The Department also paid disability allowances: initially $33 per month for a man without dependants, and $73 for a married man with no children, with extra allowances for children. On 1 September 1920, these sums were increased to $45 and $86 respectively. Canada was one of the first Allied countries to implement a system of retraining for its wounded soldiers. Drawing from the experience of Belgium and France in 1914, in 1915 the Military Hospitals Commission was authorised to provide facilities for vocational training in cooperation a network of provincial commissions. At the peak of the program March 1920, 26,000 men were undergoing such training, 11,500 who had enlisted as minors in the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. Occupational therapy was also being pioneered in the hospitals. By March 1921, 51,000 men had undertaken training in 421 occupations, of whom 72 per cent had since found work in that occupation. In general, men were trained in a trade related to their previous trade, but which they were able to do with their particular disability. 1,966 Canadian servicemen had their sight affected in the war, of whom 110 had been completely or nearly completely blinded. Those in this condition were offered retraining at
St Dunstan's Hostel,
Regent's Park,
London, or at the
Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Pearson Hall,
Toronto, at which further courses and the provision of aftercare were also available. Blind soldiers were trained in
massage,
poultry farming,
carpentry,
piano tuning,
stenography,
broom-making, and
telegraphy. The Department operated a large artificial limb and surgical appliance factory, mainly employing disabled ex-servicemen, at 47 Buchanan Street, Toronto, with fitting depots in all the major cities. There was also an experimental branch which developed new designs and improvements. ==Employment facilities==