Canada. Commission to Inquire into the Circumstances Connected with the Disposal of Printed Matter in the Distribution Office of the Government Printing and Stationery Office and at the Same Time to Investigate the Particulars of All Material and Equipment Purchased, Sold or Otherwise Disposed of in or from the Government Printing Bureau since the 1st Day of January 1919 : The Commission to Inquire into the Circumstances Connected With the Disposal of Printed Matter in the Distribution Office of the Government Printing and Stationery Office and at the same time to Investigate the Particulars of all Material and Equipment Purchased, Sold or Otherwise Disposed of in or from the Government Printing Bureau Since the 1st day of January 1919 was established under Order in Council, P.C. 3208, 27 December 1920 under Part I of the Inquiries Act. (R.S.C. 1906, c.104) and on the recommendation of the Secretary of State. The terms of reference were extended by Order in Council, P.C. 7, 10 January 1921. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report upon: all the circumstances connected with delivery of a large quantity of printed matter, held by the Distribution Branch of the Government Printing and Stationary Office, to Messrs. Florence and Sons and the destruction thereof; and the particulars of all material and equipment purchased, sold or otherwise disposed of, in or from the Printing Bureau since 1st January 1919. The commissioner was Colin George Snider.
On 15 March 1918, the Civil Service Commission had a study undertaken of the Department of Public Printing and Stationary and hired the firm of Arthur Young and Company do it. The consultants recommended the transfer of the Distribution Office, in which the stocks of government publications were kept, to the main Printing Bureau. Before the Distribution Office could be relocated, it was necessary to dispose of the large quantity of surplus and obsolete publications in it.
The supervision of the disposal of unneeded publications at the Distribution Office, and in other government departments, was the responsibility of the Editorial Committee on Government Publications. The committee, established in 1917, had been given that responsibility by an Order in Council of 10 March 1920.
The Editorial Committee decided to distribute surplus publications to various university, legislative and public libraries throughout Canada. Some publications were distributed by this means but a very large quantity remained on hand in the Distribution Office. The Editorial Committee made up an inventory of these publications and, in July 1920, it sent out a circular to various libraries throughout Canada asking them to choose the publications they wanted. As a result, several institutions sent in orders for publications.
Before these orders could be filled, the committee learned, in September 1920, that the surplus material, consisting of 152 tons or approximately 100,000 items, had been destroyed by A.L. Florence and Sons, the contractors with the government for the collection of waste paper. Some of this material consisting of Hansard, Sessional Papers, Journals and Debates of the House of Commons and Senate, statutes, departmental, reports, and other government publications, dated back to before Confederation.
As a result, on 7 October 1920, the Editorial Committee recommended that the Government of Canada establish a public inquiry to report on the circumstances which led up to the disposal of the publications. (See An Inquiry under Royal Commission into the Disposition of a Quantity of Publications from the Distribution Branch of the Government Printing Bureau, Department of Public Printing and Stationary, Report of Colin George Snider, Commissioner; and Special Report of the Editorial Committee on Governmental Publications to the Sub-Committee of Council on Government Publications, 7 October 1920, RG 33/98, Vol. 2, folder 5).
Hearings of the commission were held in Ottawa from 13 January to 26 May 1921, and in Montreal on 28 May 1921. RG33-98 General Inventory
