AFTER=WAR PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 4

AFTER=WAR PROGRESS

CANADIAN MINISTER’S ANTICIPATIONS.

SECURITY AND EMPLOYMENT.

OTTAWA, October 23

Speaking at ' Orangeville, Ontario, the Minister of Pensions and National Health, the Hon. I. A. Mackenzie, said he looked forward to the period following the present war as potentially one of the most constructive and progressive periods in Canadian or world history. When war orders were cancelled, people would be temporarily laid off. That development could not be avoided, but security and full employment must be the guarantee of the Government. For that reason the Government approached the problem of post-war reconstruction from two separate angles. The first involved the development of a technique for bridging the gap between the sudden cessation of war production and the recommencement of normal peace time industrial ’ activity. The second approach had to do with the long-range economy cf the country For the first period the Government was preparing constructive projects for the creation of employment including the financing of public works, extension of the Prairie farm rehabilitation programme, extension of rural electrification, rehabilitation of backward areas, development of water power and housing.

“Our demobilised forces and our million war workers,” Mr Mackenzie added, “must never be regarded as potentially unemployed but we must think of them as a 'great industrial army available for peace time services of their country”