From short-term emergency to long-term crisis: Public works projects in Saskatoon, 1929-1932

At the outset of the Depression, Saskatoon initiated a series of "work for wages" schemes designed to provide its residents with work. Financed by all three levels of government but implemented entirely at the municipal level, the work relief projects enjoyed early success in keeping urban unemployment within at least manageable levels. But work relief's effectiveness in dealing with urban unemployment proved largely dependent on the duration and relative severity of the economic downturn. Between 1929 and 1932, most viewed the Depression as a temporary anomaly, a short-term emergency requiring no more than short-term emergency measures. But after 1932, after nearly three years of worsening social conditions coupled with increasing numbers of unemployed, the characterization of the economic situation as a short-term emergency foundered-the Depression had become a long-term crisis. By the spring of 1932, the federal and provincial abandonment of public works in favour of the cheaper, more efficient direct relief marked this change in perception.