Canada. Cabinet. War Committee : Just prior to the outbreak of war, six sub-committees of Council were appointed (P.C. 2474 of August 30, 1939) to provide for a proper distribution of work and an effective allocation of duties among the ministers. The first was the Emergency Council. It replaced the Canadian Defence Committee which had been established (P.C. 2097, 20 August 1936) and consisted of the Prime Minister, Ministers of National Defence, Justice and Finance. It considered problems respecting the defence of the country. At the outbreak of war in 1939, the Emergency Council became the War Committee, responsible for the consideration of questions of general policy and the coordination of all operations of the government. The additional sub-committees were assigned specific areas of responsibility; supplies, legislation, public information, finance and internal.
The War Committee was the most important and active of the wartime committees of Cabinet. Between the first and last meetings, the membership of the Committee altered several times, however the Prime Minister or acting Prime Minister, the Defence ministers, the ministers of Finance and Munitions and Supply were always members. The remaining members were among the most experienced ministers of the day. The prestige of the War Committee was such that for practical purposes its decisions were that of the government. The remaining committees included committees on Legislation, Public Information, Internal Security, War Finance and Supply, Food Productions and Marketing, Shipping and Transportation, Fuel and Power and Demobilization.
This committee régime established in 1939 remained formally in existence until the end of the War. Long before the war's end, however, many of them, with the exception of the War Committee and the Committee on Demobilization, had fallen into disuse. Many of their duties were taken over by other agencies of the government or reverted to the Cabinet War Committee (Heeney, A.D.P. "Cabinet Government in Canada", CJEPS, August, 1946, pp. 282-301). The War Committee and various committees of Cabinet responsible for the war effort were abolished at the termination of the war (P.C. 5915 of September 5, 1945). RG2 General Inventory
