WorkSafeBC

This chart shows the frugality of the Board in the early years. Costs were under strict control until the incredible growth in industrial activity and accidents that followed World War II.

1929 The interviewee notes that no layoffs took place during the Great Depression (1929 to 1937).
1942 Average head count based on pay vouchers, in both Administration and Rehabilitation Clinic.

Staff levels are read from the left-hand scale, operations cost from the right.

The largest single resource was the accident fund. This fund was used to pay the pensions of permanently injured workmen and surviving families of workmen killed on the job.

A fund level of 100 percent means that there is exactly enough money to pay out all of the current pensions in the future. This is only an estimate, as the exact future money depends on how much interest the fund earns and how long the pensioners live.

View detailed historical data describing the workers' compensation system in British Columbia 1917-1942.