Responsibility for shelter planning was given to the minister of Public Works effective April 1, 1974Ĥ. The additional wartime responsibilities of Ministers were described in the 1980 policy decision, and were subsequently confirmed in the 1981 Emergency Planning Order. This decision continued to be in effect until the early 90s when because of the end of the cold war and various cut backs the program was quietly discontinued. A Cabinet decision of October 3,1980 required that “…the Canadian civil structure be in a position to mitigate the effects of a foreign attack on the Canadian population, essential industries and services”. The shelter is equipped with five bunk beds, lanterns, canned food, water, and a radiation detector.ģ. The interior of an H-bomb steel shelter is shown at an unknown location. It also provided for further development of shelter space in new construction and in existing available buildings, and for the continuation of the existing modest design program concerning blast protection. In the fall of 1964 the Cabinet Committee on Emergency Plans approved a public shelter policy and the development of a program to implement it as well as authorizing a national survey of fallout protection.

This statement, which outlines the federal government’s principals for civil defence planning included (1) the need to provide for some means of protection against radioactive fallout (2) voluntary dispersal from major cities of persons not required for essential tasks (3) preparations for the reception and care of evacuees in smaller communities and rural areas (4) arrangements for removing persons from areas heavily contaminated by fallout.Ģ. First official mention of the Public Shelter Program occurred in Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s November 1959 statement in the House of Commons concerning the federal government’s policy on the need for evacuation of people from possible target areas and for shelter for those threatened by radioactive fallout.

Fallout shelters plans