Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Problem Relating to the Future of the Aircraft Overhaul Base Maintained by Trans-Canada Air Lines at Winnipeg International Airport and into the Possibility of Maintaining and Increasing Employment at the Said Base (Canada) : The Commission to Inquire into and Report Upon the Problem Relating to the Future of the Aircraft Overhaul Base Maintained by Trans-Canada Air Lines at Winnipeg International Airport and into the Possibility of Maintaining and Increasing Employment at the Said Base was established under Order in Council P.C. 857, 11 June 1964, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1952, c.154), and on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report upon the problem relating to the future of the aircraft overhaul base maintained by Trans-Canada Air Lines at Winnipeg International Airport and into the possibility of maintaining and increasing employment at the said base, with particular reference to: (a) The report prepared for Trans-Canada Air Lines by Dixon-Speas Associates on the overhaul, stores and base facilities at Winnipeg and Montreal International Airports, including the examination of the working papers used in its preparation and the examination of Dixon-Speas Associates and of the officers of Trans-Canada Air Lines and of the Government of Canada who participated in or provided information for the preparation of the report; (b) the Wallace Clark Report and supporting material on the relative cost of providing overhaul and maintenance facilities for DC-8 Jets and Vanguards at Montreal as against the cost of providing such facilities at Winnipeg; (c) the plans of Trans-Canada Air Lines for the future of the overhaul and maintenance base of Trans-Canada Air Lines at Winnipeg and Montreal International Airports; (d) the practicability of using the Winnipeg aircraft overhaul base of Trans-Canada Air Lines for the overhaul and maintenance of all, or part, of the new DC-9 or other aircraft which Trans-Canada Air Lines may acquire, including a review of the developments which have occurred since the Dixon-Speas Report and which would affect the possible use of the said base for the overhaul and maintenance of DC-9, Vanguard or Viscount aircraft; (e) the future of aircraft overhaul and maintenance facilities at Winnipeg and, in particular, of the facilities of Trans-Canada Air Lines at Winnipeg, in the light of the announced intention of the Government of Canada to encourage the development of regional air carriers and to seek increased Canadian participation in international air traffic; and (f) relevant matters which may in the course of the inquiry arise which, in the opinion of the Commissioner, should be included within the scope of the inquiry. The commissioner was Donald Alexander Thompson. The secretary was Robert E. Moffat.
On 31 May 1957, the consulting firm of Wallace Clark and Company (Canada) Limited recommended to Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) that all its overhaul facilities for turbine powered aircraft be consolidated at Dorval Airport. A consolidation would mean the end of Stevenson's Field (near Winnipeg) as an aircraft overhaul and maintenance centre. Due to the lack of disclosure of the full Wallace Clark report, however, the consequences of this recommendation were not understood at that time.
At stake, were the jobs of nearly 1,000 Winnipeg employees. Besides, the closure would have an effect on a variety of technical trades particularly in electronics.
On 11 March 1958, J.T. Bain, Director of Engineering and Maintenance for T.C.A., wrote to N.A. Radford, Chairman, Airline Lodge 714, Winnipeg, regarding plans for the overhaul base. Again, the information given out, regarding the future of the base, was not made clear. According to the Report of the Royal Commission of 1966, which studied this issue, it is obvious that:
"The ... answers were not wholly responsive to the questions asked and appeared more intended to allay fears as to the future of the Winnipeg base than to provide frank information concerning the plans of AC [Air Canada] limiting that future."
In a letter to personnel, dated 14 November 1962, the President of T.C.A., G.R. McGregor, was more forthcoming. McGregor wrote:
"it is quite possible that the Viscount fleet will start to dwindle in numbers, perhaps quite rapidly, early in 1966. From the foregoing, you will realize that TCA's most probable next purchase of a new aircraft type will be a short-medium range jet, and that the major maintenance and overhaul of such aircraft, its power plants and components, will be engineered into Dorval, not Winnipeg, in conformity with the original planning, and the dictates of economic common sense."
Finally, there was a clear statement by TCA of its intention to close the overhaul base in Winnipeg. The failure of TCA to warn its employees in 1957 about the closure meant that the matter did not come to a head for several years. As the report of the Commission of Inquiry put it:
"In retrospect it would appear that disclosure in 1957 of the Wallace Clark report contents in so far as they related to the future of the Winnipeg o/h base; coupled with a frank indication of the long range intentions of AC in that regard, while it might have caused an immediate storm, might also have brought about a much earlier solution of the base problem than now will be the case."
In response to McGregor's letter of November 1962, TCA hired the firm of R. Dixon Speas Associates, in March 1963, to: "examine the economic merits of the Company's planning with respect to the Dorval and Winnipeg bases." Their report, of August 1963, once again recommended that the aircraft and engine overhaul base at Winnipeg be closed and that all airframe and engine overhaul work be consolidated at Dorval.
After the Speas report was released, protests especially from Manitoba poured into Ottawa. On 17 December 1963, Prime Minister Pearson stated in the House of Commons that he would discuss the possibility of setting up a public inquiry on the subject of the overhaul base with Premier Roblin of Manitoba. Several months later, on 11 June 1964, the Government of Canada established a royal commission to study and report on the overhaul bases. (See Canadian Annual Review, 1965, pp. 162-163 and Report of Commission of Inquiry as to the Future of the Air Canada Overhaul Base at Winnipeg International Airport and Related Matters, Ottawa, 1966, pp 19-29.)
Hearings of the commission were held in Montreal and Winnipeg from 19 January to 13 May 1965. The commission filed 39 submissions and 105 exhibits. In addition, a number of communications, resolutions and letters, were received from cities, towns, villages and rural municipalities both in Manitoba and Quebec. RG33-87 General Inventory
