 Relief, initially, was the responsibility of municipal governments - but the increasing numbers of unemployed in the early years was already straining the small financial reserves that municipalities had.The Ontario government, for example, introduced public works in urban and isolated areas early on to help ease unemployment, but between 1929 and 1932 employment fell by 32 percent and these early relief systems could no longer cope.In British Columbia, the province's reliance on the exportation of raw materials meant that citizens were hit particularly hard by the Depression - similarly to Ontario, unemployment had reached 30% by 1933.