Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 120

Keith Dyer (left), photographed with
former Chief of the Defence Staff General
Rick Hillier, was dispatched by DCC to
Afghanistan to work on a contracting and
contract management framework in
support of the mission.
Kabul as part of the NATO International Stabilization
Assistance Force. In 2003, with the security situation
relatively stable in Kabul, DCC deployed Richard Allie
to Camp Julien to establish a contracting and contract
management framework for DCC support to the
mission. When Keith Dyer replaced him, he worked
primarily with the Civilian Military Cooperation (CIMIC)
platoon, whose mission to implement community recon-
struction projects included the repair of schools,
mosques and medical clinics.
By 2004–05, there was also a team of employees in
Ottawa and in the city of Kabul managing the construction
of a new Canadian embassy compound on behalf of
Foreign Affairs Canada.
Ross Nicholls recalls that:
It was questionable if this was really a defence project
within our mandate, but Foreign Affairs was in a bind,
so I took the position that the Canadian government
priorities of defence, diplomacy and development in
Afghanistan could not be separated in this kind of
situation. I did brief Minister Owen of my intention; he
110
concurred, commenting ‘… who could question an
organization called Defence Construction building for
the government in a war zone?’ Treasury Board asked
for an explanation which I gave. I believe it was the right
thing to do and I would make the same decision again.
In 2006, the Canadian Forces moved to the more
volatile Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan
with a base of operations at the Kandahar Airfield
(KAF). As a result of the relationship developed with
the Military Engineers in CANOSCOM, DCC became
a significant player in the camp support function,
providing contracting, contract and project manage-
ment services to the Engineering Support Unit (ESU)
as an integrated part of the Engineer team with six
people in KAF and one at Camp Nathan Smith, a
Provincial Reconstruction Team base at Kandahar city.
Elia Miller, DCC’s first Manager of Site Operations in
Kandahar, received a Chief of the Defence Staff
commendation for the outstanding results of his efforts
to establish the DCC-ESU relationship.
In 2007, Hans Gartner, retired DCC Manager of
Infrastructure Support Services, explained the significance
of the change:
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA