Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 78

Several early retirement programs in the mid- and late 1980s (similar to
ones introduced in the Public Service) led to a number of voluntary early
retirements. The turnover of personnel at management and other levels
created new challenges and opportunities for the company—at one
point, every member of the Management Committee had less than a year’s
experience in their positions. It also created a financial issue: by early
1989, the cost of these programs threatened the Corporation with a
budgetary shortage.

Driving change from the outside in: the NAADM joint project office
By the early 1980s, a new threat had emerged: long-range, low-flying
cruise missiles launched from bombers or submarines. As had happened
before, a new air defence system was therefore required. At the March
1985 “Shamrock Summit” between Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan,
the North American Air Defence Modernization (NAADM) Agreement was
signed, signalling one of the largest projects that DCC would undertake in
the 1980s and early 1990s. Its first phase, the $1.5 billion North Warning
System (NWS), would replace both the DEW and Pinetree Lines that had
been designed to deal with earlier, now-outdated threats.
DCC Ottawa employees attend a farewell
breakfast at the Château Laurier in honour
of DCC President Joe Bland’s retirement
in 1984.
With the costs of the system split 60/40 between the United States and
Canada, DCC was responsible for constructing the 47 Canadian sites and
supplying the communications system, while our neighbour to the south
supplied the radar equipment. The scope of the project was a challenge
on its own—but added to it was the urgent need for the system, which
triggered a very short construction schedule. With NAADM and the other
projects that were underway, the existing project delivery system was simply
unable to cope.
In a move that would signal a new direction in the relationship between
DCC and DND, the two organizations worked together to find ways to
respond: for the first time, they set up a joint project office. DCC’s former
Vice-President of Operations, Steve Irwin, was DND’s Director General
Infrastructure in the mid-1990s (he retired from the CF as Chief Military
Engineer (CME) at the rank of Brigadier-General). He saw firsthand the way
that DCC worked together when he was the Base Construction Engineering
Officer at CFB Borden in the 1970s. Although there was certainly a degree of
cooperation between the two organizations, it depended a great deal on the
personalities involved on both sides of the equation. The NAADM joint project
office, however, formalized a team approach that was novel—and effective.
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BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA