Industry, Trade & Commerce
Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum
GOVERNMENT MINISTRY OFFICES
During a nuclear emergency, the War Cabinet would depend on government ministries located here for information and to issue directives.
Rows of small offices would have housed compact departments. Ministries that would have occupied huge office buildings with thousands of workers in peacetime were distilled to small teams in a handful of rooms. Their job here would have been to collect, analyze, and assess information coming in. They would then brief Cabinet and, if so tasked, devise courses of action to address problems. Then do it again.
Some of the departments might seem surprising- Canada Mortgage and Housing, for example. But during an emergency, knowing what the housing situation was in various regions would have been an essential service. And during reconstruction, records of ownership would be important.
“…why Central Mortgage and Housing? Because we're not really concerned with the mortgages at this time...but we are concerned with where the housing is. And they know it, where the housing is. So all these government departments have a role, and they would perform that role here."
Dave Peters, Emergency Preparedness Canada
(1983-1992)
Industry, Trade & Commerce
Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum
GOVERNMENT MINISTRY OFFICES
During a nuclear emergency, the War Cabinet would depend on government ministries located here for information and to issue directives.
Rows of small offices would have housed compact departments. Ministries that would have occupied huge office buildings with thousands of workers in peacetime were distilled to small teams in a handful of rooms. Their job here would have been to collect, analyze, and assess information coming in. They would then brief Cabinet and, if so tasked, devise courses of action to address problems. Then do it again.
Some of the departments might seem surprising- Canada Mortgage and Housing, for example. But during an emergency, knowing what the housing situation was in various regions would have been an essential service. And during reconstruction, records of ownership would be important.
“…why Central Mortgage and Housing? Because we're not really concerned with the mortgages at this time...but we are concerned with where the housing is. And they know it, where the housing is. So all these government departments have a role, and they would perform that role here."
Dave Peters, Emergency Preparedness Canada
(1983-1992)