Ernest Lapointe (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada)
Liberal
Hon. ERNEST LAPOINTE (Leader of the House):
Questions have been asked by two
or three hon. members concerning regulations of the Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment with regard to unemployment relief paid to certain war pensioners. I have secured from the Minister of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment this statement which I desire to read in order to answer those questions:
The situation regarding unemployment relief to pensioners may be summarized as follows:-
In previous years all pensioners, whatever the rating of their war disability, were receiving unemployment relief from the Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment, whether their war disability was or was not responsible for their failure to obtain employment.
In view of the early distribution of the canteen funds' moneys as provided by the statute of last session, it had been found advisable to confine the unemployment relief to those pensioners having a rating of twenty per cent and over, or to those cases where the disability is less,-when the war disability precluded the pensioner from engaging in emplojTnent.
It is, however, found that on account of the delay on the part of the different provincial governments in appointing boards of trustees, the moneys of the canteen funds have not as yet been distributed to the different provinces. The situation has brought to the knowledge of the Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment the existence of several cases of hardship among low rating pensioners, and new instructions have been sent to-day to the different units providing that the regulations in force last winter shall continue to prevail during this winter.
Subtopic: FIRST READINGS