TT4-2-2003E.pdf - Office des transports du Canada

The first chairman of the Air TransportBoard was R.A.C. Henry, who had workedfor CNR and had been deputy minister ofRailways and Canals in 1929 to 1930. In1940, he had assisted in the developmentof the Department of Munitions andSupply. The two other members wereAir Vice Marshall Alan Ferrier of theRoyal Canadian Air Force, an aeronauticalengineer, and J.P.R. (Roméo) Vachon, apioneer in the Canadian aviation industrywith experience in both flying andaeronautical engineering.In future years, many of the membersappointed to the Air Transport Boardwere drawn from the civil service. Thispractice reinforced the already closerelationship between the Boardand government. 6The Air Transport Board was not requiredto submit its own annual reports, anotherindication of its lack of autonomy.However, it did issue one report for theperiod September 11,1944 to December 31,1946. That document was directed to theMinister of Reconstruction and Supply,a new position created for C.D. Howein late 1944.That Air Transport Board Annual Report,which was published in 1947, clearlyadvanced the government’s thinking:“In accordance with laid down policy,direct competition is not permitted onscheduled air routes. The reason is that,at the present stage in the developmentof air transportation in Canada, thevolume of traffic is such that there is notroom for competing services and it isconsidered uneconomical to try to dividethe small available business between twoor more carriers. While at some laterdate a policy of competition might bejustified, at the present time it would bedisastrous and is considered to be againstthe public interest.”As Minister of Reconstruction, Howehad a mandate to direct the post-warreorganization of industries andmanpower. He still held the portfolio forMunitions and Supply, and was on hisway to earning the sobriquet “Ministerof Everything.”Howe was also still in a position to directtransportation policy after the war. TheBoard of Transport Commissioners’Annual Report, covering the period of1945, stated: “During the year the Boardof Transport Commissioners was askedby the Department of Reconstructionto make a survey of possible railwaycrossing eliminations at certain prioritypoints throughout Canada, having inmind public convenience and necessity,together with possible post-waremployment.”A Bureau of Transportation Economicswas created in 1946 to provide economicand statistical studies for both the Boardof Transport Commissioners and the AirTransport Board.36Canadian Transportation Agency — 100 Years at the Heart of Transportation