National Resources Mobilization Act

National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940
An Act to confer certain powers on the Governor in Council for the mobilization of resources in the present war
Citation	4 George VI, Chap. 13
Enacted by	Parliament of Canada
Date assented to	June 21, 1940[1]

The National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940, 4 George VI, Chap. 13, was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that was passed to provide for better planning of a much greater Canadian war effort, both overseas and in military production at home.

Scope

Modelled on the British Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940, it gave the Canadian government the power to

do and authorize such acts and things, and make from time to time such orders and regulations, requiring persons to place themselves, their services and their property at the disposal of His Majesty in right of Canada, as may be deemed necessary or expedient for securing the public safety, the defence of Canada, the maintenance of public order, or the efficient prosecution of the war, or for maintaining supplies or services essential to the life of the community.^[2]

This was the basis of all organization for Canada's war production.

Preparation for military readiness

In order to prepare the population for military service, provision was made under the Act for:

• compulsory national registration^[3][4]
• restricting men eligible for military service from obtaining civilian employment in positions considered not to be essential to the war effort, so that women, and men who had been discharged from service or who were ineligible for service, could be hired instead^[5]
• requiring men to submit to medical treatment in order to be called up for military service^[6]
• conscription^[7]

Employment control

The Act was also used to ensure greater efficiency that was required in a wartime economy by:

• requiring employers to report who their employees were^[8]
• barring agricultural workers, after March 23, 1942, from obtaining non-agricultural employment (other than in primary industry, active service or military training) without permission^[9]
• from June 17, 1942, requiring any worker to obtain a permit before he or she could start working for an employer, and such permission could be refused^[10]
• from September 1, 1942, instituting a national system of employment control under the National Selective Service Regulations, 1942, so that no-one could seek a new job without possessing a permit to do so, no employer could advertise for workers without permission, no-one was allowed to be out of work for more than seven days, and anyone could be required to apply for any available full-time suitable work of high or very high labour priority and to accept any such work offered to him.^[11][12] In conjunction with these measures, the Wartime Prices and Trade Board restricted non-essential industrial activity to the minimum needed for civilian requirements^[13] (although tensions existed between the Board and the National Selective Service).^[14]
• issuing Compulsory Employment Transfer Orders, compelling certain classes of men to engage in essential employment, and requiring their current employers to release them for that purpose, during several stages in 1943:

• From September 1, 1943, employers in high-priority industries were prohibited from releasing any of their employees, and such employees were barred from giving notice of separation, without the written permission of a National Selective Service officer,^[24] and such controls continued until September 17, 1945.^[25]

Nature of conscription

The Act permitted conscripts (known as "R men"^[26] or "zombies"^[27]) to be used for home defence only and not to be deployed overseas. This was modified in August 1942 to permit the government to send conscripts overseas, after a plebiscite was held on the matter in April 1942. Such an order, authorizing the transfer of 16,000 conscriptees to England, was not made until November 1944.^[28] This precipitated the Conscription Crisis of 1944, and resulted in several Quebec Liberal MPs leaving the party in protest.

The first overseas campaign that NRMA recruits were involved in was the recapture of the island of Kiska in August 1943.^[29] 9,667 NRMA recruits were sent to England, of which two-thirds only arrived after V-E Day.^[28]

References

Further reading

• "Historical Summary of the National Selective Service Civilian Regulations". Labour Gazette XLV (5): 628–633. May 1945. 
• Daniel Byers (1996). "Mobilizing Canada: The National Resources Mobilization Act, the Department of National Defence, and Compulsory Military Service in Canada, 1940-1945" (PDF). Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 7 (1): 175–203. doi:10.7202/031107ar. ISSN 0847-4478. 
• Michael D. Stevenson (2000). "Conscripting Coal: The Regulation of the Coal Labour Force in Nova Scotia during the Second World War". Acadiensis (University of New Brunswick) XXIX (2): 58–88. ISSN 0044-5851. Retrieved July 18, 2013. 
• Michael D. Stevenson (2001). Canada's Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources during World War II. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2263-8. Retrieved 18 July 2013. 

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article: National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940

• Text of the Act
• The Canadian Encyclopedia