The Relief Camps

Relief Camps

In 1931 the B.C. government established "relief camps" for single unemployed. In these work camps, usually located in the wilderness far away from settled areas, young men were employed building roads, airports, military bases and parks. At first the pay was $2.00 a day.

Next the camps in B.C.were operated jointly by the federal and provincial government and wages reduced to $7.50 a month.

In 1933 the Department of National Defence took over the camps and reduced the pay to 20 cents a day plus meals, a bed and some work clothes. The men worked eight hours a day, with a 44 hour week.

The real purpose of the camps was to hide the men in outlying areas, far away from cities where they tended to organize and make "trouble" for the authorities.

Conditions in the camps were deplorable. The food was often poor. Recreation facilities were lacking. Tents and bunkhouses were often without stoves. Second blankets were rare, It was a case of work, eat and sleep, What the young men suffered most from was isolation from society.

"The biggest quarrel was working for 20 cents a day, eight hours a day with nothing ahead of us but a blank wall, day in and day out," Matt Shaw, camp inmate and union leader, later testified.

It wasn't long before protest strikes began to develop. Demands were made for better food, fresh meat, new potatoes and one package of tobacco every three days.

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