Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 92

In 1996–97, DCC handled the largest
absolute dollar volume of work to date in its
history: $589 million. The largest portion of
that total—$182 million—was allocated to
the Infrastructure Reduction Program
(IRP). The majority of IRP expenditures—
approximately $92 million—were made at
CFB Edmonton.

The close of an era
For more than 40 years, Canadian—and NATO—
defence policy had been focused on the threat posed
by the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union. In 1989, the geopolitical-military
environment changed rapidly and a domino effect
ensued, culminating with the breakup of the Soviet
Union in 1991. The Cold War was over. In fact, discussions had been underway for some 15
years about the closure of certain DND facilities, but
they were fraught with political and local opposition.
Some facilities had been closed, including 21 obsolete
Pinetree Line radar stations between 1986 and 1990,
but the IAP took the concept to a much higher level,
announcing that eight installations would be closed and
six others reduced.
As the government increasingly turned its attention to
peacekeeping—in the early 1990s, Canada had signifi-
cant numbers of troops in Bosnia, Cyprus and Somalia
at the same time, along with smaller peacekeeping
contributions to many other UN missions—the decade
began under the influence of an economic recession
and resulting government cutbacks. DND, and by ex-
tension DCC, faced very significant changes. Although the decision to close CFB Winnipeg was
reversed and CFB Moncton’s closure was delayed until
1996, the IAP was nonetheless a $100 million under-
taking. As bases were closed or downsized, the units
stationed there had to move to other locations, where
facilities had to be built or renovated to accommodate
them. Work on this scale required additional personnel,
and by September 1989, DCC was placing advertisements
for architectural and engineering personnel, primarily
for