On this day (June 9) in 1919 Saskatchewan’s Minimum Wage Board held its first session in Prince Albert. The Saskatchewan minimum wage laws had only been passed that year, following a trend begun in Manitoba and British Columbia.
McMaster University has archived this excerpt from the Labour Gazette of September 1920: “The administration of the law is in the hands of a board of five members, two of whom are women, appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in council.”
The inclusion of women on the board was significant because the laws were first enacted to protect girls and women in the labour force.
The Government of Canada defines “minimum wage” as a basic labour standard that sets the lowest wage rate that an employer can pay to employees who are covered by the legislation.
According to the McMaster University article, “In British Columbia all employed women, except fruit pickers, farm labourers and domestic servants, are protected. These two latter classes are exempt in Ontario also. In Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, all female employees in shops and factories in cities are included, and the boards may, at their discretion, extend the scope of the law to other parts of the province.
The 1920 article goes on to say, “Rules for restaurant employees provide, in all these provinces, for a 48-hour week, and in Manitoba and Saskatchewan for a ten-hour day. In the latter province a maximum of fifty-six hours per week is allowed in any restaurant which is open seven days a week, but all time in excess of forty-eight hours is regarded as overtime. Otherwise overtime is allowed in cases of emergency only.”
The reality was that a majority of working women were not covered by early minimum wage legislation. Domestics and farm labourers were exempt.
An article by J.W. Warren in Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan states: “Women formed a low-paid minority of the labour force during the early decades of the 20th century. The traditional values of the time viewed motherhood and homemaking as the appropriate roles of women. Indeed, when women had to take jobs it was seen as a sign of societal failure, or a dire necessity in the case of widows or women whose husbands were unemployed. Young women were considered eligible to perform wage labour in order to support a poor family or to earn pin money until such time as they found a husband and left both their parents’ homes and the workforce. With limited knowledge or means of birth control, larger families were the norm, and working-class women of childbearing age typically had enough on their hands to make paid work something they sought only out of serious economic necessity. The reality was that many women needed to work. Many young women of limited means left the Dickensian poverty of the industrialized cities of Canada, Britain, and Europe to take low-paid work as domestic servants on the Prairies. Affluent rural and urban families paid very little for the services of girls who worked unlimited hours with few days off. The province’s first Minimum Wage Act, passed in 1919, applied only to female workers: it excluded domestic servants, even though these accounted for most of the women working at the time.”
The jurisdiction of the Minimum Wage Board went beyond wages in Saskatchewan. It extended to hours and conditions of labour as well as to wages, but any rules they made concerning hours and sanitary requirements of female workers were subject to the provisions of the Factories Acts which governed working conditions for men.
Like most social revolutions, the concept of minimum wage started small, but it’s exciting to think that it started here in Prince Albert 103 years ago today.

Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the Monday preceding May 25 in every province and territory. This year Victoria Day is on May 23. It honours Queen Victoria’s birthday. Victoria Day also recognizes the birthday of our reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth’s actual birthday is April 21; she is 96.
Victoria Day is sometimes called May Two-Four, a double entendre that refers both to the date around which the holiday falls (May 24) and Canadian slang for a case of 24 beers (a “two-four”), a drink popular during the long weekend. The May Long, as it is also known, is the start of summer. Some open up their cabin for the summer, some plant potatoes. Garage sales pop up with the dandelions.
Canada is the only country that has an official holiday to commemorate Queen Victoria’s birth on May 24, 1819. The holiday has been observed since before Canada was formed, originally falling on the sovereign’s actual birthday. It became official with an act of Parliament in 1901.
The holiday has always been distinctly Canadian.
In Australia The Queen’s Birthday is observed as a public holiday on the second Monday of June in most of Australia except western Australia where it is celebrated in autumn.
New Zealand celebrates the Queen’s birthday on the first Monday in June.
In the Falkland Islands, the actual day of the Queen’s birth, April 21, is observed.
In the United Kingdom, the Queen’s Official Birthday is now celebrated on the first, second, or third Saturday in June. This year it will be celebrated on June 11. In the UK, the most important and watched event related to the day is the historic military ceremony known as Trooping the Colour with a parade down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Festivities will include a fly-past of military aircraft as well as gun salutes fired at noon at Hyde Park. But the day is not a public holiday. However, the spring bank holiday is celebrated May 26 in United Kingdom.

Every old person should have a dog. It’s not because of the companionship, although that is definitely a good thing. It’s not because walking the dog will keep you fit, because it will and you’ll both benefit from those walks. No, the main reason to have a dog around the house as you get older is to have someone else to blame for your gassiness.
Sure, we can laugh about it, but flatulence is an embarrassing problem for many people, especially as we get older.
Why are most older people so gassy? I did some research that gives a new meaning to the term “old fart”.
WebMD says some experts believe that as you get older, you fart more because your metabolism slows down. The food sits longer in your digestive system, creating more gas. Also, your stomach makes less of the acid needed to digest food well. Gas may be more of a problem because of general loss of muscle as we age. Your digestive system is made up of muscles and may not be working as well.
An article on the AARP website says there has been little research into why we toot more as we age.
A self-reported study in 2017 found that older adults don’t necessarily pass gas (or admit to it) more frequently than younger adults.
Healthy adults pass gas 10 to 25 times a day. AARP says as you get older you’re more likely to take medications, gain weight, become lactose intolerant and have other issues that lead to an increase in gas.
Weight gain can be associated with increased flatulence, increased acid reflux and belching.
As you age you may be less able to hold in the gas.The anal sphincter may be weaker resulting in less ability to hold in flatulence. This can be a bigger problem for women who have had many vaginal deliveries. However, men and women can do Kegel exercises to strengthen pelvic floor muscles.
Watching what you eat might reduce gas. Foods that tend to cause gas include broccoli, dairy, beans, brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions.
How you eat can also affect flatulence. Eat your food slowly, chew it carefully, avoid gulping water and avoid fizzy beverages. Avoid lying on your back for two hours after eating.
Over-the-counter products such as simethicone (Gas X, Phazyme) and Beano (alpha Galactosidase) can help with excess bloating and gassiness caused by our diets.
Still stinking up the place? Blame it on the dog.