to substitute capital for labor, and a cor- 

 responding lag in income and living stand- 

 ards when compared with the rest of Canada 

 and New England. 



3. Employmsnt And Income 



The Atlantic Provinces have had 

 chronic \memployraent or disguised unemploy- 

 ment (i.e. - under employment) . Per capita 

 net value of production in 1955 was less 

 than 50 percent of the national average. 22/ 

 Average incomes in 15*57 were 36 percent be- 

 low the Dominion average . The greatest 

 differences in average incomss occur among 

 rural families. Persons with low incomes 

 who are engaged in subsistence farming 

 combined with part-time fishing and logging 

 are found more commonly in the Atlantic 

 Provinces than in the others. This organ- 

 ization of rural industry is one of the 

 main reasons for the continued lag in per 

 capita incomes in that area as compared 

 with other parts of Canada. 23/ 



The lower standards of living in the 

 Atlantic Provinces , are an important factor 

 contributing to the lower costs of fishing 

 in the fisheries of the Atlantic Provinces 

 as compared with those in New England. The 

 lower labor cost in the Canadian fishery 

 is not peculiar to that industry but re- 

 flects the generally different level of 

 income and living standard prevailing in 

 the Atlantic Provinces. 



Employment and earnings data for all 

 industries in the Atlantic Provinces and 

 for all Canada for 1950 through 195? shows 

 earnings in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 

 were 11 and 18 percent, respectively, be- 

 low the Dominion average in 1957 while 

 those in Newfoundland were 5 percent under 

 the national figure in the same year, 

 (table II-3). Over the entire period, 

 earnings in Newfoundland averaged 8 percent. 

 Nova Scotia 15 percent, and New Brunswick 

 lU percent below those of Canada as a 

 whole. When earnings of production workers 

 in manufacturing in the two areas are com- 

 pared, weekly earnings in Massachusetts in 

 1956 ranged from 21 to 35 percent above 



those in the Atlantic Provinces j in Maine 

 the range is from 6 to 18 percent, (table 

 II-U data is based on weekly averages. 

 Annual earnings may vary to a. greater ex- 

 tent in the Atlantic Provinces because of 

 the greater seasonality of employment). 



Living standards in the Atlantic Prov- 

 inces would be lower still were it not for 

 certain policies of the Federal Government. 

 Dominion transfer payments have played a 

 much more significant role in the increase 

 in per capita personal income in the At- 

 lantic region than has been the case else- 

 where in Canada. Such payrnents have 

 accounted for nearly 25 percent of the in- 

 crease in income in the three Maritime 

 Provinces since 1926. Conversely, the 

 growth of per capita earned incone in the 

 Atlantic region has lagged behind the com- 

 parable growth in other parts of Canada. 

 Lag in income growth is related to a 

 corresponding lag in the role of new 

 capital investment in the Atlantic re^on. 



"The lag has been in the productive 

 sections of the economy, notably the basic 

 resource industries. Business investment 

 per capita and per member of the labor 

 force in the Atlantic region for the period 

 195U-1956 was substantially below the 

 average for Canada, being one -half and 

 three -fifths respectively of the Canadian 

 f igxire . One of the main reasons for the 

 prevalence of subsistence operations is ^ 

 the slow rate of new capital investment, '^li/ 



Surplus labor and living standards 

 lower than those in the rest of Canada and 

 in New England historically have impelled 

 the migration of labor to mors favored 

 areas. Between 1871-1956 there was a net 

 emigration from the Maritime Provinces of 

 600,000 persons. This trend is a con- 

 tinuing one J between 1951 and 1956 about 

 140,000 persons left the area. Emigration 

 has so reduced the labor force that there 

 is a relatively smaller labor force in the 

 Atlantic Provinces in relation to total . 

 population, than for Canada as a whole .Zi' 

 Proportionally more nonworkers are de- 

 pendent upon workers earnings and 



22/ Canada Year Book , 1956. 



2^/ Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects. Final Iteport . Queems Printer 

 and Controller of the Stationery, Ottawa, 1958. pp. U03-U0U. 



2U/ Ibid, p. ii08. 



2^/ According to the 1951 Census of Canada, the labor force constituted 32.3 percent 

 of"The population in the Atlantic Provinces; for Canada as a whole the figure was 37.8 

 percent. 



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