Canada. Committee Appointed to Investigate into the Administration of the Pension Act : The Committee Appointed to Investigate into the Administration of the Pension Act was established under Order in Council P.C. 1741, 4 August 1932, on the recommendation of the Minister of Pensions and National Health. No indication of the authorizing statute is given in the order in council. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report on the administration of the Pension Act, and to report thereon with such suggestions or recommendations as may be deemed advisable. The commissioners were Thibaudeau Rinfret, Chairman, Richard Myers, Frank G.J. McDonagh, W.C.H. Wood, John Kelman, Alex Ross, John Thompson, L.P. Sherwood, H.F. McDonald, Ross Millar and C.B. Topp. Louis A. Audette replaced Rinfret as Chairman in December 1932 (Order in Council P.C. 2650, 2 December 1932). The secretary was E.H. Scammell.
In January 1932 the Associated Veterans, representing all Veterans' organizations operating under Dominion Charter, made a submission to the Government of Canada on the administration of the Pension Act (20- 21 Geo. V, c.35, 1930). Specifically, they complained about the adjudication of pension claims: congestion of cases in the Board of Pension Commissioners and in the Pension Appeal Court; delays in hearing and determining applications; the Crown's use of the right of appeal and the success attending such appeals; the insufficiency of Section 73 of the Act on the extension of the benefit of the doubt; and the necessity of more extended provision for preparing cases for consideration. After this submission was presented it was revealed in the House of Commons that thousands of applications for pensions were pending. For example, on 29 February 1932 the number of pending applications were: 23,900 before the Board of Pension Commissioners, which presumably included the Veterans' Bureau; 2,650 before Pension Tribunals; 1,318 before the Pension Appeal Court; a total of 27,868 applications.
On 25 April 1932 Murray MacLaren, the Minister of Pensions and National Health, informed the House of Commons that the government had carefully considered the submission of the Associated Veterans on the administration of the Pension Act. In fact, representatives of the five service organizations concerned (the Army and Navy Veterans in Canada, the Amputations' Association of the Great War, the Sir Arthur Pearson Club of Blinded Sailors and Soldiers, the Canadian Pensioners' Association of the Great War and the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service League) met with the government on 23 April. On the same date the Minister of Pensions and National Health wrote to Major J.S. Roper, the Chairman of the Associated Veterans, informing him that "the government will be pleased to refer the whole matter to a committee of the associated veterans' organizations, in conjunction with a committee appointed by the government, the report to be presented to the government before the first of, say February 1933." The next day Major Roper formally accepted this proposal.
Subsequently, on 4 August 1932, the Government of Canada established the Pension Committee to determine whether the Pension Act of 1930 was being administered judiciously to the veterans without undue delay or hardship. (See Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate into the Administration of the Pension Act, Ottawa: King's Printer, 1933, pp. 11-14 and House of Commons, Debates, 25 April 1932, pp. 2317-2318.)
Hearings of the commission were held in Ottawa from 20 to 30 September 1932 and from 9 to 20 January 1933. There were 29 exhibits were filed with the commission. RG33-74 General Inventory
