Not meaning to rain on his parade, and the Canadian government didn't seem to discourage this back then but it isn't as if people could do this without either A: lots of money saved up from working months B: the dole paying the bills during non-working months or C: some combination of the two.
It seems to be like our unemployment?..Don't know about there system but every year I got layed off because of weather and drew unemployment for the winter months we could notwork..I usually found other work in the winter but not always, which gave me the opportunity to fish more or do whatever I wanted, like Taylor is doing. One of the perks I enjoyed working in the mountains..The Forest Service worked the same way with seasonal people.