Indiginent People

From the very start, Coronation had its share of people that could not take care of themselves – it seems mostly widows and abandoned women, in the early years.

It was the responsibility of each town to take care of these people. If they were successful in their application to the Town of Coronation, the Town gave them a place to live and a $15.00 a month credit at one of the local merchants for all their other needs.

Some towns found a unique way to rid themselves of these people, buy them a one-way train ticket to another town, then they became someone else’s problem. This must have happened quite frequently, as there are several references in the Town minutes about this problem. In fact, at one point, the Town wrote to the Province asking them to help with this problem, as it was becoming a financial burden for the Town.

In the 1930’s during the depression, the poor became a great burden for the Town. For most years between 1931 and 1939 there were at least 10 families on social assistance, and the town seems to have also been responsible for old age pension.

This amounted to some $250.00 per month, for food, clothing, and utilities, plus the Town either paid their rent, or provided a place for them to live. The Town was also responsible for their health care, in one case, it was over $200.00 for a hospital stay.

In 1935 the Provincial Government started helping with social services. It was split 58 1/3 Alberta Government and 41 2/3 Town. But in typical government fashion, in August 1936 the Alberta Government added a property social services tax of 4 mills.

During this period, those working men on social assistance had to work for their money. A lot of them worked for the Town doing the manual labour jobs. They were paid $.30 per hour and this was taken off the amount of money they got for welfare.

The Provincial Government had them work on the Lake Louise to Jasper hi-way for their share of the social service repayment.