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Statutes, Orders, and Official Statements Relating to Canadian War-Time Economic Controls
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Extract
The statutory basis for Canada's war-time economic controls and programmes is to be found, in the main, in a number of orders-incouncil issued under authority of the War Measures Act of 1914 and, only occasionally, in acts of Parliament. Even in those cases when the control agency derived its powers and responsibilities from an act of Parliament (e.g., the Department of Munitions and Supply) many of the more important operations of the agency in question were conducted by controllers who derived their powers from successive orders-in-council. The detailed regulations of the various war-time controllers and administrators in turn were usually promulgated in the form of additional orders-in-council or in the form of administrators' and controllers' orders. Thus, while the statutory powers and responsibilities of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board—the operations of which touched upon almost every section of Canada's economy—were derived from less than half a dozen basic orders-in-council, the hundreds of regulations governing the conditions of production and distribution applicable to specific industries were issued in the form of board orders and administrators' orders and, less often, in the form of informal directives.
Apart from the latter type of measure, all the various war-time orders and regulations were printed in Canadian War Orders and Regulations (now Statutory Orders and Regulations) or, previous to October 1, 1942, in Proclamations and Orders-in-Council, both issued from the office of the Privy Council. Such orders and regulations have run into the tens of thousands during the war years. The student of Canada's war-time economic controls approaching this subject for the first time would find it difficult to select from this mass of printed material, much of it dealing with minor administrative procedures or appointments, the more basic or significant regulations.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1947 , pp. 99 - 114
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1947
References
1 The regulations and controls introduced during the war years represent in the main, an extension of pre-war governmental arrangements to maintain minimum prices involving restrictions on production of wheat and government purchase and sale of wheat. Other regulations have arisen from plans to encourage production of feed grains instead of wheat and plans to regulate exports so as to conserve sufficient domestic supplies, etc. (e.g., ban on export of feed grains). (For information respecting prices and marketings see, Annual Reports on the Grain Trade of Canada; Monthly Review of the Wheat Situation, D.B.S.; Canadian Wheat Board, Winnipeg, Annual reports.)
2 By P.C. 1752, Mar. 5, 1943, the Coal Controller took over the powers and functions of the Coal Administrator of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, the operations of the Dominion Fuel Board and administration of the various orders-in-council under which assistance is extended to the movement of coal. Orders of the Coal Administrator, W.P.T.B., respecting coal and wood fuel which dealt exclusively with prices were not transferred to the coal control but were left under jurisdiction of the W.P.T.B. Coal Administrator. By P.C. 4362, May 28, 1943, a separate Wood Fuel Controller was established under W.I.C.B. and the powers, functions, and orders of the Coal Controller with respect to wood fuel were, as of June 1,1943, transferred to the newly created Wood Fuel Controller. (Jurisdiction over wood fuel was subsequently transferred to the Timber Controller, P.C. 1997, Mar. 21, 1944, when the office of Wood Fuel Controller was abolished.)
3 Prior to P.C. 6656, construction control was under the Priorities Officer.
4 (1) P.C. 6391, established regulations respecting supplies. (2) Items were designated as “supplies” by order of the Minister of Munitions and Supply, thus bringing them under the jurisdiction of the Controller of Supplies. (3) A wide variety of items were from time to time so designated, including most consumer durables, metal furniture and upholstered furniture with metal content, bicycles, toys, rubber and rubber products, silk, nylon, kapok, cork and hard fibres, and some minor items. (4) P.C. 9995, Nov. 3, 1942, transferred rubber items to the Rubber Controller. (5) P.C. 504, Jan. 23, 1943, transferred everything else except silk, nylon, kapok, cork, and hard fibres to W.P.T.B. (6) The remaining items were transferred to W.P.T.B. throughout the year merely by concurrent revocation of supplies orders or orders-in-council and imposition of new W.P.T.B. Administrators' orders for each product, e.g., May 15, 1944, W.P.T.B. issued A-1212 on cork arid cork products and W.I.C.B. revoked Order no. Supplies 2-A.
5 Prior to P.C. 4362, May 28, 1943, wood fuel orders were issued by the Coal Administrator of W.P.T.B. Later, P.C. 1752, Mar. 5,1943, established the office of Coal Controller, revoking appointment and powers of W.P.T.B. Coal Administrator. Orders of the Coal Administrator which dealt exclusively with prices were not transferred to the coal control, but were left under the jurisdiction of the W.P.T.B. Coal Administrator.
6 The principal activities of these companies are outlined in the Auditor-General's Report, 1941-2; Public Accounts, 1943-5. King's Printer.
* Most of the Dept. of Munitions and Supply crown companies were production companies but those marked with an asterisk had control functions as well.
7 The various basic items under import control are listed alphabetically in W. M. 56 revisions and supplements.
8 War-time taxation and other fiscal measures, enacted through the normal legislative procedures, are not listed here. For a review of this legislation see annual budget speeches of the Minister of Finance in Hansard, as follows: Sept. 12, 1939 (special session); June 24, 1940; Dec. 2, 1940; Apr. 29, 1941; June 23, 1942; Mar. 2, 1943; June 26, 1944; Oct. 12, 1945; June 27, 1946.
9 Subsequently similar orders-in-council permitting the leasing of buildings for conversion into multiple housing units were passed covering other cities and towns across Canada.