Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 39

Len Harper, who joined DCL in 1956 and stayed with
the organization until his retirement in 1988, had his
own views about how DCL was able to attract and retain
people with the required skill levels:
One of the things about DCL which impressed me when I
was a project engineer, and afterwards, was the immense
amount of technical and financial authority that you were
given… with that amount of authority went an equal—
or greater—amount of responsibility… There was a
responsibility to give the public the best value possible
for the dollar it supplied and to provide the owner who
funded the project with superior facilities. There was a
responsibility to the Head and Branch Office people
who had placed their trust in you, to your own staff at
the site, to the contractor to be firm and fair in your
administrative dealings and, finally, to the real end
user—the soldier, sailor and airman in the field.
In October 1958, DCL let its largest contract to date
for a single building—$7.9 million for the construction
of the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa,
considered one of the most modern hospitals of its day.
Construction advanced ahead of schedule and was
almost complete by March 1961, rather than the fall,
thanks to joint efforts by the government and contractor
to maintain an effective winter construction program.
Len Harper added an interesting observation:
Working with DCL has provided many satisfactions over
the years. Among the most subtle but greatest of these,
was perceiving and understanding the differences in
the way you felt upon completing a building such as
National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa (which can
be put to a full and beneficial use) and one such as the
bunker at Penhold, Alberta (which you hope will never
be used as intended).
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA
Working with the Royal Canadian Air Force
During this period, the RCAF kept DCL particularly busy.
The Canadair Argus—at the time, the largest aircraft
ever manufactured in Canada—was named to replace
the aging Avro Lancasters, requiring new support
facilities at Greenwood, Nova Scotia and Summerside,
Prince Edward Island. Work was substantially complete
by 1960–61, including the construction of cantilevered
maintenance hangars.
As work was closing out in the Maritimes, it was in
full gear in Trenton, where a cantilevered hangar
covering six acres was the new home of RCAF Transport
Command. In addition, the decision to buy CF-101
interceptor jets from the U.S. in the wake of the ill-fated
Avro Arrow resulted in $3.3 million in contracts for new
facilities at Chatham, New Brunswick; Bagotville and
Val D’Or, Quebec; Cold Lake, Alberta; and Comox,
British Columbia.
In 1962 and 1963, DCL also supervised a project that
supplied factory-built housing units to the RCAF. Built
in an assembly line process, they could be transported
by road or rail to their destinations, and could survive
several relocations. A first order of 345 units was
followed by a further 600, so they must have achieved
some level of success.

Quite a taxi ride…
Montreal-Ottawa 1960—Ed Bastedo
Then there was the time I had to travel to Ottawa from
Montreal by taxi because of the poor weather conditions.
I found myself in the cab with several well-dressed
gentlemen speaking French with English mixed in. I
knew enough French to be able to gather that they were
MPs. Finally; I was drawn into the conversation by the
man sitting next to me, who spoke English. He asked
me where I was from and what I did. He questioned
me at great length about DCL, how it operated and why
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