The most common jobs in Canada before industrialization were related to farming. Farmers depended on the help and cooperation of all family members, as well as help from neighbours. With industrialization now booming, many people were moving away from farms to find work in cities.

WORKING IN FACTORIES

Many of the jobs available in the cities were in factories. Most people who worked in the factories were either from the working class or were new immigrants. Many working-class families and new immigrants lived close to the factories in crowded neighbourhoods. Examine the picture from 1896, which shows Griffintown, a factory district in Montréal. What do you think it would have been like to live and work in a factory district?

SAFETY CONCERNS

In factory work, men, women, and children worked long hours for low pay, and the conditions were often dirty and dangerous. Accidents and fires were common. By the 1880s, provinces began to pass laws to govern safety conditions in the workplace to protect employees. However, the regulations were often ignored or violated by employers.

In 1904, a fire broke out in a factory in downtown Toronto. It spread quickly. By the end, the fire destroyed over 100 buildings, mostly factories and warehouses. At least 5000 people lost their jobs. The exact cause of the fire is unknown, but it is suspected that a faulty stove or an electrical problem caused the fire.

Examine the picture from 1904, which shows the aftermath of the Great Toronto Fire. How do you think this fire affected people living nearby and working in factories?

Factory workers lived under the rule of their employers. Their pay was low and they were often forced to work overtime for no pay. It was very hard to improve their quality of life. Read the excerpt from an interview with a worker. How does Goyette describe his working experience?

In the 1700s and early 1800s, most women worked in the home raising children, preparing food, making clothes, and caring for farm animals. They did not receive a wage for this work, although everything they did supported their family’s quality of life. Caring for one’s family was expected by society.

In the late 1800s, an increasing number of women began working outside of the home. Life in the city presented new job opportunities for women and a chance to earn money for the work that they did. Young women in Canada who moved to the cities often found work as domestic servants. This means they took care of someone else’s home or children. In Canada, 40 percent of women who worked outside the home took jobs as domestic servants.

Some women worked in stores and offices. As new machines such as typewriters and telephones were adopted, women were hired as telephone operators and secretaries. Women were often employed in the clothing industry.

Women also worked on assembly lines in factories. In 1891, women made up 34 percent of the manufacturing workforce in Ontario. Women worked long hours, often in difficult conditions. Like children, women were paid less than men for doing the same job.

Examine the photo of a textile factory from September 1900. How does this photo show evidence of changes in hired factory workers at the turn of the 20th century?

Industrialization brought machines to make work life easier, but the machines required people to operate them. Unskilled workers were the cheapest labour available to companies, because they had no training or special skills. Children were the cheapest to hire. An average weekly wage for a man in Montréal in 1897 was $8.25, for a woman it was $4.50, and for a boy it was $3.00. Examine the picture which shows a large group of child workers outside a tobacco factory in Hamilton, Ontario in 1900. What type of work do you think these children would have done in that factory?

The growing cities needed power to run the new factories, light the streets, and improve living conditions. Before 1880, the main sources of power in Canada were steam engines fuelled by gas, coal, and wood. As electricity technology developed over the course of the 1880s, Canadian cities replaced their gas street lights with electric lights. Stores and hotels also installed electric lights. Electric streetcars replaced horse-drawn streetcars in the 1890s in Toronto, Montréal, and Ottawa.

To meet the new demand, companies like the Toronto Electric Company began generating and selling electricity. As industries switched to electric power, factories and the people who worked in them became dependent on the availability of electricity.

In the late 1800s, wealthy investors across Canada began building hydroelectric stations to generate electricity.

Examine the picture from 2010, which shows the Chaudière Falls hydroelectric station on the Ottawa River, operating since 1891. What impact would the development of this industry have on other industries in a community?

1) Create a list of the effects of industrialization on the lives of Canadians.

2) Do you think that life improved for women as a result of industrialization? Explain.