The National Harbours Board was an agency of the

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-i ...

, reporting to Parliament through the

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

. It was in operation from 1936 to 1983.

History

The idea of a system of national ports was mooted as early as 1905, when it was first recommended in a report by the Royal Commission of Transportation. Although not acted upon at the time, the idea gained more acceptability over time, and the later National Ports Survey by

Sir Alexander Gibb ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

in 1932 laid the groundwork for its eventual establishment. The Board was established in 1936, The public harbours at Halifax, Saint John, Chicoutimi, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Montreal and Vancouver, previously constituted as separate bodies corporate, were dissolved and their property vested in the Board, and provision was made for the possibility of other "harbours and works and other property of the Dominion of Canada" to be transferred to the Board at a later date. In 1983 it was replaced by the

Canada Ports Corporation The Canada Ports Corporation (also known as Ports Canada) was a port corporation which operated across Canada. An Act of Parliament, which had been promoted by Jean-Luc Pépin, founded it on 24 February 1983, and it was marked as a responsibility of ...

. This devolved much of the National Harbour Board's former functions to local

port authorities In Canada and the United States, a port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority_for_a_special-purpose_district.html" ;"title="110. - 6910./ref> is a type of Nonprofit organization">nonprof ...

maintaining responsibility for ensuring that overall national transportation objectives are met, as well as overseeing the

Ports Canada Police The Canada Ports Corporation (also known as Ports Canada) was a port corporation which operated across Canada. An Act of Parliament, which had been promoted by Jean-Luc Pépin, founded it on 24 February 1983, and it was marked as a responsibility o ...

until that service was disbanded in 1997.

References

Transport Canada {{port-stub

History

See also

Further reading

References