Settlement Schemes

by Glen Wright, Library and Archives Canada

Introduction | Directives | Debates | Dreams | References

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Debates

Enthusiasm for Empire settlement was confined, however, to a small but influential group of British officials. Canada was, in many ways, a reluctant host. Wary of "assisted" immigrants and suspicious that Britain was encouraging the unemployed and the unemployable to settle overseas, Canadian officials agreed to the various schemes largely because Britain provided the financial and logistical resources.

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In addition, Canada's economic situation was not vastly better than Britain's, and while every effort was made to accommodate the newcomers, many new arrivals drifted away from agricultural pursuits and into urban areas, while many others returned home. Canadian immigration officials also discovered that many British immigrants remained in Canada only a short time before departing for the United States, a problem that had long plagued the government's efforts to populate the country.

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Empire settlement programs effectively came to an end with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929-1930. Attempts to revive Empire settlement in the late 1930s and after fell on deaf ears in Canada. These schemes, so prominent in the 1920s, represented the first and last great initiative by the British government to direct emigrants to Canada and elsewhere. This country had always attracted British immigrants without extensive government involvement and would continue to do so, but official efforts to populate the country were focused more broadly on bringing people from a variety of backgrounds to Canada. This, too, would continue beyond the 1920s.