The Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was a
Government of Canada
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
Crown corporation. It ceased operation on December 31, 2009, after being amalgamated with
Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC).
DEVCO was organized primarily into two divisions: a
community economic development organization, and the coal division.
From March 30, 1968, until November 23, 2001, DEVCO's coal division operated Canada's largest underground
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
s, located in eastern
Cape Breton County
Cape Breton County is one of eighteen counties in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located on Cape Breton Island.
From 1879 to 1995, the area of the county excluded from towns and cities was incorporated as the Municipality of th ...
,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
. Following decommissioning of its mines, DEVCO sold all non-mining surface assets to the private sector on December 18, 2001, including the
Devco Railway
The Devco Railway was a Canadian railway. Devco Railway operated as an unincorporated department within the Coal Division of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, also known as DEVCO; as such there is no formally incorporated entity named " ...
and is now remediating its mine sites.
Creation of DEVCO
In 1965, the
Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (also DOSCO) was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company.
Incorporated in 1928 and operational by 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), which was a merger o ...
, or DOSCO (then a subsidiary of the
Hawker Siddeley Group) announced that its mines had only 15 years of production left and concluded that the expense 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.
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.
::''"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. On March 30, 1968, DEVCO
expropriated
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
DOSCO's coal mines and the
Sydney and Louisburg Railway, settling for a payment of $12 million. At the same time, the Government of Nova Scotia took over the operation of DOSCO's integrated
steel mill in Sydney, renaming the operation
Sydney Steel Corporation
Sydney Steel Corporation (SYSCO) was a Crown corporation in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It owned and operated a steel mill in Sydney.
Early history of steelmaking in Sydney
An integrated steel mill was established on the southeast side ...
, or SYSCO.
Early operation, planning for retraction
DEVCO had several operating divisions, including its Coal Division, as well as economic development divisions, intended to help the
Industrial Cape Breton
Industrial Cape Breton is a geographic region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It refers to the eastern portion of Cape Breton County fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the southeastern part of Cape Breton Island.
Geography
The area comprisi ...
area diversify its economy from an over-reliance on the coal and steel industries.
Initially, DEVCO focused on operating the coal mines throughout the Sydney Coal Field that it had inherited from DOSCO, while attempting to invest in other initiatives such as establishing a post-secondary education institution in the area (what would become the University College of Cape Breton, now
Cape Breton University), tourism developments, industrial parks for non-coal/steel related manufacturing industries, and investing in small area businesses and community infrastructure projects to help unemployed coal miners and steel workers who had been laid off during the 1960s drawdown in production.
One of DEVCO's first tourism-related developments in the early 1970s was the Cape Breton Steam Railway, a joint project with the Sydney and Louisburg Railway Historical Society, which saw unused
Devco Railway
The Devco Railway was a Canadian railway. Devco Railway operated as an unincorporated department within the Coal Division of the Cape Breton Development Corporation, also known as DEVCO; as such there is no formally incorporated entity named " ...
tracks between
Glace Bay
Glace Bay (Scottish Gaelic: ''Glasbaidh'') is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton.
Formerly an incorporated ...
and Port Morien used for operating a tourist railway, with coal-powered steam locomotives. The project ran until it proved to be uneconomic to operate by the late 1970s.
Overall, until 1973, DEVCO was more-or-less focused on continuing the operation of its former-DOSCO mines and railway, while providing new economic growth for the region.
Expansion of coal mining
The October 1973
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
and the ensuing
1973 oil crisis led the federal government of Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau to re-examine all Canadian energy production, including the nationalization of
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
oil, as well as an expansion of DEVCO coal production, reversing the recommendation of the 1966 Donald Commission to phase out coal production and diversify the economy of Industrial Cape Breton. The Trudeau government sought to use its ownership of DEVCO to reverse Nova Scotia's reliance on the importation of foreign oil for generating
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...
; approximately 70% of the province's electricity was generated by foreign oil by the late 1970s.
New mines were built and opened near
New Waterford (Phalen and Lingan collieries) and at the northeastern tip of
Boularderie Island Boularderie Island (pronounced "bull-awn-dree") is an island separating the Cabot Strait from Bras d'Or Lake on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It takes its name from Louis-Simon le Poupet de la Boularderie, who was g ...
(Prince colliery) between 1972-1975. Devco Railway built a spur to serve the adjacent Phalen and Lingan mines, extending the line to serve
Nova Scotia Power Incorporated
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a vertically integrated electric utility in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). Nova Scotia Power Inc pro ...
's
Lingan Generating Station
The Lingan Generating Station is a 620 MW Canadian coal-fired electrical generating station located in the community of Lingan in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Lingan is operated by Nova Scotia Power Inc. and is their largest ...
which opened November 1, 1979.
During the early 1980s, the Devco Railway retired its diesels locomotives inherited from the
Sydney and Louisburg Railway, which had purchased them second-hand during the early 1960s, and purchased a fleet of new diesel locomotives and coal hoppers, as well as building new locomotive shops at Victoria Junction, between Sydney and Glace Bay, and shut down the Glace Bay roundhouse and machine shops. It also built the tunnels and some surface support infrastructure for a new mine at
Donkin in the early 1980s, however, this mine never went into production and the surface and sub-surface assets were mothballed.
DEVCO also shut down a coal wash plant at
Sydney Mines and built a large coal preparation/mixing and wash plant at
Victoria Junction in its place. DEVCO continued to open the new mines at Phalen, Lingan and Prince while shutting older DOSCO-era mines in Glace Bay and New Waterford; particularly after a fatal explosion on February 24, 1979, at the antiquated No. 26 Colliery which killed 12 miners.
Finally, DEVCO, built a new international shipping pier facility on Sydney Harbour near
Whitney Pier
Whitney Pier (2016 population: 4,612) is an urban neighbourhood in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. Prior to the 20th century, this area was known as “Eastmount” or “South Sydney Harbour,” and had long been a fishing and farming district. It i ...
, replacing the antiquated export piers inherited from DOSCO. With federal government financing, DEVCO was in expansion mode and with the high international prices for coal, sought to produce more Cape Breton coal for export than ever before.
Production problems and mine closures
By the late 1980s, production problems at DEVCO saw the last of the older mines inherited from DOSCO shut down, with production concentrated at Lingan, Phalen and Prince; the latter not receiving any rail service. The Point Aconi Generating Station was built by Nova Scotia Power Incorporated to receive coal from the Prince colliery directly by conveyor belt, however the Lingan and Phalen mines still hauled coal to the Victoria Junction preparation plant and then to the Lingan Generating Station.
The SYSCO steel mill stopped using DEVCO coal to produce
coke as a fuel for its blast furnaces in the mid-1980s. By the late 1980s, SYSCO had modernized by changing to an electric-arc process, smelting recycled metal.
Problems with flooding and roof-falls at the Lingan mine saw production cease in 1992, just months short of the colliery's 20-year design limit. The Phalen mine continued to be the only source of online traffic for the Devco Railway, however subsequent flooding and roof-falls at Phalen caused ever increasing production costs at a time of fiscal restraint by the federal government.
In mid-2008 DEVCO sponsored the new ''Industrial Research Chair in Mine Water Remediation & Management'' at
Cape Breton University in order to assist in the
mine closure
Mine closure is the period of time when the ore-extracting activities of a mine have ceased, and final decommissioning and mine reclamation are being completed. It is generally associated with reduced employment levels, which can have a significan ...
and to research in new environmentally friendly after uses of the mining legacy.
Layoffs and selling of assets
Faced with rising
subsidies
A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...
for DEVCO, the federal government announced it was getting out of the coal industry in January 1999 by mining out the rest of Phalen by the end of the year and attempting to sell the Prince colliery.
In September 1999, Phalen colliery closed for good, with 400 employees laid off and the only on-line traffic source for the Devco Railway severed. The Prince colliery continued with production, however coal was trucked from the mine to the Victoria Junction preparation plant, from which it was then taken by rail to the Lingan Generating Station. Devco Railway also began to be used for importing some coal from locations in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
, with the international shipping piers beginning to be used in the reverse of their intended design.
On November 23, 2001, Prince colliery closed for good, after the federal government failed to entice any private sector investors to purchase the mine. DEVCO was out of the coal mining business, however for a period of approximately 1 month, it was in the coal importation business. The federal government moved swiftly to sell off assets, transferring the mine properties and mineral rights back to the provincial Department of Natural Resources. DEVCO subsequently decommissioned the Victoria Junction coal wash plant and began to immediately prepare remediation of the mine sites.
On December 18, 2001 DEVCO sold all surface assets, including the international shipping piers, railway track, railway rights-of-way, locomotives and rolling stock, and a coal storage facility and locomotive shops at Victoria Junction to 510845 New Brunswick Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Emera Inc., the holding company which owns
Nova Scotia Power Incorporated
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a vertically integrated electric utility in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). Nova Scotia Power Inc pro ...
(Nova Scotia Power Corporation having been privatized in 1992).
Emera subsequently contracted the operation of its newly acquired DEVCO surface assets to
Logistec Corporation. Logistec sub-contracted operation of the railway to the
Société des chemins de fer du Québec, a Quebec-based railway holding company and short-line operating company. The new railway was called
Sydney Coal Railway
The Sydney Coal Railway is a Canadian Short-line railroad, short-line railway operating in the eastern part of Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia.
SCR operates from the international coaling piers on Sydney Harbour ...
, although ownership of the track and other assets remains with Emera's subsidiary, 510845 New Brunswick Inc. Logistec operates the international piers, which handles coal imports from the United States and South America, while Sydney Coal Railway hauls the coal to the storage facility at Victoria Junction before transporting it to NSP's Lingan Generating Station.
Cessation of DEVCO
On December 31, 2009, DEVCO was amalgamated with
Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC).
References
{{Authority control
Companies based in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality
Former Crown corporations of Canada
Coal companies of Canada
Energy companies established in 1967
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1967
Companies disestablished in 2009
1967 establishments in Nova Scotia
2009 disestablishments in Nova Scotia