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Quebec's Last Frontier
by Louise Bryce, Val-d'Or Historical and Genealogical Society
The Depression of 1929 slowed down operations in mining camps in Abitibi until 1934, when prospecting for gold and copper in the region of Val-d'Or and Rouyn-Noranda was stimulated by the decision of United States President Roosevelt to raise the price of gold from US $20 to US $35. The largest mines in the Val-d'Or area included Siscoe Gold Mines, which began operations in 1929, Lamaque Gold Mines, which opened in 1935, and Sigma Mines, which opened in 1937. During this period, increasing numbers of men arrived in the area, struck by the gold fever that was spreading throughout the Canadian mining world. The mining camp in Val-d'Or attracted a diverse population from camps in northern Ontario towns such as Timmins, Cobalt and Sudbury, and from towns in Quebec where unemployment was rampant, such as Montréal, Trois-Rivières and Québec. As well, the area also attracted immigrants from Britain, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as workers from nearby towns such as Amos. The railroad, construction and highway companies also needed many workers; the presence of these men was not subject to any regulation by the government or by the mining companies.
The mining companies depended on labour from outside the region and favoured hiring immigrants of different nationalities to prevent any attempt at unionization. However, the Depression ended the migratory flow, which until that time had provided workers for the mines. This was a worrisome concern to the mining companies, which were enjoying a particularly flourishing economic situation during those years. If many workers of European origin continued to arrive in Abitibi in search of work, it was because they were drawn by the network that various ethnic communities in Val-d'Or had established with other people of their nationalities living elsewhere in the country. As well, the mines decided to draw on the local population and on French Canadians, contrary to their former hiring policy.
This "reserve army" for the mining companies was made available, in part, because of settlement plans. The Gordon Plan, established by the federal government in the spring of 1932, as part of the Relief Act, was intended to significantly reduce unemployment in large Canadian cities by offering $600 to colonists willing to settle in the back country. The provincial Vautrin Plan, drawn up in response to the Depression's persistence, was not only aimed at the unemployed in cities, but also at those in the countryside, as well as single men and farmers' sons. For this purpose, several farming centres in Abitibi were established to welcome these families.
The presence of immigrants and French-Canadian settlers in Abitibi during the 1930s was the result of unemployment and extreme poverty caused by the Depression. The arrival of pioneers fleeing from destitution fostered the creation of a frontier town that gradually became more stable and organized.
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