In 1924, the mine at Brule in Jasper National Park was closed. Alberta asked Ottawa and the Parks Branch for aid to go towards the newly unemployed. Harkin responded by telling the park superintendent to provide groceries if conditions were desperate, but not cash as he did not want to encourage further demands. By 1929, the Jasper Parks superintendent was desperately seeking financial support and asked Harkin for $20,000 to go towards work-for-relief projects, but Harkin refused. The declining conditions in Jasper presaged the stock market crash in 1929. Crops began to fall and by 1933, one-fifth of the work force was unemployed while 15% of Canadians were on relief.