The Wartime Prices and Trade Board is a former
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
agency, established on September 3, 1939, by the
Mackenzie King government, under the authority of the ''
War Measures Act
The ''War Measures Act'' (; 5 George V, Chap. 2) was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could thereby be taken. The Act was brough ...
'', in the
Department of Labour responsible for
price controls
Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of go ...
and
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...
control.
Creation
The Board was established to avoid problems which happened during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. A chairman,
Donald Gordon, was appointed in November 1941 and became a highly public figure at the time. He headed the agency, until April 1947. It was organized into 13 regional offices, 100 local offices. This allowed inflation to rise by only 2.8% between 1941 and 1945, after rising by 17.8% in the previous two years -- the most successful reduction amongst all nations during the war. On August 13, 1941, the Board moved from the Labour Department to the
Department of Finance, according to Finance Minister
James Ilsley, so that "Finance would be held responsible for inflation".
The scope of the Board's mandate was very broad, covering:
:* the investigation of costs, prices and profits,
:* the licensing of persons who dealt in any way with the necessities of life,
:* the fixing of maximum prices and markups,
:* regulation of the sale and distribution of the necessities of life,
:* the buying and selling of goods, and taking into possession any stocks that were being withheld,
:* recommending embargos on exports, and later on including import and export controls,
:* the regulation of rentals and housing, and
:* wage controls
In 1942, the Board was charged with reducing non-essential industrial activity to minimum requirements, in order to help concentrate employment in more essential sectors.
The board employed over 6,000 people (of which many of the public service administrators worked for only
$1 a day), plus 16,000 women volunteers who were on Women's Regional Advisory Committees responsible for rationing, labeling, clothing conservation, housing shortages, and price checking. This latter initiative inspired the postwar creation of the
Consumers' Association of Canada
The Consumers' Association of Canada, founded in 1947, is a Canadian independent, volunteer-based, consumer organization. Based nationally in Ottawa with regional branches in Montreal, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Vancouver, the organization focuses ...
Extent of regulation
The Board's regulatory actions were compiled in a series of volumes during the wartime period:
Impact
Though initially the popularity of the Board was high, gradually, it lost some popularity. Violations of regulations amounted to $1,780,000 in total fines and 253 incarcerations.
The board was abolished in 1951, upon the lapse of the ''Continuation of Transitional Measures Act, 1947''.
References
Further reading
;Board reports
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;Archival materials
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;Analysis
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1939 establishments in Canada
1951 disestablishments in Canada
Former Canadian federal departments and agencies
Government agencies established in 1939
Organizations disestablished in 1951
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