Mike Shandro joined DCL in 1961, retiring in 1979 from the position of Project Engineer at CFB Edmonton. In the mid-1960s, he held a supervisory position for the operation and maintenance of the BRIDGE facility at CFB Shilo, Manitoba.
The honeymoon suite … CFB Penhold, 1967— Fred Zmetana( Fred Zmetana recalls an occasion when Joe Bland and Regional Manager Morgan Anderson arranged to pick him up one evening for dinner, from the motel at which he stayed whenever he was working at Penhold. He heard a knock at his door and opened it to find“ big eyes and then laughter.”)
The room that I was staying in was the bridal suite— it was the full meal deal, the mirrors on the ceiling and everything. When Joe Bland and Morgan Anderson saw that, they thought it was quite hilarious. The thing was that because I was a steady customer there on a weekly basis, four days a week, when the motel filled up and they had no more rooms, they always gave me the bridal suite.
Having worked briefly for Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1953, Fred Zmetana officially joined DCL in 1955. He retired in Calgary in 1992 as Manager of the Calgary office.
A 1967 – 68 evaluation of DCL for Treasury Board recommended that one agency be responsible for the maintenance of the emergency sites. DND was interested in taking over that responsibility, but the date of handover depended on the outcome of collective bargaining at Valcartier and Nanaimo. On June 21, 1971, DCL operations and maintenance contractors at those two locations went on strike over issues of pay, job classification and job security. A federal mediator made a settlement possible, and the strike ended on
July 14, making way for an agreement to be reached with DND. As of September 30, 1971, all the DCL contractors at the BRIDGE sites were transferred to DND as civilian employees. And at the end of the 1972 – 73 fiscal year, the contract with the civilian operator at the EASE site was terminated, and the operation taken over by DND personnel.
Project: Halifax Syncrolift
The contract for construction of the new Syncrolift drydock in Halifax was let in February of the 1965 – 66 fiscal year. DCL’ s Annual Report noted that it was a new method of drydocking ships, designed specifically to handle both the new Royal Canadian Navy submarines and the proposed Hydrofoil anti-submarine craft:“ By means of a wheeled cradle on a structural steel platform, with the help of 34 powerful, synchronized, electrically driven winches, dock personnel will be able to raise one ship completely out of the water and roll it ashore on rails, leaving the off-shore apparatus free for the servicing of a second vessel.”
The $ 4.5 million project was projected to be ready for testing in June 1967. The submarines received additional support in 1968 – 69 with a contract for a submarine battery shop in Halifax, and the following year for a submarine re-fit structure. The Hydrofoil craft, however, was cancelled due to development problems and changes in defence priorities.
BREAKING NEW GROUND DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA
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