DCHP-2

relief camp DCHP-2 (June 2016)

• n. & adj. — historical, Administration

  a work camp for unemployed men set up during the Great Depression.

  Type: 5. Frequency — During the Great Depression, unemployment led tens of thousands of single men to roam the country in hopes of finding employment. Relief camps were set up by various levels of government as a response. R. B. Bennett's Conservative government established the national system of work camps on October 8, 1932. The camps were run by the Department of National Defence and provided shelter, clothes and food for unemployed single men. The men did menial work building roads and planting trees for low wages (see the 1931 quotation). The poor conditions of the camps led to much unrest among workers, who eventually reacted with strikes (see the OCCH, s.v. "relief camps").
  See also COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn hist."