Canada at War: THE DOMINION: Jobs for All?

In Toronto last week canny Finance Minister James Lorimer Ilsley did what he has seldom done—went out on a limb. He told Canadians there would be jobs for all after the war in Europe ends.

Minister Ilsley had a good reason for reassuring 1,300,000 workers now employed, directly or indirectly, in war industry. Starting Oct. 23, he must borrow another $1,300,000,000 from Canadians in the Dominion’s seventh war loan. Because 60 to 70% of Canadian war production is for the British account, many war workers have been expecting cutbacks. Minister Ilsley did not want them to hoard their cash. He counted on the Pacific war needs, plus reviving civilian industry, to make his job prediction come true. But he added a cautious qualification: “In many cases men & women will have to look for new jobs, but they will be there. . . .”

As a starter the Dominion’s Labor Department has begun to recruit 60,000 loggers. High wages in munitions factories have stripped of workers such basic Canadian industries as logging, pulpwood cutting and mining.

Last week Canadians got an authoritative estimate of what full employment means.The Wartime Information Board reported that 5,000,000 Canadians were now employed, including 750,000 in the armed forces. It estimated that full employment after the war would mean 4,700,000 jobs, including 200,000 in the services. This amounted to a million more jobs than existed in the peak prewar year, 1929.