The Wages of ReliefIn the early part of the Dirty Thirties, the Canadian prairie citywas a relatively safe haven. Having faced recession before the GreatWar and then again in the early 1920s, municipalities already hadrelief apparatuses in place to deal with poverty and unemployment. Until 1933, responsibility for the care of the urban poor remained withlocal governments, but when the farms failed that year, and theDepression deepened, western Canadian cities suffered