Chronology of Canadian Civil Defence Events 1948 to 1994

The Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum website has an extensive, well laid out and logically arranged Cold War Timeline. Click CANADA COLD WAR TIMELINE to view.

Canada’s Civil Defence (CD) Program  -  Summary Chronology of Significant Events
 
 1948 
 -DND coordinator appointed (Gen Worthington)
 -Procedures and methods for achieving CD preparedness studied
 -CD technical training school established in Arnprior
 -DND responsible for survival operations
  
 1951 
  -CD organization placed in Department of National Health and Welfare
  
 1956 
  -An Interdepartmental Working Group on War Measures set up to consider the problem of civilian and national survival during a nuclear war
 
 1957 
  -Second organization, Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) created in Privy Council Office (PCO)
  
 1958    
  -Berlin Crisis      
  -Diefenbaker announces the continuity of government and national survival programs
  
 1959
  -Reform and reorganization of civil defence announced by Diefenbaker
  -EMO organizations combined in PCO
  -Civil emergency planning & substantial construction program undertaken
  -Construction of the Central Emergency Government Headquarters at Carp, Ontario begun (under the guise of being an Experimental Army Signals Establishment)
  
     
 1959-68 
  -CEGHQ completed, six Regional and numerous smaller shelters constructed and/or fitted out in government buildings
  
 1963 
  -EMO becomes independent, reporting to Parliament through the Ministry of Industry
  -Cuban Missile Crisis-military placed on alert (sort of!).
 
 1968 
 -EMO placed in DND
 -Provinces assume responsibility for survival operations
 -Capital construction for CD stopped, no new emergency government headquarters in support of the Continuity of Government Program to be built thereafter but existing capabilities to be
  maintained
 -Emergency planning reoriented to strike a more even balance between peacetime and wartime contingencies
 
  1974 
   -Dare Report
   -EMO reorganized, becoming the National Emergency Planning Establishment (NEPE) but to be known as Emergency Planning Canada (EPC) to be administered by DND but with policy 
    direction from PCO
   -Major decentralization of functional responsibilities passed to various departments
   -EPC tasked to provide federal departmental coordination and provincial liaison
 
 1980 
  - Comprehensive review of federal emergency planning policy (again!).
  - President of the Privy Council designated to be minister responsible for federal emergency planning
 
  1981 
   -Implementation of the Emergency Planning Order PC 1981-1305 (21 May 83)
   -Joint Emergency Planning Program (JEPP) - providing cost shared financial support of provinces readiness projects, introduced and provided with about $6 million annually.
 
 1986 
   -Emergency Planning Canada renamed Emergency Preparedness Canada to more accurately reflect its role and functions
  
 1988 
   -The Emergency Preparedness and the Emergencies Acts passed by Parliament 
   - EPC becomes an independent agency of government
  
 1992 
   - EPC placed back in DND (IMO- quite inappropriately under the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff) as part of wide scale government reorganization. 
   - Continuity of Government Program’s Emergency Government Facilities closed down and all sites on military facilities decommissioned by DND, Central Relocation Units and Zone Emergency Government HQs decommissioned by PWGSC
   - Siren system decommissioned and dismantled by DND
   - Canadian Forces Warning and Alerting System shut down by DND
   - CD Radiation Defence Program closed down and its equipment disposed of by DND.
  
 1994 - 2002 
   - CEGHQ (Carp, ON) sold, becomes Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum), transmitter site at Perth ON destroyed/sealed and remote antenna farms (Burnt Lands and Dunrobin) dismantled
   - REGHQ Nanaimo BC sealed
   - REGHQ Penhold AB sold then repurchased and destroyed
   - REGHQ Shilo MB sealed
   - REGHQ Borden ON sealed 2003
   - REGHQ Valcartier QB now used for other purposes
   - REGHQ Debert NS sold, now part of industrial park, was originally open a few weekends a year for tours (was in excellent shape, sold to a since failed information preservation company, then to a paint ball gaming group, now with a new owner who it offers historic tours, laser tag and escape rooms. Stay tuned,,,