1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom

Fitful Growth: Block Settlements

Economy

Policy Foundations

Block Settlements

With immigrants needed to build the national economy, the Canadian government undertook numerous promotion campaigns and projects to encourage the arrival of newcomers. The federal government extended travel subsidies, provided cash loans, and gave a range of land grants to individuals. It continually refined the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 to attract immigrant farmers. It also entered into a variety of agreements with private enterprise to increase settlement. It offered land to colonization companies at $2 per acre. By 1883, 26 companies had formed, holding

close to 3 million acres of land. Their responsibility to advertise abroad, when combined with the prevailing lack of interest in Canadian lands, forced all of these early colonization companies into bankruptcy. The Canadian government entered other agreements with philanthropic agencies, the British government, and public charities to send indigent persons to settle on Canadian farms. These programs attracted only a few hundred immigrants, who for the most part were unsuccessful as farmers.

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