I was so keen about the work I did. I gave him the full treatment, mentioning all the things we did that made DCL a money-saving and well-run Crown corporation. One of the other gentlemen turned to me and asked“ Do you know who your Minister is?”( It took me a moment to realize that he didn’ t mean the minister of my church.)
I said,“ No, I don’ t.”
He then said,“ Let me introduce you to Mr. O’ Hurley, Minister of Defence Production, your top boss.”
You can imagine my consternation …
Ed Bastedo joined DCL at Camp Gagetown in 1955, serving as Regional Manager in the Atlantic Region from 1961 until his retirement in 1984.
On the European front In 1956, the German Construction Agency( also known as Sonderbauamt), working with the French engineers, began to carry out construction work on the Canadian bases in Germany. This created a circuitous and bureaucratic way of doing even the simplest of things. For example, in order for the CE Section at Zweibrucken airfield to have the German Construction Agency at the airfield carry out work, they would apply for approval from Command Engineer Headquarters in Metz, which would forward the request to DCL Paris. DCL Paris would inform the German federal representative in Frankfurt, which would forward its approval to the Oberfinanzdirektion in Koblenz, which then directed the German Construction Agency in Landau. This agency then tasked the German Construction Agency back at Zweibrucken to actually do the work.
DCL was tasked with coordinating and monitoring the working relationship between these offices, while all design work, plans and specifications approvals, job site control, certification of invoices and acceptance of construction work was delegated to the local BCEO office.
Despite complications such as these, total expenditure on the bases in Europe had reached $ 21 million by 1961, when the Federal Republic of Germany signed Status of Forces Agreements with the NATO Sending States, putting into effect a general administrative agreement.
Although construction on the French and German bases had tapered off by early 1962, the delivery of the CF-104 to Europe that year required DCL’ s European Branch to administer construction contracts for improved arrestor gear and other facilities. More than $ 1.7 million in work was handled at bases in Belgium, France and Germany in the 1963 – 64 fiscal year.
Demonstrating Canada’ s expertise in the area, DCL’ s European Branch Manager was chosen in 1962 to be president of the Construction Advisory Committee for the NATO Military Budget, which was comprised of construction experts from the Alliance’ s member countries. He was re-elected to this position the following year.
Working with the Americans DCL’ s history of working to attract, and often manage, contractors that could fulfill the required briefs for American forces worked so well that the U. S. Air Force asked for similar contracting procedures for family housing projects at Goose Bay in Labrador and Harmon Air Force Base in Newfoundland, as a cost-saving measure. DCL helped bring the projects to the attention of the Canadian construction industry and also handled the opening of the bids in Ottawa.
30 BREAKING NEW GROUND DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA