Montreal saves money by sending paupers home

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 05:00

January 12, 1906. Montreal is saving as much as $35,000 a year by sending the city’s paupers back where they came from, the Montreal Star reports. Excerpts.

Mr. Lane [head of the Charity Organization Society] mentioned that the system by which the city bears a portion of the cost of transporting paupers who were “dumped” into Montreal, to places where they rightly belonged and where they possessed relatives to whom they could look for support, has had most excellent results. Last year $1,000 was paid out in transporting people to various points in the States, in Ontario and even in Europe, but the charity officials estimate that this method saved the city from $30,000 to $35,000, taking into consideration what the families of these people would cost in the way of charity were they allowed to remain.

“You would be surprised at the number of people who are dumped into Montreal to shift for themselves, from places where they properly belong and which are rightly responsible for their keep,” said Mr. Lane.

There were 244 paupers thus deported last year. The city’s contribution to this expense amounts to about $500 or $600 annually, and the rest is made up from private subscriptions.

Temporary employment was found for 9,203 persons, whose earnings in this respect would total in the neighbourhood of $7,500. As these people are of the class who need only temporary relief to tide them over periods of depression when they are out of work, but have prospects of obtaining it very soon, the charity officials regard this form of relief as an extremely important branch of the work.

“Put them in the way of work,” said Mr. Lane. “If we can tide a family over the time in which the husband or sons cannot secure work, we prevent that family becoming shiftless and a care upon the city.”

Very little of Montreal’s charity goes astray, so that when the cry of the poor reaches any who feel like donating, no fears of helping worthless ones whom help will only further degenerate, need deter them.