declaring that "the housing law is dead as far 

 as Montreal is concerned." 



Building will continue in different sections 

 during the winter months, which will further 

 increase the total. It has been stated that more 

 houses have been completed and occupied under 

 the Canadian scheme than under that in oper- 

 ation in Great Britain. 



In New Brunswick, about fifty houses have 

 been built under the Federal scheme ; in Ontario, 

 1,400 dwellings completed; in Quebec, both 

 model garden suburbs and houses have been 

 constructed; in the western provinces, hundreds 

 of homes have been erected mainly for returned 

 soldiers. During the early part of the year, 

 the scheme was not taken advantage of as 

 readily as had been anticipated, there being 

 some lack of understanding of its working. 

 There were also difficulties in the way of shortage 

 of material and labor. Greater activity is 

 promised for this year and progress will be still 

 more rapid. 



Local corporations with a realization of the 

 severity of the housing situation, have co- 

 operated admirably in aiding the speeding up 

 of the erection of dwellings. In Winnipeg, for 

 instance, under the housing scheme, the com- 

 mission makes loans of 85 per cent, of the net 

 cost of the home and takes a first mortgage on 

 the property for twenty years, repayable 

 monthly at the rate of $7.13 for each $1,000 

 borrowed. The builder under the scheme selects 

 his lot in any part of the city and may at any 

 time pay off a portion or the whole of the 

 borrowed money without interest. During 

 the summer, the city let contracts for 300 

 houses for returned soldiers, the tender let for 

 fifty of the residences representing an invest- 

 ment of $185,OftO. In all, Winnipeg has been 

 loaned $700,000 by the Provincial Government 

 to finance the city housing scheme. This fall 

 Toronto proceeds with the civic erection of 

 500 houses, and a Regina company 50. 



Rent Based on Number of Children 



In St. Catharines, Ontario, the city council 

 guaranteed 80 per cent, of the bonds of a com- 

 pany formed to erect twenty dwelling houses, 

 to cost from $3,000 to $4,000 each, $500 of which 

 will be paid down by the purchasers. In 

 Windsor, in the same province, the city council 

 purchased one hundred lots on which to build 

 houses to solve the congestion. The city of 

 St. Johns, Quebec, borrowed from the govern- 

 ment the sum of $150,000 to assist in financing 

 a civic housing scheme, and building operations 

 were extensive during the summer. Fredericton, 

 the New Brunswick capital, obtained the loan 

 of $200,000 from the provincial government's 

 Better Housing Fund to construct dwellings 

 for workmen, and in the past season has done 

 much to relieve the congestion there. 



A novel housing project was formulated by 

 a city councillor of Woodstock, Ontario, who 

 erected twenty-five houses and grades the 

 rental according to the number of children in 

 the incoming families. The larger the offspring 

 the lower the rent. 



Homes for Industrial Workers 



There has been much activity during the 

 past building season on the part of Canada's 

 largest industrial and manufacturing concerns 

 who, in addition to furthering industrial con- 

 struction, have established colonies and erected 

 dwellings for employees. The success schemes 

 of this kind have met with has brought greater 

 attention on the part of executives to the bene- 

 fits to be derived from housing employees 

 economically, comfortably, and near their work. 



During the summer, the Laurentide Paper 

 Company purchased a farm of fifty acres at 

 Grand'mere upon which to build houses for 

 their employees. In British Columbia, the 

 Imperial Oil Company at loco is making pro- 

 gress with its townsite scheme for employees. 

 Five hundred houses are being erected with 

 ample garden allowance, the company's workers 

 being given the opportunity of becoming owners 

 on easy payments of long terms. 



Other firms are inaugurating similar projects 

 in various parts of the Dominion, co-operating 

 in relieving the existing congestion and endeav- 

 oring to get the housing situation back to its 

 normal pre-war condition. 



Soldiers' Insurance Popular 



Canada's generous treatment of her returned 

 soldiers, which included a bonus on discharge, 

 a system of vocational training, and a universally- 

 approved land settlement policy, has been fol- 

 lowed up by a scheme of government life insur- 

 ance which has so many benefits for the ex- 

 warrior that it was instantaneously popular and 

 within a short time of inauguration had been 

 extensively taken up by military men all over 

 the Dominion. Within three months of the 

 Act having become effective, or up to December 

 1st, 1920, insurance to the amount of $3,282,000 

 was issued by the Dominion government, and 

 $26,711 received in premiums, representing 

 applications from 1,015 Canadian ex-soldiers. 

 Shoals of inquiries continue to pour in. 



The Act applies to all ex-soldiers and nurses 

 and to widows of returned soldiers who died in 

 Canada after discharge from the service. Poli- 

 cies are issued for a minimum of $500 and a 

 maximum of $5,000, insurance being payable 

 only in the event of death or the total and 

 permanent disability of the insured. One-fifth 

 of the maximum may be paid at death and the 

 balance, as an annuity, over a period of 5, 10, 

 15 or 20 years. 



16 



