The first curative workshop classes to be opened in the Dominion started at the Ross Convalescent Hospital in Sydney, on April 4, 1916. They were rapidly developed in every hospital and sanatorium throughout Canada, and proved of immense benefit in helping to re-establish our disabled soldiers who received treatment in Canada.
By far the most important division of the vocational work of civil re-establishment, however, was the industrial re-training. France and Belgium showed the way in which crippled men could be trained for future usefulness in suitable trades; and practically every belligerent country evolved a system of human rehabilitation for maimed soldiers. Canada had the advantage of time to plan and develop her methods of dealing with this problem before she was swamped with numbers, and consequently was able to establish a uniform system with centralized authority. The basis of the whole work was to give suitable training for every soldier who, through some disability incurred in military service, could not efficiently resume the occupation which he followed prior to enlistment. In addition to this class, all men classed as minors, who had enlisted under the age of eighteen, were later given training if their war service had seriously interfered with their preparation for their chosen occupation, whether they were disabled or not.
Every effort was made to place the disabled man in the right position. He was interviewed by a sympathetic and competent official and counselled intelligently about the important choice of a new trade. The soldier already had industrial experience and, in the majority of cases, had some definite idea of what he wished to do. If his conceptions of the duties, remuneration, conditions of work, chances for promotion, stability, etc., in the new occupation, were wrong, he was reasonably and patiently advised to make another choice. The disabled man, however, always made the decision about his own future. His own wishes were followed as far as possible, because he would make a failure of his training and of his new occupation if he himself was not satisfied and enthusiastic.
The queer trait of human nature that considers “distant fields as ever green” was much in evidence. During his former experience, the disabled soldier had always had a conviction that some other job completely outside of his own vocation was easier and better paid, or that some new development of industry was holding out its arms and screaming for workers. Consequently, there was a common tendency to enter some vocation wholly outside of his former experience. Most of the men were extremely reasonable and when all the facts were put before them they made wise decisions. Every definite effort was made to keep the man as close as possible to the industry in which he was employed before enlistment. If they had all tried to crowd into a few of the highly skilled occupations, there would not have been vacancies enough to give them all employment. So the training was made as wide as business and industry. Schools and classes were organized and equipped for those vocations which needed preliminary education under skilled instructors, and for which comparatively large groups of men were preparing. In cases where men were deficient in general education, and needed some fundamental knowledge of English and arithmetic in order to succeed, they were given intensive preliminary instruction for one, two or three months before starting specialized vocational training. Every educational institution which offered intensive practical courses leading to wage-earning power, was made use of to the fullest extent. Industry itself, however, offered the widest opportunities, and a great proportion of the students were placed directly in industry to learn there how to fill the job acceptably under working conditions, so that at the end of their period of training they could slip over on the pay roll of the employer without any break. Other men, who had preliminary training in the special trade classes established by the Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment, were placed in industry for the latter part of their period of education so that they would get accustomed to workshop conditions, and in order that there would be no appreciable hiatus between training and employment.
In order to provide ample means for the training and employment of the thousands of men the War produced, it was necessary to secure the closest co-operation of the employers, trade unions, and the general public. It is a pleasure to chronicle the fact that everybody gave active help without stint. The Dominion Steel Corporation and the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company, the largest single employers of labor in Nova Scotia, announced publicly that they would find a suitable place for every one of their former employees who had gone into military service and who desired work after his discharge. They carried out their promise, and also provided every possible facility for re-training disabled men. Trade unions also gave generous assistance, and waived all restrictions regarding apprenticeship where these might be detrimental to maimed and crippled soldiers who were learning new trades. Without all this splendid co-operation, the results achieved in Canada in re-training the disabled soldiers for future usefulness would have been impossible.
The usual period of time that was found necessary to put the discharged soldiers on their feet so that they could earn the prevailing wage in a new occupation, was seven or eight months. During the War, when all labor was very scarce, employers would accept men and give them full wages after about six months’ training, but when competition became keener and more workers became available in 1919, eight months was found to be necessary in most cases, and sometimes even a whole year. During the period of learning a new vocation, the soldier’s pension was suspended, and he and his dependants received a uniform scale of pay and allowances as follows:—
| Single man | $60 00 | per month. |
| Married man and wife | 85 00 | „ „ |
| Married man with wife and one child | 95 00 | „ „ |
| Married man with wife and two children | 103 00 | „ „ |
| Married man with wife and three children | 110 00 | „ „ |
| For each additional child above three | 6 00 | „ „ |
If training caused the man to live apart from his dependants, an extra allowance of $16.00 per month was granted. Owing to the increased cost of living, these rates were advanced on September 1, 1920.
All classes carried on by the Department of Civil Re-establishment in Nova Scotia were conducted for eight hours per day in order to get the men accustomed to the conditions prevailing in industry. Where men were sent to educational institutions, or were apprenticed in industry, they were subject to the rules and regulations in force at the place where they were learning.
The scope of the work widened rapidly as it progressed until men were being re-trained for more than 300 different occupations. It is not necessary to give a list of these occupations, but the comprehensive field covered may be imagined if only those classified under the letter “A” were mentioned:—