Canada. Dept. of National War Services : The National War Services Act, 1940 (4 Geo. VI, ch. 22) created the Department of National War Services on 12 July 1940 as the administrative mechanism by which the government would mobilize the civilian population for the war effort, as called for in the earlier National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940 (4 Geo. VI, ch. 13). This required the Department of National War Services to select and call out male citizens eligible for military service, turning these recruits over to the military for compulsory military training. The initial objective was to identify all able-bodied males eligible for military service, accomplished by means of the National Registration carried out on 19-21 August 1940. At the same time, thirteen Administrative Divisions were established across Canada, each served by a National War Service Board to carry out the work of the Department. The Department issued regulations to facilitate the mobilization and the job of the boards.
The Minister of National War Services received additional responsibilities for voluntary organizations. The National War Services Funds Advisory Board was established on 22 June 1940 to administer government grants to charitable organizations and also to advise the Minister. A June 1941 amendment to the War Charities Act (3 Geo. VI, ch. 10) gave the department responsibility for ensuring all charitable organizations were registered and contributing to the war effort. National War Services also oversaw a number of volunteer efforts directed towards the war effort, including the Women's Voluntary Services, national war salvage and, late in the war, Voluntary War Relief to coordinate the participation of Canadian voluntary agencies in liberated Europe.
By order-in-council (P.C. 4215, 11 June 1941) the Department took over responsibility for information agencies, taking charge of the National Film Board, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian Government Travel Bureau. Another order-in-council (P.C. 4012) in May 1942 centralized responsibility for civilian censorship in the Department, which formed a Directorate of Censorship which operated for the rest of the war.
The Department organized and sent overseas in December 1942 the Corps of Canadian Fire Fighters, initially 442 strong, to assist the National Fire Service in the United Kingdom. This was the only wartime unit overseas outside the control of the Department of National Defence. The firefighters returned to Canada in the winter of 1944-45, having suffered three fatalities.
The inability of the Department of National War Services to cope with these many diverse responsibilities had become evident in 1942, particularly as a result of the conscription crisis of that year. As a consequence, control of National Registration was transferred to the Department of Labour (P.C. 2253, 21 March 1942), as was responsibility for National War Services Regulations relating to National Selective Service (P.C. 8800, 26 September 1942). As well, Prime Minister Mackenzie King was dissatisfied with the way the Department had discharged its information functions, and they were transferred to a Wartime Information Board under his own control (P.C. 8099, 9 September 1942) [C.P. Stacey, Arms, Men and Governments; the War Policies of Canada, 1939-1945, p. 124].
After the reorganization of 1942 the Department of National War Services was left with the responsibilities for censorship; the firefighters; voluntary war relief; the Citizenship Division, intended to provide information to Canadians of other than British or French origin; the Prisoners of War Next-of-Kin Division, to facilitate communication by next of kin to those in enemy hands; the Salvage Division; the Division of Government Office Economies, to reduce government paperwork; the Voluntary and Auxiliary Services Division and the Women's Voluntary Services Division. At the end of the war responsibility for the Citizenship Division was transferred to the Secretary of State (P.C. 6689, 26 October 1945) and the Government Office of Economies Control Division to the Minister of National Revenue (P.C. 6690, 26 October 1945). On 11 January 1946 the Women's Voluntary Services Division was transferred to the Department of National Health and Welfare (P.C. 59), to be joined on 14 January 1947 by the War Charities Division and the Voluntary War Relief Division (P.C. 134).
The Ministers of National War Services were Hon. James Garfield Gardiner (also Minister of Agriculture during the same period), July 1940 - June 1941; Hon. Joseph Thorarinn Thorson, June 1941 - October 1942; Major General the Hon. Léo Richer LaFlèche, October 1942 - April 1945; and the Hon. James Joseph McCann (also Minister of National Revenue during the same period), April 1945 - 18 January 1948. Associate Deputy Ministers during the same period were Major General LaFlèche, October 1940 - March 1943, and Chester Harold Payne, March 1943 - January 1948. With J.J. McCann's resignation, the National War Services Act was considered spent.
