Simply stated, Defence Construction Canada was formed as Defence Construction (1951) Limited, just as the name implied, in 1951 under the Defence Production Act. Our mandate is to deliver infrastructure and environmental requirements for the defence of Canada. That encompasses primarily our client partners, the Department of National Defence, with the Canadian Armed Forces, but it also does include other aspects of defence interests for Canada, everything from the Canadian Forces Housing Agency across to, today, the Communications Security Establishment and other similar types of government entities.
Following the Second World War, when Canada's defence capabilities had been reduced because the war was over, but then re-emerging during the Cold War period, the government had a few priorities that it wanted to address quickly and efficiently. One was the modernization and upgrading of Canadian military bases, and the other was to add capacity to prepare for some of the Cold War threats that were perceived. An example would be the decision in the early 1950s to construct the DEW Line in the north. Government looked to existing resources to come up with capabilities that already existed, to the extent possible, and that could be grown; and to consolidate a focused organization that could deliver these defence infrastructure requirements, by dealing with both the procurement, and then the management and delivery, of those requirements as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
DCC was created under the authority of the Defence Production Act, and today is responsible to Parliament through the Minister of Public Services and Procurement. That resulted in the independence of the delivery organization from National Defence itself, which had the need for the infrastructure. That has continued right through to today.
DCC is very much focused in 2016 and beyond on the same things that were stated at the time of its creation, and that was effective, efficient delivery of infrastructure on time, on budget, on specification. Today we use terms like “value for money”, and other modern terms to talk about this, but they essentially boil down to the same thing. That's been DCC'S focus.
I would add, Chair, that defence infrastructure, which is the largest segment of the federal government's real property portfolio, at more than $20 billion in realty replacement costs, has an ongoing requirement for maintenance, repair, and upgrade. Typically, they are very specialized assets. It can be everything from buildings, which would include hospitals, schools, accommodations, barracks, to runways and the underground infrastructure of the bases and wings themselves, which operate very much like small cities. It includes water treatment plants, sewage treatment facilities, communications lines, and many other aspects like that. These special purpose assets take a very particular knowledge and skill set to deliver efficiently and effectively, and often there are high security requirements, of course, around them. It includes work in the north—I mentioned the DEW Line— and so involves harsh environments in remote conditions. Even if Canada decided to deliver infrastructure in any of its international defence operations—Afghanistan was an example—DCC was there with staff for the whole eight years of the operation. Over 70 staff in total all volunteered to serve six-month terms there, delivering the infrastructure requirements that Canada needed to support defence operations.
It's been an interesting, but very much a consistent, approach for the entire 65 years of our existence. I think that states very well what we do.