Donald Commission
Hawker Siddeley sought to eliminate money losing operations and in 1965, DOSCO announced that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that the cost of opening new underground mines in the Sydney Coal Field would be too expensive. The company made its intentions clear that it would be exiting the coal mining business within months. DOSCO's continued operation of its steel mill, lacking modernization and far removed from the steel markets of the midwest and central Canada, was tentative at best.
In response to a vast public outcry in industrial Cape Breton County, the Minority government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced J.R. Donald would head a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Cape Breton coal industry, with hearings held in 1965 and 1966. The Donald Commission recommended that a federal Crown corporation be established to acquire and manage DOSCO's coal operations, with the aim being to slowly wean the Sydney area economy off the coal industry.
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- "Future planning should be based on the assumption that the Sydney mines will not operate beyond 1981."
On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.
Read more about this topic: Sydney Steel Corporation
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