Sub-series consists of records created and/or maintained in the central registry system of the Water Transportation Committee and its predecessor, the Canadian Maritime Commission (CMS). The CMS created and maintained a central registry, primarily for the records relating to its mandate to study the Canadian shipping industry and to make recommendations concerning it to the government and to its internal administration. When the Canadian Transport Commission was established in 1967, the records of the CMS were incorporated into the records system of the Water Transportation Committee.
This registry series was created and administered by the Canadian Maritime Commission, although it contains a limited amount of correspondence of the Department of Trade and Commerce and of the Water Transport Committee of the Canadian Transport Commission. The files deal with all aspects of the work of the Canadian Maritime Commission, including committees, shipbuilding subsidies, seamen, subsidized steamship and ferry services, arrangements for defensive armament of merchant ships, wartime controls, shipping, ship replacement, and the transfer of registry of ships, as well as the organization and internal administration of the Commission. The files are divided into three numerical blocks: administration files, Blocks 100 to 1200; operational files, Blocks 1300 to 2900; and confidential files, Block 3000.
