to secure a two year working agreement on 54,000 acres linked to an ensuing ten year lease at $1,080 annually Stowe described the leased area as: "A great sprawl of marshes cut into jigsaw patterns by creeks, rivulets, and interlocking channels interspersed by dozens of ponds and pools Bordered by Moose Lake and Moose Creek on the north and east, by the Head and Summerberry rivers along the western af!,d southern littorals, the island encompassed over 54, 000 boggy 144

155 acres" (p114) While the lease had been secured, according to Stowe, the bureaucrats made progress on the marshland rehabilitation as difficult and expensive as possible " Winnipeg underlings still had the say about implementary details They came up with foot-dragging conditions, some of them based on far-stretched interpretations of legal requirements Director of Land Surveys, Sam McCall informed Tom that the entire muskrat island, although government-owned, must first be surveyed - at Tom 's expense Then the Game Department ruled that its forty-odd miles of shorelines must be posted- every forty rods-with metal "No Trespassing" signs not less that twenty inches high - again at Tom's expense, both for the signs and putting them up So it went, with Tom ruefully reporting: "I had to say yes to everything" The nay-sayers were backwith a vengeance, grinding out every hindrance and annoyance they could think of' (pp ) On August 14, 1936 the newspaper published a letter it received from Mr Lamb under the headline "Thomas Lamb Tells of His Work in Marsh Lands" It said that he had found about 19,000 acres of the total 54,000 acre lease to be suitable as muskrat marsh Over the first few years he spent over $15,000 on water control, building dikes and dams and water control inlets and outlets to raise and maintain water levels In the process he went deeply into debt, but proved the skeptics wrong He reported that: - in 1931 there were 40 rat houses - in 1932 there were 848 houses - in 1933 there were 4,160 rat houses and we pelted 12,000 rats - in 1934 the census of houses showed as 8,362 and we pelted 24,000 rats Apparently the survival and multiplication of the muskrats depended on maintenance of a sufficient depth of water on the marshes What Tom Lamb recognised, and others had apparently failed to see, was that at low water levels the marsh froze to the bottom and the muskrats starved to death If there was a foot or two of water between the winter ice and the bottom, the rats could forage for winter feed via tunnels beneath their houses He demonstrated that, given their rapid rate of reproduction, the rat population would be rapidly restored if sufficient depth of water was maintained As noted by Beatty: "Happy pairs of muskrats in a year produce three litters averaging five kits each Some kits from in the spring will have a litter in the fall Tom says the mink and the owl each take one out of the litter Some die of disease or hunger, some wander down the river Generally, if the water is deep 1,000 rats this year will be at least 3,000 next year" (p 445) In fall of 1938 Tom Lamb undertook another initiative to maintain water levels He had observed that, from July 18 to August 18, evaporation from the rat ranch was seven inches at five different elevations, reducing the productive marsh area To remedy this loss he decided to bring in a large capacity pump from Battle Creek, Michigan It was to be coupled to a diesel engine and to run twenty four hours a day until December l The one ton pump and five ton engine were to be transported to a suitable location down river from The Pas on Joseph Schmidt's barge 145

156 Tom Lamb's scheme did not end with the restoration of the muskrat population of the marshland In 1936 six beaver that he purchased from the State Conservation Board at Albany, NewYork were released into the marshland Shortly after he added 25 beaver secured from various places in Manitoba By 1938 there were about 100 beaver in his leased marshland It was noted that there would have been more beaver had many not returned to the ranch from touring the surrounding country in tlie early spring They had found other locations in which to establish themselves, including the Summerberry marsh Provincial and Federal Rat Projects In 1935 Tom Lamb went to Winnipeg to seek a lease on additional marshland Beatty related this request and its outcome: "There's marsh up on the Summer berry River, "he said, "that's better than mine I'd like to lease that, too " "Sorry, Tom", they said "We've been watching you You've proved your point so well that we 're not giving any more leases to private operators The Province will develop the Summerberry marsh " Tom swallowed "Who'll get the rats? " he gasped, as a fortune flew out the window "F amities on relief, ", they said Tom scratched his head, then grinned "Good, " he said, and then with the sportsmanship typical of the woodsman, "How 'd you like me to help you? I could keep you from making mistakes that almost broke me" (p 445) Both the provincial and the federal governments were involved in projects to rehabilitate the muskrat marshes of the Saskatchewan delta During 1936 and 1937 $90,000 was spent on the provincial muskrat development scheme and by 1940 the capital outlay for the provincial project totaled about $150,000 In $70,000 was spent on the nearby federal plan By the fall of 1937 forty-four work projects, including dams, dikes, canals and control heads had been built on the provincial Summerberry project By July of 1938 more than three feet of water above last years level covered 150,000acres of the project and steps were being taken to retain the water in the area The work projects were designed to hold the water at present levels over about 80,000 acres and sand bags were dumped in intakes over the remaining area In June of 1939 a party of men was engaged to inspect the 150,000 acres for possible leaks and to take remedial action as required A further initiative to add an additional 25,000 acres was announced in October 1940 This required construction of two more dams The area was to be placed under a controlled trapping plan until it reached the productive stage of the whole area On June 14, 1938 the Hon T A Crerar, minister of natural resources and superintendent general of Indian Affairs, and coincidentally MP for the constituency of Churchill of which The Pas and district were a part, announced that the federal government would be seeking an area of 175,000 acres east of The Pas on lease at low rental rates Dams were to be built to secure uniform water levels and the muskrat industry developed for the benefit of Indians The newspaper reported that Crerar viewed it as "an endeavour to educate the Indians to earn their living at work for which they were more adapted" The federal project was located directly north of the province's Summerberry project In the summer of 1939 considerable progrss was made on the construction of dams and the cutting of trenches The 146

157 paper reported that nine miles of dikes had been built over the past two years Notable projects included construction of a large dam at the outlet of the marsh into Moose Lake, the c:utting of a large intake to the marsh from the Saskatchewan river, and installation of flood gates All the work on the project was done by Metis and treaty Indians with white supervisors A headline in the Northern Mail of May 1940 stated that "Flooding of Dominion Muskrat Project Begun " With the high spring water levels a stream of water was pouring through the gates to flood 160,000 acres of marshland that had been drying out steadily for the past decade The area would not, however, be open to trapping for at least another year to give the rats in the area time to multiply According to Taylor it was scheduled to go into production in 1942, and the first fur crop was expected to exceed 150,000 skins, or about sixty percent of the rat population Early Summerberry Rat Harvests When the provincial project started in 1936 it was estimated that there were less than 5,000 muskrat houses in the entire area A census of 1938 showed 12,197 muskrat houses In 1939 the census showed over 32,000 houses with an estimated muskrat population of over 200,000 This led to a decision to open the provincial Summerberry project for trapping in the spring of 1940 The Department of Game and Fisheries at The Pas received hundreds of applications from both district and outside trappers for permission to trap Of these about 300 whites and Metis and 100 treaty Indians were given permission to trap on the preserve A report of March 1940 noted that 400 trappers were encamped on the borders of the 150,000 acre area in order to get an early start on the ten day trapping period Treaty Indian women were preparing facilities to cure muskrat meat, and teams would arrive at control points during the season to carry loads of fresh and cured meat to reservations at The Pas, Moose Settlement and other points Accounts indicate that the muskrat harvest was very effectively organised The men with their equipment and supplies were encamped at four main control stations where they received final permits to enter the preserve and were assigned to parties and zones Game guardians were responsible for dividing the men into groups which then entered the conservation area under the guidance of veteran trappers Each man was allowed a quota of 300 skins Not all the areas on the Summerberry marshes proved equally productive Sections where water levels were not yet under control were less productive Trappers who had been allotted those sections were given new ground on which to trap as soon as trappers working the better zones had taken their quota Furs were taken to control points for collection Game wardens there picked out all furs not thoroughly dried and returned them to the trappers who were required to set up camp at the control points to finish drying the pelts The furs were batched at the control points No distinction was made between muskrat pelts in terms of quality - a very egalitarian approach, as it is unlikely that each trapper's pelts were of equal quality About 6,000 pelts were taken to The Pas by plane before the break up, while the majority of the pelts were taken to The Pas QY government launch On May 8, 1940 a newspaper headline read "Premier Says Trappers to Decide on Fur Sale" The article quoted the premier as saying: "If any considerable section of them want it held in The Pas, that is where it will be 147

158 held Our advice was that more money would be received if the sale of furs was held in Winnipeg In that advice we have considerable confidence, but if those chiefly concerned feel otherwise we are quite prepared to accept their judgement" The decision was to sell the furs in Winnipeg On the evening of May 14, 1940 three truckloads of furs with an estimated market value of $180,000 left for Winnipeg The shipment comprised 121,000 muskrat pelts - almost the complete catch from more than 400 trappers on the Summerberry game preserve The shipment weighed about twelve tons and was consigned to the Dominion Fur Auctions, Winnipeg On arrival in Winnipeg the pelts were graded by three experts The Northern Mail reported on May 22, 1940 that, after witnessing much of the counting and grading a well known northern fur buyer G Chartrand,, remarked: "The muskrats from the preserve should bring substantially more on the market than pelts collected by traders throughout the north The pelts are of good quality, few are damaged and while there are quite a number of small rats the majority are grading large size They are a much better class than the average muskrat from outside the preserve " Early speculation was that the pelts would sell for about $100 a piece, while a later claim was that the price of the skins was ranging up to $150 On May 31, 1940 it was reported that a total of $161,85427 was received for the approximately 126,000 muskrat pelts from the Summerberry game preserve auctioned in Winnipeg The furs sold for an average price of $13 2 This was substantially higher than the average market price in Winnipeg and reflected the quality of the pelts that G Chartrand had noted Al Not all the pelts taken were sold in Winnipeg About 9,000 pelts, comprising the wages of 60 senior trappers who supervised the trapping on the preserve, were sold locally to buyers in The Pas for more than $12,000 The financial aspects of the muskrat harvest were also highly organised Through the "grubstaking" plan each man chosen to trap the preserve was given a credit of up to $4000 to purchase needed supplies and equipment In total these credits would have amounted to about $16, 000 On completion of the trapping, each man received an initial payment of $1500 Furs trapped were the security for these advances After the sale of the furs, the money was paid out to the trappers in twelve equal monthly payments, after the "grubstake" and initial payments were subtracted Just over $161,854 was received for the pelts at the auction in Winnipeg According to Beatty the government retained one-third of the gross sales Consequently the trappers' share would be about $107,903 By final count 414 men were engaged in trapping the preserve If my calculations are correct, after subtracting for the "grubstake" of $40 and the initial payment of $15, the equal installments paid out to each trapper would have been about $17 00 a month Taylor noted that an estimated 20,000 pelts were also taken by trappers from areas bordering the game preserve Trappers would have been free to dispose of these pelts not subject to the arrangements 148

159 outlined above Among these trappers were men who had quickly filled their quotas on the preserve A second harvest, and the last to be discussed here, occurred in the spring of 1941 By February of 1941 The Pas branch of the Department of Game and Fisheries had received nearly 1,000 applications to trap at Summerberry On March 18 it was announced that 700 white, Metis and Indian trappers would participate, a marked increase over the slightly more than 400 participants in 1940 Of the 700 about 17 5 were treaty Indians, 100 of whom were from The Pas Reserve, with the balance from Grand Rapids, Cedar Lake and Moose Lake All trappers on the preserve were to be allowed 275 pelts These were to be consolidated into one large shipment, sold at auction, and the money divided among the men irrespective of whether one man trapped all first-quality pelts, and another only a percentage of prime skins While the accounts of the Summerberry rat harvest in 1941 are less detailed that those available for 1940, it is reasonable to assume that similar procedures were followed In June of 1941 the muskrat pelts trapped on the Summerberry game preserve were sold by auction in Winnipeg for $376,000, anaverageof$188yi per pelt This would translate into a harvest of nearly 200,000 pelts At least 700, and possibly as many as 750 men, were engaged in trapping the preserve in 1941 Assuming that the same procedures were in place as in 1940 the twelve monthly payments for each trapper would be somewhere between $2500 and $2300 Since the quota was lower per trapper (275 vs 300 pelts) the increase in the monthly payment can be attributed to an increase in the average price of the pelts sold at the auction By 1940 the expenditure on rehabilitating the Summerberry marsh was in the order of$150,000 In just the first two years of harvesting the government recovered over $179,000 - one third of $161, 854 in 1940 and one third of$376,000in1941 There would, however, have been annual costs involved in organizing and monitoring each season's harvest, collection and transportation of the pelts, and inspection and maintenance work needed to keep appropriate water levels in the marsh The salaries of provincial employees engaged in the project had to be paid and it was reasonable that the province gain some revenue from a resource owned by the people of the province By any measure the Summerberry project was a highly successful venture Would it have occurred at all without the initiative, foresight and determination of Tom Lamb? Muskrats for Relief "Muskrats for Relief' is the title of an article by Beatty in the December 1940 issue of the magazine, the American Mercury The project was originally carried out as a Joint Unemployment Relief measure, with the provincial Summerberry project receiving federal assistance at the outset In 1939 the cost of relief to Indians alone dropped by over $11,000 in The Pas agency These reductions presumably reflect, in large part, employment of Indians on the provincial and federal projects as the areas being rehabilitated were not opened to trapping until

160 In May 1940, after the season's trapping on the Summerberry had ended, Premier Bracken was asked how the outcome had affected employment According to the newspaper he respondd that the Summerberry project had made 400 families self-sustaining Given that about 700 men participated in trapping on the Summerberry preserve in 1941 it could similarly be argued that the project had made 700 families self-sustaining in that year Ill There was also a direct impact on The Pas By May 1941 relief rolls had decreased from 36 families to 15 because heads of 21 families were among those selected to trap on the Summerberry preserve One hundred native families from The Pas reserve also benefitted in a similar way There were of course additional benefits to the town A large part of the money provided for the "grubstakes", about $16,000 in 1940 and $28,000 in 1941, was probably spent in The Pas, the point of departure for most of those trapping on the preserve east of town The purchase of groceries, camp equipment, traps and rat stretchers would have been a boon to local merchants As Taylor stated: "To northern communities whose shopkeepers and businessmen labored through depression years without the help of the fur trade, the conservation of fur and the results brought a change in the tempo of life When 400 trappers sallied from the game administration offices last spring, armed with $40 credits and with the prospect of a steady income, business jumped with their hopes Canoe builders were swamped with orders as men pooled their credits; blacksmiths took on more help to make skin stretchers; tinsmiths commenced turning out portable stoves; hardware stores ordered traps by the hundreds, and grocers became experts in grubstaking" (p31) In addition, the monthly payments, referred to in the l 950's as the "rat cheque", received in 1941 by 21 families in The Pas and 100 families on The Pas reserve were probably spent in The Pas almost in their entirety The decision made by the provincial government as to how the money earned by the trappers from the sale of furs would be handled is an interesting aspect of the Summerberry scheme After recovery of the "grubstake" credit and the initial payment of $15 00, the balance was spread out across twelve equal monthly payments Today this would be regarded as very paternalistic Clearly it was designed to provide a monthly income, to help ensure that it was spent in a responsible fashion, and to reduce umvise or frivolous use of the money As Beatty observed: "It (the provincial government) sells the pelts for the trappers and pays them in monthly installments, much to the satisfaction of their families and to the regret of The Pas gamblers, liquor dealers and girls" (p446) Reflections on the Rat Harvest As a teenager living in The Pas in the early 1950's I worked in my dad's store, Keddie and Fowler, after 400pm weekdays and on Saturdays My dad could speak Cree and many people from the reserve were customers Each year I looked forward to the busy time in March when I would assist in putting up the orders for the native trappers going to the muskrat marshes in early spring 150

161 --:;, Walter Krivda (in SJ Allen, ed) gave a vivid description of this annual event: "The seemingly endless number of dog teams all decked out with bells, qnd toboggans filled to the very top with kids, wife and grub stake on the way to the rattrapping grounds in March This was a yearly event and the business men, Indians and whites eagerly looked forward to this each spring Dogs were the means of transportation The head dog of each team often had a paper flower or red ribbon in his collar, and his collar bells were louder than the bells a/his mates, and he knew it! The harnesses were often done up in collar ribbon" (p313) In 1956 Sim summarized the success of the Summerberry area, saying: "Provincial government mammalogists maintain a careful record of the number of muskrat houses in the area and are then able to decide the number of trappers to be licensed and the quota of fur to be allowed each man In 1953, 200,000 muskrats were trapped in the Summerberry area These are collected and taken to The Pas by snowmobile, tractor, and boat, and are graded before being sent to Winnipeg for sale The proceeds of the sale are distributed in equal monthly payments to the trappers Careful conservation practices have made it possible to remove a substantial annual "crop" of pelts from the delta Wise administration of the proceeds has made benefits available to trappers throughout the year" (p14) r: ("' ! In 1962 Tom Lamb received the Golden Boy Award for outstanding services to the province This recognition :from his fellow citizens occurred as the Manitoba government was finalizing plans to expropriate and flood out his cattle and muskrat ranches The rat harvest did not last much longer Waters backing up from Manitoba Hydro's Grand Rapids dam, officially opened in the fall of 1965, drowned out the marshes of the Summerberry and Tom Lamb's rat ranch Most of the lower delta marshlands became part of a greatly expanded Cedar Lake as water leveis were raised about twelve feet The 4,500 acre cattle ranch that Tom Lamb had developed on reclaimed lower delta land was also lost The inhabitants of three Indian reserves were also flooded out by the rising waters, and were moved to the settlement ofeasterville The older people continue to mourn the loss of their traditional land - the productive marshlands of the lower delta of the Saskatchewan river 151

162 Farming North of'53: The Carrot River District In newspaper accounts of the 1920's and 30's the term Carrot River Triangle was used to refer to a vast portion of the upper delta of the Saskatchewan River bounded by the Saskatchewan and Carrot Rivers and extending west to the Sipanok Channel The Carrot River District referred to here is the farming area west of The Pas lying between the Carrot River, the Pasquia (The Pas) River and extending westward nearly to the Saskatchewan border Most of the farmsteads were located along the south bank of the Carrot River From the early 1950's it has been thought of as the area encompassed by the Pasquia Reclamation Project Farming Along the Carrot River The first attempt at agricultural settlement in the Carrot River area west of The Pas was by a group of French Canadians According to Sid Wilton, in an article in the booklet edited by Harry Dunn for the town's 50th anniversary: "In 1915 a colony of French Canadians from Quebec was settled about 15 miles up the Carrot River from The Pas, but in 1916 the river over-jlowed its banks completely flooding the country and they were forced to evacuate" (pp37-38) Ben and Nazaire Frechette were among those involved in this, the St Francois Settlement According to the story ofnazaire Frechette in the volume edited by SJ Allen, while he was forced to leave the St Francois Settlement, he did not leave The Pas By 1927 Frechette's Dairy was established on the comer ofhalcrow A venue and 13th Street To feed his growing herd of dairy cattle he harvested hay and grew grain on land in the Carrot River area The Census of Agriculture, which provides excellent data on Canadian agriculture, does not provide data on the Carrot River district for 1931, 1936 or 1941 In those years the district is combined with a number of other small farming areas beyond the boundaries of rural municipalities which are the units for which detailed information is available The newspaper reports on farming in the Carrot River district in the 1930's tend to be anecdotal rather than comprehensive The fullest newspaper account that I found was from June 1, 1934 It read in part: "Approximately 40 farmers and settlers are now located in the area along the boom camp road carrying on active farm operations including breaking of new land, grain growing, market gardening, dairying and haying, it was learned in a survey made this week by a group of local men The majority o farmers now settled along the road took over their lands in 1929 and 1930 Some have seeded this summer as much as 30 acres of grain in addition to vegetable gardens All of them have gardens, and their produce is marketed annually in The Pas and Flin Flon and at other northern points Several farmers of this district have large herds of cattle, varying in number from a half dozen to 30 or 40 head 152

163 liliimo iofllilil\ - -, lli'!ijid,-----,,- Newspaper accounts provide further information about farming in the district during the mid and late '30's Avila St Godard had brought the first threshing machine into the district in DecemQer of 1932 A report of said he was going from farm to farm with his threshing machine, I presume doing custom threshing By the fall of 1938 there were at least six threshing machines in the district Throughout the 1930's it would seem that grain yields were very good In N Frechette reported that he harvested 10,000 bushels of oats from 100 acres This converts to 100 bushels per acre, and if accurate, would surely be quite exceptional More generally, oat yields were in the 50 to 65 bushels per_ acre range, while wheat and barley yields were in the range of 40 to 50 bushels per acre Potatoes were the most important vegetable crop In 1936 it was reported that about 35 farmers grew potatoes and harvested approximately 12,000 bushels The three largest producers, Fred Kerr, Frank Coad and John Jaeger harvested 3,000 bushels, 1,500 bushels and 1,100 bushels respectively In 1938 one farmer stated that he harvested over 300 bushels of potatoes from half an acre of newly broken land Most of the settlers took up their lands in 1929 and 1930 More joined their ranks across the 1930's A headline of August 17, 1936 read "Sask Family Treks 400 Miles to Homestead Here, Leave Drouth-Stricken Country in South" The cross country trek took Charles Kusch, his wife, two chiidren and brother-in-law two months Beside settler effects they brought with them eight cattle, four horses and a sheep Another story of a cross country trek to settle in the district, that of Otto Herman, can be found in the volume edited by SJAllen, pp By 1939 between 50 and 60 farms were located in the Carrot River district west of town, most of them along the south bank of the Carrot River to within about 6 miles of the Saskatchewan border About 3,000 acres were sown to grain (oats, barley and wheat), with oats being the dominant grain crop Vegetable production, dominated by potatoes, was almost as important in the district as grain production The number of cattle had increased steadily over the years, and by the late 193 O's the area had around 3,000 head Pasture land for grazing was abundant There was a large area of "native hay" that could be harvested The hay, along with locally grown oats, the main feed crop, carried the livestock through the winter Low water levels during the 30's had extended the area available for pasture, hay-making and cultivation The Carrot River farming district west of The Pas is part of the upper delta of the Saskatchewan River Deltas are prone to flooding During the drought years across the prairies the Carrot River district remained flood free, as well as drought free As noted by Laine Coad in the volume edited by SJ Allen: "When we started putting up hay along the Carrot River there was a lot of swamps between the Carrot River and The Pas River About 1938 and 1939 the whole country dried up and a person could drive all over the land, between the two rivers, with a car or truck This was great for the farmers and haymakers A lot of hay was stacked where it used to be wet and more land was broken up" (p 212) By all available land on the south side of the Carrot River from The Pas to within six miles of the Saskatchewan border was reported to have been taken up for farming A preliminary survey of 153 I i j I J J I

164 farm lands to the west of The Pas was being undertaken by Professor JH Ellis, a soil scientist from the University of Manitoba faculty of agriculture In March of 1939 it was reported that :further survey work was to be undertaken, with the expectation that it would be completed in 1939 The Pas town council and The Pas Board of Trade were both promoters of the opening up of the Carrot River area for settlement In August of 1933 a headline in The Northern Mail read "Government To Be Urged to Open Area" Councillor Dembinsky was pushing for such an initiative, and Mayor Neely declared he would favour such a move With all available land on the south side of the Carrot River settled by 1939, efforts were being made to have land on the north side opened for settlement, despite the refusal by the provincial government to approve such a plan In the paper carried the following observation on more than one occasion: "In the triangle, bounded by the Carrot and Saskatchewan rivers and the Sipanok channel connecting the two there are approximately three-quarters of a million acres, 20 per cent of which is tillable under normal flood conditions and of which 60 per cent is tillable under present low water conditions, local farming authorities claim " However, in February of 1939 Premier Bracken informed The Northern Mail that there was no immediate development program planned for the Carrot River Valley, and that there would not be until such time as widespread demand indicated the necessity of such a proiram The paper further reported that: "Although the land in the district has been surveyed and found suitable for agriculture, the danger of flooding was imminent, and a flood would break up any pre-arranged settlement scheme unless proper precautions were taken, it was learned in connection with the premier's statement These precautions could not be undertaken by the department unless land demand had increased values in the district to coliform with expenditures necessary under such projects, it was explained" Making Hay Although the drought and depression years in the prairies are referred to as the "dirty thirties", 1929 was one of the worst of the drought years This led to large-scale hay making activity in the Carrot River area west of The Pas that continued for a number of years Hay making was, of course, a normal part of farming activity in the district, and hay was the basic forage crop for the cattle and horses kept on district farms Access to the Carrot River natural hay lands was expedited by the 1925 construction of a bridge across The Pas River and by improvements and extensions of roads in the Carrot River area described in the previous section on district road construction The first newspaper report of a major hay-making initiative in the Carrot River area was on August 29, 1929, with a headline that read "Farmers to Invade North for Hay Crop" The article observed that few areas in western Canada had such a surplus of hay, and that 1 O,OOO's of acres of land were open and ready for harvesting The provincial governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan had negotiated reduced rates with the railway, and were paying the cost of bringing men and equipment up north Local men had also secured hay permits on crown land It was "native hay" that was being harvested, not a cultivated grass crop 154

165 Laine Coad, in the volume edited by SJ Allen, described the situation, saying: "In 1929 it was dry on the prairies and the Saskatchewan Government was buying hay for the farmers there We went up along the Carrot River near mile eight on the present road, and made all the hay we could with a limited amount of machinery We baled the hay in the fall and winter and shipped hay to Saskatchewan, and some north from here We eventually acquired land in this area and farmed there ever since During the early thirties it was so dry on the prairies that the Saskatchewan Government paid transportation costs on the railroad for farmers to bring in haying equipment and horses to make hay here in The Pas There were some outfits came in every year for several years It seemed they would make hay until the snow came and then bale it and load it into box cars on the rail road It took until about spring to get all the hay shipped out" (p211) A report of August 31 noted that the first farmers had arrived from the south with two carloads of stock and equipment Later on 8 carloads of equipment and a crew of 20 arrived The plan was to cut 5,000 tons of hay and to work as long as the season permitted Hay making activity continued in subsequent years On August 7, 1930 it was reported that a contract for 10,000 tons of hay had been let by Saskatchewan Two local businessmen, H Tipping and CB Morgan, had secured the contract and were in charge of the operation More than 200 men were to be employed on the job across a four month period, and 100 teams of horses were to be at work with mowing machines and presses A few weeks later it was reported that contracts for hay would be doubled to 20,000 tons, and that outfits from the south would be arriving to take part in the operation It was anticipated that 800 cars loads of hay would be shipped south that fall and winter,/'" fu the summer of 1931 hay-making initiatives were again featured in the local newspaper The paper reported that, while the need for hay was high, prices were low To encourage district haymakers it would be useful to cancel all dues (fees levied for cutting hay on crown land) The 1931 cutting season ended early, as a headline of September 14 read "Hay Camps Closing in North Today" CB Morgan reported that 7, 000 tons were now cut, but that a larger cut could not be considered without any contracts or data on requirements The hay was to be pressed and held ready for shipment as orders were received With the closing of eight camps, about 120 men were put out or work after only a short haymaking season -0 - IJl!lll!l!9' o;-/, _ The next mention of hay that I found was in an article of September 19, 1933 CB Morgan, local business man and town councillor, had recently been traveling in the hay lands of the Carrot River He noted that sow thistle was making serious inroads in the haylands, and that action needed to be taken At his urging, council decided to write the provincial minister of agriculture requesting action, and also placed the matter before EH Campbell, engineer for the province based in The Pas There is no indication whether any effective remedial action was taken Another problem relating to hay production in the Carrot River valley was reported in the paper on August 31, 1934 The provincial government levied a fee for cutting hay on crown land A fee of $100 per ton was levied on all hay shipped out of the district and on all hay cut for that purpose Moreover, the fee had to be paid before the hay was cut A special meeting between a committee from 155

166 The Pas Board of trade and local hay men was held, since the provincial levy was curtailing hay production Two members of the Board of Trade were delegated to deal further with the matter No resolution was reported in the paper In the same year a headline of September 24 read "60 Tons Carrot River Hay Going to Churchill" The baled hay was to feed 300 head of cattle which were to be shipped from Churchill on board the SS Brandon The contract had been awarded to A St Godard The hay had been cut and baled on his ranch 14 miles up the Saskatchewan River It was to be hauled to The Pas on barges for rail shipment to Churchill I found no report of the total tonnage of hay produced in 1934 or for any subsequent year in the 1930's Getting a School On October 12, 1938 a headline read "Carrot River Valley School is Expected" The Hon Ivan Schultz, minister of education, and DB Moorehead, inspector of schools for the province, had visited the district and discussed the necessity of a school with residents With about 25 school age children in the district the expectation was that a school would soon be built By April of 1939 district farmers had hauled the required number oflogs and were to have them sawn into rough lumber for the framework of the new building The understanding was the provincial government would supply the additional material required to finish the school building On May 8, 1939 it was noted that the limits of the new school district had not been set In July it was reported that the two school districts, known as the "upper" and "lower" districts would not be amalgamated as earlier planned At a special meeting at the home of JE Jaeger plans for the amalgamation were voted down by members of the "upper" district, which extended from Mile 12 to Mile 18 on the highway As had been noted earlier by Mr Moorehead, provincial schools inspector: "The project is of an unusual nature because the district is laid out in river lots instead of the conventional townships This will make it impossible to locate a school in such a way that no child will have more than three miles to go, and some provisions will have to be made to transport the more distant pupils to school" I :d tl!lfl Rejection of amalgamation stemmed presumably from a concern on the part of parents about access should an amalgamated district be formed Consequently the revised plan was for a school for the "upper district" to be built at about Mile 15 Residents of the "lower district" were considering the option of a bus line to bring pupils to the school in town An entry by JE Jaeger in the volume edited by SJ Allen reads: "A school, the Carrot Valley School, was built on "lot 52' on three acres of land that was donated for that use, by the Jaegers A building committee was formed to supervise the construction Carpenters Vic Amery and John Johnson were hired to work with volunteer labor to erect the building John Jaeger had a saw mill at that time and supplied the 13, 000 feet of lumber for the building" (p 299) In the entry cited above Mr Jaeger noted that payment for the lumber was to be obtained, and that 156

167 "entertainment consisted of concerts and dances in the schoolhouse and a trip to town about twice a year for the ladies" In those days 12 to 18 miles was a very long way to travel to town A Brief Look Forward In an elevator was constructed south of Seventh Street between Gordon A venue and the railway tracks by Searle Grain In 1948 the Saskatchewan River overflowed its banks and inundated the farming area of the Carrot River Valley As related by Laine Coad in the volume edited by SJ Allen: "The water stayed from sometime in May until sometime in September It was late September before we could drive to town with a tractor During the flood we travelled by boat On July 1st 1948 the water at our gate by the Carrot River road was six feet deep I measured it with a pole We didn't have a square foot of dry land" (p212) As a result of this serious flood the Pasquia Reclamation Project was eventually undertaken by the P F RA According to Harrington, the Canada-Manitoba agreement of 1953 authorized" construction of dykes, roads, drainage ditches, control works, and pumping stations" As a consequence of this initiative about 130,000 acres between the Carrot River and the Pasquia River are now protected from flooding - ;,-/' - -' -,-,,,

168 Other District Activities '+ i-, Back to the Land: The Wanless Project "Pioneer Settlement Scheme Sprouts in Forests, Model Community Takes Form at Wanless", was a newspaper headline on November 16, 1939 The paper reported that: "Speaking English with varied accents but working together in jovial co-operation, 18 tanned, muscular men today are preparing to welcome their families to a pioneer, model community, which they have carved from northern Manitoba forests in three short months A square mile of rich farmland amidst bush and pines is the settingfor the new village of 19 compact log cabins, arranged in groups of four around water wells It is 25 miles north of The Pas, beside the Flin Flon railway, at Wanless" The plan for the settlement at Wanless was developed by VH Campbell, provincial district engineer, as a solution to unemployment, and received endorsement and assistance from Premier Bracken to carry it through to completion The first reference to this initiative that I came across was dated July 17, 1939 It stated that 20 heads of families from The Pas, Flin Flon, Sherri don and Cranberry Portage were going to Wanless There they were to build homes on 40 acre farms under a farm settlement scheme for the unemployed The men were to be employed on the highway between Wanless and Prospector during the day, and during the long evenings would build cabins, under supervision It was expected that building homes and clearing the property would be completed by October at which time their families would be moved in The report noted that lumber for homes, wood for heating and cooking, and fish and game were all plentiful in the district, and several test wells had proven that abundant water supplies were available By early October of 1939 the last of the homes for the settlers was under construction, and the last shipment of building materials was to arrive shortly VH Campbell, who was directing the settlement plan, is quoted as saying "A splendid spirit of willingness and pride in their work is noticeable among these men" A report of October 31, 1939 indicated that the families had been chosen for the settlement scheme, but provided no information as to how many families were interested, and what if any selection criteria were applied A five mile trail was to be cut north of Root Lake to connect with a newly completed piece of road south from Wanless to connect the new settlement with The Pas Each town in northern Manitoba contributed to the personnel of the new settlement Two families came from Herb lake, one from Cormorant Lake, three from Flin Flon, two from Cranberry Portage, and eight from The Pas - about 90 people in all The housing was described as snug log cabins about 24 by 26 feet, with two bedrooms, large brick chimneys, shingled roofs, and roomy storage cellars Shortly after the families joined their menfolk a committee from The Pas, along with VH Campbell, visited the new farming settlement The settlers told the citizens of The Pas of their satisfaction at having homes of their own and plans for the future L Allard of The Pas reported that some families had pigs, another chickens, and others were planning to sell cordwood in The Pas and Flin Flon to pay for teams or cattle He added that "/think Mr Campbell should be highly complimented for his 158

169 effort which provides a solution to the unemployment problem in Manitoba": a kind thought, but a bit excessive given the scale and nature of the problem and the modest scale of the solution In January 25 of 1940 the 19 families in the new Wanless community expressed keen satisfaction with the way the project had unfolded By the end of the month every family head had paid for the building of his home out of wages earned from work on the road under construction to link Wanless to The Pas - l,j' The Summerberry muskrat preserve was opened for trapping in the spring of 1940 Fifteen men from the Wanless pioneer settlement were among those selected to participate They had apparently agreed to pool their entire credits, the $40 grubstake, to purchase supplies This would have amounted to $600, a considerable sum Among the purchases were two teams and sleds to be used for the 30 mile journey to the trapping grounds From this one can conclude that a spirit of co-operation prevailed A report of March 25, 1940 stated that: "The 15 muscular men are as well organised as an army unit One of the number who has proved himself adept at cooking will cook for the entire camp Another will plan and erect the camp Others have various duties which include skinning, stretching and shaving pelts, building skif!s and trapping " From the proceeds of the trapping the group planned to purchase cows, chickens and other livestock, or improve their homes In late August of 1940 a severe early frost cut into the community's first truck garden harvests It also meant that the settlers would have to purchase potatoes and other vegetables for winter storage Small monthly incomes would, however, accrue to the 15 men who had engaged in muskrat trapping, while others would get income from work on threshing gangs Despite the initial setback hopes were high for a good harvest in 1941, with all the settlers planning on planting one-acre plots During the winter of many of the men were employed cutting ties along the rail line In the spring of 1941 the entire adult male population was to participate in trapping on the Sumrnerberry Muskrat preserve A report of March 24, 1941 concluded by noting that: "Wanless, made up of 20 families, is a government "back to the land" experiment whereby people, otherwise unemployed, have been given a chance to settle on the land and to build their own home" There were many "back to the land" initiatives taken by provincial governments across Canada in the depression years These initiatives reflected attempts to deal with the unemployment problem with the hope of providing men and their families with the wherewithall to gain a livelihood that would sustain them, particularly if the "income in kind" provided by farming could be coupled with seasonal employment The Wanless project is one such example From the reports it can be deemed an initial success Berry Picking In the mid to late l 930's berry harvesting of low bush cranberries or moss berries was an example of depression era initiatives on the part of companies and locals to generate some income in difficult 159 '

170 times I came across six articles in The Northern Mail detailing large scale berry harvesting across the years from 1933 to 1939 The first article, from October 5, 1933, reported that 30,000 pounds of northern berries had been shipped south, providing about $1,500 to pickers in the area If these figures are approximately correct, pickers received about 5 cents a pound for the berries How long it would take to pick one pound of low bush cranberries I do not know WJ Smith, of Smith's Grocery in The Pas and agent for IH Hall a manufacturer of jams and jellies in Winnipeg, reported that about 200, 000 pounds of berries were required for the following summer, to fill orders already placed Tenders were to be called for boxes (about 50,000) to be manufactured The boxes were for packing the berries for shipment On September 27, 1934 a more detailed and comprehensive report appeared in The Northern Mail, with the headline "60,000 Pounds of Moss Berries to be Picked" The article read in part: "Across a 200 mile wide front, the men, women and children of the Cree tribes are in the midst of their second season of berry picking on a large scale " Sam Lovell, the Indian agent in The Pas noted that: "The growing popularity of northern berries in the cities of the prairies has proved a boon for the Indians Sale of berries has provided them with extra cash which has furnished them with supplies just before going out on their trap lines" The September 27 report claimed that more than 60,000 pounds oflow bush cranberries would move through The Pas in the fall Water craft of various types were arriving in The Pas with loads of berries from as far west as Cumberland House and as far east as Grand Rapids The supply (60,000 pounds) was well short of the 200,000 pounds that orders had been placed for It was, however, nearly a doubling of the previous years shipment, revised upward to 33,000 pounds from the earlier claim of 30,000 A year later, in July of 1938 a headline read "Large export of Local Berries is Prospect" Apparently timely heavy rains had greatly improved the prospect for the harvest Hall's Limited of Winnipeg was now described as makers of a well-known cranberry sauce For ideal processing conditions Hall's preferred berries that had been picked before they had fully ripened A follow-up report of August 18, 1938 claimed that as much as 100,000 pounds of berries might be shipped south About 2,500 pounds of cranberries had already been shipped It was further noted that with 600 Indians engaged in part time picking, considerably more berries were expected, particularly when the moss berry season arrived Berries were to be accepted in The Pas in a green condition so that they would arrived at the shipping destination in better condition than in previous years, when many were overripe on arrival The last reference to the 1938 berry picking season was on August 31, to the effect that 30,000 pounds of low bush cranberries had been shipped to Winnipeg, and that the time for picking moss berries was growing near There was no indication whether the target of 100,000 pounds had been 160

171 met However, a type of "berries for barter" system between the Indian pickers and local merchants was reported "The new industry, which is reported increasing yearly as more and more uses and markets are found for the northern berries, is assisted by merchants ofthe Pas who accept berries in payment for goods, then turn the berries over to WJ Smith, northern agent for Hall's Limited, Winnipeg, who are sponsoring the use of the northern fruit in sauces and jams" The following year, on June 14, 1939, in the last report about berry picking that I came across, the headline read "Market for Northern Berries is Increased" The opening paragraph claimed that: "One million pounds of Cranberries from northern Manitoba are expected to be shipped this year for manufacture into sauce and pie filling, according to word received here from Hall's Limited, Winnipeg, originators of the use for northern berries" The article noted that the market for the product was double that of the previous year, and that: "IndiansfromMooseLake, Cranberry Portage, RedEarth, Cedar Lake, The Pas and Winnipegosis supply the berries, and that increased production from the Winnipegosis district is expected as a result of the completion of The Pas highway enabling trucking from that point" Even with this expansion it is difficult to believe that one million pounds of berries could or would be picked in one season I found no further references to berry picking in The N orthem Mail in I may have missed one, but with the outbreak of war in early September 1939 the focus was on other news Note: The newspaper account of August 18, 1938 distinguishes between the cranberry and the moss berry Cranberry terminology is confusing There are several sub-types of"true" cranberry, all of which carry the latin name Vaccinium, and all of which are most commonly found in boggy or swampy locales The Large Cranberry which is now grown commercially and used in cranberry jelly and juice is Vaccinium Macrocarpon, also known as Oxycoccus Macrocarpus It is found further south than The Pas and would likely not have been part of the berry harvest Its close relatives are the Common Cranberry, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, sometimes known as Moss Berry, and the Small Cranberry, Vaccinium Microcarpus, and the Low Bush Cranberry, also known as Bog Cranberry or Lingonberry, Vaccinium Vitis Idaea, All of these are found in the northern boreal forest 161

172 Then there are the totally unrelated "high bush" cranberries, latin name Viburnum, of which, again, there are several varieties These are not swamp plants but grow as shrubs They have bright coloured berries and a hard seed What is now called the High Bush Cranberry, Viburnum Trilobum, is not likely to have grown around The Pas However, Viburnum Edule, also called Low Bush Cranberry, is found across the boreal forest of North America Confusingly it, too may also be called High Bush Cranberry locally, and also Mooseberry (which could be confused with Moss Berry), Squash Berry and also Lingonberry I did note that the cranberry terminology is confusing Which were harvested and shipped from The Pas? Most likely Vaccinium Oxycoccus, Vaccinium Microcarpus and Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea Your input on this would be welcome! 162

173 A QUICK LOOK BACK When I started out I thought I had some idea of what I would find: population growth and a building boom in the late 1920's, and employment contraction and hard times during the 1930's As I dug through the newspapers and town records, census data, books and articles I soon discovered that there was so much more to the story of The Pas and district during those years Boom Years: The Late Nineteen Twenties The years of the late l 920's were years of great optimism across Canada The Pas was no exception In 1928 a newspaper headline read "Much Prosperity Appears in Store for The Pas" In May of 1929 it was reported that a lot on the comer of Fischer A venue and Third Street had sold for a record price of $15,000 A huge area to the south of the town, The Pas Annex, had been surveyed into blocks and lots and hundreds of properties had been sold in this area This was a town to invest in, to do business in, and to move to, as my father's family did in the twenties If Winnipeg, as the eastern gateway to the Prairie west, could grow to be Canada's third largest city by 1921 then surely The Pas, as gateway to northern Manitoba, had an assured and bright future Optimism and the notion of opportunity were certainly featured in the town's Board of Trade promotional pamphlet of March, 1929 titled: "The Pas, The Gateway to Northern Manitoba, Where Opportunities Exist" It triumphantly proclaimed: "Oydng to railway and mining activities, Northern Manitoba will, in a few years, be dotted with villages, towns and cities of which The Pas will be, as it is now, the most important large centre of population There are several reasons why The Pas must continue to be the metropolis of Northern Manitoba" ' -, <",-:; The boom years in The Pas in the late l 920's were indeed fueled by development to the north The completion arid rehabilitation of the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill, construction of railways to Flin Flon and Sherridon, and initial mine and townsite developments at both occurred in this brief time period But the role of The Pas in these activities would have inevitably been short lived Some of the optimism was, therefore, misplaced However, the activity to the north had a huge impact on life and livelihood in The Pas across these years, when the town was "bursting at the seams" and "wide open and wild" The population more than doubled Business activity increased rapidly, as evidenced by the fact that business tax revenue increased from $9,042 in 1927 to $17,540 in 1929 During this period The Pas Lumber Company attained levels of production not seen before or since Employment in the lumber company and the winter logging camps seemed secure, attracting families to settle in the town, and attracting more businesses to feed, clothe and entertain both residents and transients Not surprisingly, given the population and business growth, the town experienced a building boom Many of the town's signature buildings were added in this period, including St Anthony's hospital, Western Grocers, the Lido Theatre and the Crystal Gardens (later the Legion Hall), all still important 163

174 to the town in the l 950's Even more important than buildings, residents were enthusiastically establishing the organizations, societies, and clubs that are the social foundations of any town The Pas must have been an exciting place to be in the late 1920's The Pas During the Depression Years The fall of 1929 saw the onset of the great depression across Canada The Pas did not escape its devastating effects In May of 1930 it was reported that over 400 men were in a bread line in town Marches, demonstrations, and deportations were a feature of The Pas in the early 1930's A headline of May 1931 read "Hundreds March Along Streets Here, Ask for Work, Jail or Three Meals a Day" In the census of 1931 The Pas recorded the highest level of unemployment of any city or town across the Prairie Provinces Jointly funded public works initiatives, soon deemed too expensive, were replaced by jointly funded direct relief The early1930's were the worst of the depression years in The Pas Single transient men in their hundreds congregated in town hoping usually in vain to find employment to the north In June of 1931 in addition to unemployed transient men, it was reported that 300 residents of the town were out of work The lumber mill did not operate logging camps in the winter of and the mill did not open in the spring of 1932 as there was no market for lumber Businesses were unable to pay their municipal taxes Families were unable to pay their property taxes In a tax sale of December, 1932 the town acquired 116 properties on which tax arrears totaled $20,029 In March of heads of families with 517 dependents were receiving direct relief Families were forced to develop creative strategies to put food on the table By the mid 1930's, however, the worst of the depression was over in The Pas The lumber mill had reopened after only a year of closure, albeit at a reduced level, and its winter logging camps were in operation Much of the unemployment problem was alleviated by out-migration, as the town's population declined from 4,030 in 1931to3,405 by 1936 Those responsible for the town's finances, the mayor, council and administrators, found ways, some of them drastic, to reduce spending and compensate for the pervasive decline in municipal revenue The local electricity department not only kept the lights on in town but also made enough profit to help dig the town out of its deep financial hole By 1940 The Pas was financially sound and well able to balance its books Even in the worst of times the people of The Pas did not lose their spirit of generosity, sending food and other donations to drought-stricken communities in the southern Prairies, helping to feed the unemployed on the bread lines, and supporting needy town families with fund raisers and food This continued to be a town one could be proud to live in, as my parents were when they married in Christ Church in 1934, and celebrated the birth of my sister in 1935 and my birth (at least I hope they did) in

175 The District in the Depression Years District road construction as a public works initiative continued throughout the deprel?sion years, even though public works in town came to an end in 1932 In the early l 930's getting a road to the south was an on again off again undertaking, and little was accomplished toward building "the road that never was", linking The Pas to Hudson Bay Junction via Tumberry In June of 1933 a relief camp was established about 5 miles south of town, ostensibly for highway work In December of that year there was the sad story of the men having to use a "wheel barrow at 30 below" It was not until May of 1936 that a firm funding agreement to build a highway to Mafeking was put in place By November of the job had been completed I think that the people of The Pas would have viewed the highway to the south as the outstanding accomplishment of the depression years Roads to Clearwater Lake, Rall's Island and Grace Lake were all constructed in the 1930's, and the Carrot River road was improved and extended Road work, for the most part seasonal, provided much needed employment during the depression years The initial rehabilitation of some Saskatchewan River delta marshlands for muskrat production was undertaken by Tom Lamb The provincial government, following his lead, undertook the Summerberry project In the spring of 1940 the area was opened for trapping, and about 400 trappers harvested over 130,000 pelts The muskrat harvest from the marshes of the lower delta was a welcome source of income for many on relief in the latter years of the depression For many years it continued to be an important activity for district Indian and Metis people, and others as well Revitalization of muskrat trapping, along with the introduction in 1940 I 1941 of registered trap lines likely contributed to the interest in The Pas to again hold a winter festival In 1948 the Northern Manitoba Trappers' Festival was inaugurated To the west of town farming settlement and development occurred in the Carrot River area In the fall of 1932 a headline read "First Threshing Machine Brought North of 53" Quite a number of the new homesteaders arrived from drought stricken areas of the prairies, and as one headline relates "Sask Family Treks 400 Miles to Homestead Here, Leave Drouth-Stricken Country in South" In lil) the early years of drought on the southern prairies hay making on the extensive native hay lands of - ) the district was also an important activity Crews and equipment arrived from the south and thousands of tons of hay were shipped to feed prairie livestock I I' ;) Pi ll If the considerable development of farming in the Carrot River district had not occurred in the l 930's it is unlikely that response to the massive flooding of 1948 would have resulted in the flood protection afforded by the Pasquia Reclamation Project In November of 1939 a headline read : "Pioneer Settlement Scheme Sprouts in Forests, Model Community Takes Form at Wanless" This was just one of many back-to-the-land initiatives across 165

176 Canada during the depression years The hope seems to have been that income in kind from farming, coupled with seasonal employment, would help alleviate the unemployment problem For a time in the 1930's The Pas was a transhipment centre for berries harvested in the district Berries, mossberries and /or low bush cranberries were arriving at The Pas from as far west as Cumberland House and as far east as Grand Rapids, and it was reported in 1934 that 60,000 pounds of berries would move through The Pas Many Indian families earned some cash income through the berry picking activity, The districts around The Pas changed considerably during the depression years Despite the years of hardship many of the changes were for the better As a consequence of these developments residents of The Pas in the years following the depression enjoyed local milk and fresh produce in season from area farms, celebrated the preparations and exit of trappers to the rat marshes annually at the Trappers' Festival, could drive to the beaches and crystal waters of Clearwater Lake, and could even drive south to Winnipeg and other points Final Words I found that I had uncovered a story of boundless optimism and growth suddenly overcome by unemployment, business failure, fear and anger, which in tum slowly gave way to some measure of stability, all the time accompanied by tenacity, creativity and generosity I now have a much better understanding of the history of the town that my parents and many of my friends parents helped establish - the town I grew up in - the town I am still from 166

177 / APPENDIX A SELECTED POPULATION DATA MANITOBA, CENSUS DIVISION ,1931,1941 p;<'",; - -5",,_,' Source: Note: Place The Pas Flin Flon District Sherridon District ,858 Churchill District 207 Herb Lake District 197 Oxford House & God's Lake Dist 19 MooseLake and Cedar Lake Dist 148 Cormorant Lake District 178 Cranberry Lake District Hudson Bay Railway Tumberry to Wekusko 64 Turnbull to Arnot 69 Mileage 237 to Indian Reserves 7, ,030 2, , ,235 Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Canada, ,181 6,860 1, ,044 The population is given in aggregate for all the Indian Reserves in Census Division

178 APPENDIXB : The Pas: Annual and Monthly Cost of Direct Relief, 1933 to 1937, 1939 and 1941 Month January 2,599 1, ,442 1,527 1,540 1,232 February 2,512 1, ,731 1,566 1,714 1,248 = March 2,575 1, ,702 1,461 1,672 1,072 April 2,567 1, ,621 1,396 1,735 1,048 May 2,221 1, ,447 1,178 1, June 1,462 1, ,406 1,032 1, July , , August , September , October 1, , November 1, , , December 1, ,269 1, , TOTAL 20,199 13,227 9,868 14,805 12,659 16,708 7,051 Sources: Statement of Expenditure -Direct Relief, Town o/the Pas, Manitoba, 1933 and 1941, Town of The Pas Fonds, Sam Waller Museum The Northern Mail, Jan 20, 1937 for the years 1934 to 1936; Jan 11, 1938 for the year 1937; and Jan 17, 1940 for the year

179 SOURCES OF INFORMATION - - :,_ ' llpj!!lll' - Information can come from a huge variety of sources Books and articles are an important secondary source Various promotional and commemorative booklets provided useful details on buildings, businesses and people These included The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba, 1929; Golden Jubilee, The Pas, ; SydneyWilton'sThePas AHistory; and TownofThePas Anniversary and Homecoming McCarthy's book Harvesting the Northern Forest, A History of the Forest Industry in The Pas and Area was particularly valuable as was Mochoruk's Formidable Heritage, Manitoba's North and the Cost of Development Several articles including Innis's The Hudson Bay Railway, Beatty's Muskrats for Relief, and the wonderful piece by Andrea Deters, History of My Grandfather, provided the sort of data and detail I was seeking Much of the research that I do relies heavily on primary data from the Canadian census of population and census of agriculture, and this undertaking was no exception But for research on The Pas and district these have their limitations I needed to find other sources I was not in a position to interview people who had lived in The Pas in the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, and anyway, sadly, there would not have been many left to interview What were alternative sources of information about the town and its surrounding districts? The volume edited by SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba, The Pas Historical Society, Friesen Printers, Altona, MB, 501 pp proved to be very useful I found the "Family History" section (pp ) to be a rich source of information about the town in the boom years of the late 1920's and the depression years of the 1930's from the personal perspective But I still needed more Newspapers can be a useful source of information The Pas had one, and occasionally more than one, weekly newspaper until 1929, and then a daily (except Sundays and holidays) They were available on microfilm via inter-library loan from the Manitoba Legislative Library At first I took notes as I read from the screen I drove myself crazy with headaches and eye-strain Fortunately the microfilm readers are linked to a computer which in turn links to a photocopier I copied all relevant front pages and all related material in the paper I ended up with at least 500 pages of copy The most important sources of information for this account were, therefore, the newspapers published in The Pas across the years from 1920 to 1941 The Pas Herald and Mining News, January 1920 to February 1929, a weekly The Prospector and Northern Manitoban, September 1928 to April 1929, a weekly The Northern Mail, January 1929 to July 1941, a daily except Sundays and holidays One consequence of the appearance of a daily paper in 1929 was that there was a lot more information about events in The Pas and district subsequently than had been the case before '29 This, more than anything else, accounts for the fact that the section on The Pas and district in the 1930's is considerably more than twice as long as the section dealing with the late 1920's Despite the newspaper being an important source, " unhappily for the historian it is episodic and incomplete, and it often raises more questions than it answers" Gray (1966), p ix I frequently 169

180 searched in vain for the follow-up piece on an interesting but incomplete account, where an issue was raised but its resolution was never reported On other occasions, however, I was impressed by the completeness of coverage of a story across numerous issues of the paper I still needed more information on businesses in town At my request one of my high school friends went to the Legislative Library in Winnipeg and sent me photo-copied pages from the Manitoba Telephone System directory for the years 1929 (the first year available) to 1941 This is probably the best, though still imperfect, source available for an annual inventory of businesses in town With it I could describe the changing business scene As themes and stories emerged it became clear that I needed more precise information about the operations of the town After discussions with the Curator of the Sam Waller Museum I obtained a 1929 map of the town and a daunting array of the town's financial records from the late 1920's and through the 1930's While I love dealing with statistics, I am no accountant! I spent many long and difficult hours attempting to unravel the mysteries of how the town supported those on relief, paid its staff, dealt with tax arrears, and how it managed, creatively I discovered, to balance its books This information was valuable in and of itself, and also helped answer some of the unanswered questions raised by articles in the local paper From the Town of The Pas Fonds (archives) held by the Sam Waller Museum, I obtained the following: Town of The Pas, Balance Sheet, Revenue Assets and Revenue Liabilities, Exhibit "A'', Town of The Pas, Statement of Revenue and Expenditure Account, Exhibit "B ", Town of The Pas, Statement of Debenture Indebtedness, Towrt of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Electric Light Department, Exhibit "D", , 1940, 1941 Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Waterworks Department, Exhibit "E", , 1940, 1941 Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Revenue and Expenditure, Police Department, Exhibit "H", , 1940, 1941 Town of The Pas, Detailed Statement of Maintenance and Operation Expenses, Schedule "!", , 1940, 1941 Municipality of the Town of The Pas, Sale of Land for Arrears of Taxes, Town of The Pas, Community Heritage Site Inventory - Maps, 1929 Province of Manitoba, The Relief Act, Exhibit "A'', Statement of Expenditure - Direct Relief - Town of The Pas, 1933and

181 BOOKS AND ARTICLES SJAllen, 1983 The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba, The Pas Historical Society, Friesen Printers, Altona, MB, 501pp Beatty, Jerome, 1940 "Muskrats for Relief', The American Mercury, vol51, no204, pp Berton, Pierre, 1990 The Great Depression, , McClelland and Stewart Inc, Toronto, 555pp Bickle, Ian, 1995 Turmoil and Triumph, the Controversial Railway to Hudson Bay, Detselig Enterprises Ltd, Calgary, 224pp Board of Trade of The Pas, Manitoba, 1929 The Pas, The Gateway to Northern Manitoba, Where Opportunities Exist, 54pp Brebner, J Bartlet, 1960 Canada: A Modern History, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 553pp Deters, Andrea, 1985 "Young Historian: History of My Grandfather", Manitoba History, no10, pp1-7 Dominion Bureau of Statistics (now Statistics Canada) Census of Canada and Census of the Prairie Provinces, various dates as noted in the text and on tables Doucet, AJ, (no date given) "How Tom Lamb Saved the Muskrat", pp56-61, in The Beaver and the Muskrat, Ginn and Company, Toronto, 63pp Dunn, Harry, ed, 1962 Golden Jubilee, The Pas, , The Pas 50th Anniversary Committee, 1 OOpp Gray, James H, 1966 The Winter Years, The Depression on the Prairies, Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, 220pp Gray, James, H, 1967 Men Against the Desert, Modern Press, Saskatoon, 250pp Gray, James H, 1975 The Roar of the Twenties, Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, 358pp 171

182 Harrington, Lyn, 1970 "The Pasquia Land Settlement Project in Manitoba", Canadian Geographical Journal, vol80, no3, pp92-97 Innis, Harold, 1930 "The Hudson Bay Railway", The Geographical Review, vol20, nol, pp1-30 Kendle, John, 1979 John Bracken: A Political Biography, University of Toronto Press,"Toronto, 318pp Leacy, FH, ed, 1983 Historical Statistics of Canada, Second Edition, Statistics Canada, Canadian Government Printing Centre, Supply and Services Canada, Ottawa Lauvstad, Doug, ed, Town of The Pas Anniversary and Homecoming, printed by Opasquia Times, The Pas, 116pp Mackintosh, AW, 1939 The Economic Background to Dominion-Provincial Relations: A Study, Prepared/or the Royal Commission on Dominion Provincial Relations, (Appendix 3 ), J 0 Patenaude, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, Ottawa, 102pp MacPherson, Murdo, 1990 "Managing the Relief Burden", plate 42 in Donald Kerr and Deryck Holdsworth (eds), Historical Atlas of Canada, Volume 111, Addressing the Twentieth Century, , University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 197pp Malaher, GW, , "The Twenties in Northern Manitoba", Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, Transactions, series 3, nos34 &35, pp23-38 Manitoba Branch, Canadian Association of Social Workers, 1954 The Metis in Manitoba, Published Courtesy of the Provincial Council of Women, 24pp Marriott, Anne,1939 "The Wind Our Enemy", pp , in Smith, AJM ed, (1957), The Book of Canadian Poetry, A Critical and Historical Anthology, 3rd edition, WJGage Limited, Toronto, 532pp McCarthy, Martha, 1997 Harvesting the Northern Forest, A History of the Forest Industry in The Pas and Area, published by The Pas History and Heritage Inc, Friesen Corporation, Altona, MB, 103pp 172

183 Mochoruk, Jim, 2004 Formidable Heritage, Manitoba's North and the Cost of Development, , The University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg, 496pp Morton, WL, 1959 Manitoba, A History, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 547pp Siamandas, CJeorge Manitoba Bans the Bottle, For a Short Time Only, Winnipeg Time Machine: Stories About People, Places, Events and Institutions, The Internet Sim, Victor, 1956 "The Pas, Manitoba", Geographical Bulletin, 8, pp1-21, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Ottawa Stowe, Leland, 1983 The Last Great Frontiersman, The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Lamb, Paper Jacks Ltd, Markham, Ontario, 253pp Strange, HCJL, 1954 A Short History of Prairie Agriculture, Searle CJrain Company Limited, Winnipeg, 123pp Struthers, James, 1983 No Fault oftheir Own: Unemployment and the Canadian Welfare State, , University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 268pp Taylor, RJ, 1940 "Trappers Harvest", Macleans, July 15, pp30-31 Wallace, RC, 1931 "The New North in Manitoba", Canadian Geographical Journal, vol3, no6, pp Wilton, Sydney, 1970 The Pas A History, 1970, Adventure and Romance, The Pas Chamber of Commerce, 1 OOpp Winton, David J, 1971 Ws Back to Back, privately printed 173

184 PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION SOURCES AND CREDITS Front Cover Keddie family photo collection Fischer Avenue in the 1930's - photographer unknown Inside Back Cover Sam Waller Museum Unemployed March in The Pas, May photographer unknown p 6 Board of Trade of The Pas, March 15 1 h, 1929, front cover The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba, Where Opportunities Exist, p 12 SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba David NWinton, p34; Alice Mattes, p34 - no photo credits p 17 SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba Northern Mail Newspaper Bldg, p464 - no photo credit p18 BoardofTrade, The Pas, Manitoba, 1929, The Pas, The Gateway to Northern Manitoba, Where Opportunities Exist Western Grocers Limited, p26 - no photo credit Dunn, Harry, ed, 1962, Golden Jubilee, The Pas, Hotel Cambrian, p52 - no photo credit p 20 SJ Allen, 1983,The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba Crystal Gardens, p466 - no photo credit Dunn, Harry, ed, 1962, Golden Jubilee, The Pas, Lido Theatre, p34 - no photo credit p 21 SJ Allen, 1983,The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba Power House The Pas, p466 - no photo credit Wilton, Sydney, 1970, The Pas A History, 1970, Adventure and Romance St Anthony's 1929, p43 - no photo credit p 29 SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba The Pas Pavilion, p466 - no photo credit p 30 SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba SS Nipawin, p34 - no photo credit p 60 SJAllen, 1983, The Pas, Gateway to Northern Manitoba The Pas Post Office, p465 - no photo credit p134 Sam Waller Museum Teams with Scrapers - Tom Stephens, photographer, 1936,10-14 miles south of The Pas 174

185 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES: THE PAS IN THE DEPRESSION YEARS, May 20, MEN IN BREAD LINE May 1931, "WE CAN NOT LIVE ON FISH ALONE" May 27, 1931 July 16, 1932 PARADERS POLICE CLASH IN THE PAS Nine Men One Girl in Court Today Police, Mob Clash in Street Row SEVEN MORE PEOPLE ARE DEPORTED FROM THE PAS June 30, 1931 RELIEF PROGRAM OF PUBLIC WORK PROPOSED HERE $60,000 Plan to be Drawn Up for Board September 22, 1931 TOWN TO ASK CREDIT LINE TO PAY RELIEF Cannot Continue to Meet Share of Direct Cost April 22, 1932 MAYOR WIRES PREMIER ON TRANSIENT JOBLESS TREK Army of Workers Already Arriving, He Says November 22, 1932 STATEMENTS THAT THE PAS IS "BROKE" ARE UNDER FIRE January 22, 1935 THE PAS HAS BIG SURPLUS FOR YEAR 1934 Cash Surplus of$21,034 Statement Shows July 4, 1941 LOWEST NUMBER OF RELIEF RECIPIENTS IN YEARS

186 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES THE DISTRICT IN THE DEPRESSION YEARS July29, 1931 December ATTEND GATHERING: ASK PROJECT Highway Most Important Thing Before Govt MEETING IS UNANIMOUS RELIEF CAMP ON IDGHWAY SLOW SCHEME Would Take JOO Years to Complete Road Wheel Barrow in 30 Below May 12, 1936 WORK TO START BOTH ENDS MAFEKING ROAD Mefeking Road is Definite Now October 17, 1938 "ROUGHED IN" THROUGH BOG OVER WEEKEND Five Miles of Corduroy Road Covered in Big Bog "Two 40-foot arms of steel attached to heavy earth moving machines, in the centre of The Pas - Ma/eking highway, late Saturday night, touched with their last scoops of earth, to link the north and south sections of the new road, and complete "in rough" the $750,000 project" April 4, 1935 TOM LAMB EXPECTS CATCH OF 25,000 RATS THIS YEAR June 13, 1941 $376,000 FROM FUR SALE WORK ON MARSH CONTINUES December 11, 1932 FIRST THRESHING MACIDNE IS BROUGHT NORTHOF53 St Godard Takes Outfit to Carrot River Ranch August 17, 1936 SASK FAMILY TREKS 400 MILES TO HOMESTEAD HERE Leave Drouth - Stricken Country in South September 27, ,000 POUNDS OF MOSS BERRIES TO BE PICKED Heavy Shipments From The Pas This Year November 16, 1939 PIONEER SETTLEMENT SPROUTS IN FORESTS Model Community Takes Form at Wanless