Wednesday, April S, 1867 Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : Ton are always giving me good advice like I gave to you for the last seven yean. L. George Dewar : But I think you are going to have a serious problem on your hands. You are going to have to decide how much these social welfare cases are supposed to get, and I can envisage the pensurious way in which these com¬ mittees are going to deal with this problem. Under The Mother's Allowance Act a certain amount was stipulated and they got that; but if they could not come under that Mother's Allowance Act , they were shoved off with a pittance. Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : We are not shoving anyone off. L. George Dewar : 111 wait and see but I know what will happen and I can site one instance. A poor mother up West, she has five small children and of course I -will have to admit that she loved well but not wisely... .(Laughter) And what does the Minister of Welfare do about it? What have they ever done about it? Nothing. Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : Did you give me the name? L. George Dewar : Oh yes, I have given you her name. I have written letters to you and I have written letters to your predecessor in fact there must be a whole file down there about that thick. Honourable Robert E , Campbell: Is that the one you gave the money to be¬ fore. .. .a pension too ? L. George Dewar : The pension? No she couldn't get a pension, that was the lamentable part, that she could not get a pension. She couldn't get Mother's Allow- Hononrable M. Lome Bonnell : Why couldn't she get it? Could she get Welfare Assistance of any kind? L. George Dewar : Well that's what I say. This is a matter for this big-hearted Committee to consider and lo and behold the amount that they came up with wouldn't be enough to keep hah* a child let alone five. Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : Weren't you on that Committee? L. George Dewar : Yes I just said that I was on the Committee. I spoke on her behalf on numerous occasions and I have written the present Minister of Welfare for her. In fact, last summer I went out to see her and she was carrying water.... Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : Was she washing your hair? L. George Dewar : ....in buckets for a mile, and she was medically disabled at the time, from a spring which was going dry; she had no well. Honourable Robert E. Campbell : I think they dug her a pump last fall. L. George Dewar : I wrote to the Minister of Welfare about it and he said he was going to do something about it, but nothing was done, nothing was done, Mr. Speaker , and finally I had to appeal to private philanthropy in order to get her a well. The Welfare Department never paid a cent on it, never paid a cent on it! Honourable M. Lome Bonnell : Do you think the Welfare Department should be digging wells? L. George Dewar : Well they should have given her a little more assistance so the poor woman could afford to get a well dug. This was a serious situation. Honourable Robert E. Campbell : (Remark inaudible). L. George Dewar : I am not sure, I am not sure but it could be so, but I hope so anyway. But anyway I went out this winter to see her and she was in the woods —121—