Making Work and Making Stamps

There was one good reason to help people get jobs. It saved money for the province. When Newfoundland joined Canada, people could get UI (unemployment insurance) from the government of Canada. A person on welfare who got a job could go on UI when the job ended. This shifted the cost of helping the unemployed from the province to the government of Canada.

People today know this system very well. It still goes on.

As soon as there was UI, there were make-work projects. Some people who applied for welfare would get jobs with the Department of Public Works instead. This met two demands—for work, and for better roads and other services.

Credit: Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archives, Smallwood Collection.
"Keep more Newfoundlanders employed." Garment workers in a living window display for a "Buy Newfoundland" campaign, 1950s. Then, as now, politicians urged people to buy local products to keep more people working.

It seems that there were plenty of people looking for this work. In January, 1950, there were 10,237 people on the government's relief work program. A month later, there were 9,000 of them. The others had "been taken off the lists." They were getting UI.⁹