Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 35

During the Cold War, Canada and the
United States strung a Distant Early
Warning (DEW) Line consisting of a system
of radar stations across the Arctic, including
this one at Cambridge Bay, then part of the
Northwest Territories, in 1960.
Following a brief stint as a pile inspector, something I
did not take to (ensuring the piles were belled out at the
bottom), I was posted to Churchill, where I arrived by
train on a cold day in May of 1954. Churchill was a bit
like an old western movie, what with the old-style station
and board walk… My principal job was to prepare rock
quantities removed by blasting for the Utilidors that
carried the services to the buildings.
Churchill (which at the time was establishing the
Churchill Rocket Research Range) was a joint U.S. and
Canadian Army camp and I was assigned to building
F-25, attached to the Sergeant’s mess and bar where
we were royally fed and the majority drank. Not a great
thing for a 19-year-old with no other facilities to hold his
interest… In those days we were paid a Northern
Allowance, which in my case amounted to one hundred
dollars above my normal wage, which seemed like a lot
of money at the time; unfortunately, most of it wound up
in the cash register of the bar… It was an experience
that I would not recommend to other youngsters, but
one that I’m glad I had.
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA
During the winter of 1954, we had an opportunity to
stay with CMHC or transfer to the new Defence
Construction (1951) Limited. I believe the majority of
us went to DCL.
I had the opportunity to return to Churchill in 1988 as
Chairman of the Manitoba Housing Authority. The
railway station was still the same… but the base is
completely gone. What once was a thriving community
of several hundred souls was no more, just a barren site
overlooking the Bay. I can still hear the clinking of glasses.
After a posting to Fort Osborne Barracks Site One in
Winnipeg, part of the Home Station Development
Programme for the Canadian army—where he was
responsible for the inspection of site service work, the
roads, sewer and water services and the steam lines
that served the buildings—Neil Wither left DCL in 1956
for Red River Construction, of which he was president
from 1964 until his retirement in December 2005. He
was also instrumental in the formation of Trip Canada
(The Road Information Program) and a founding member
of The Coalition to Renew Canada’s Infrastructure.
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