Britain, Australia, and New Zealand reached an agreement with Canada on December 17, 1939 which called for Canada to provide facilities for administrative military personnel and also to provide for the training of air crews from across the British Commonwealth.
Hosting this enormous undertaking seemed to be a natural for Canada, a country with massive amounts of available lands far out of reach of the enemy forces. The agreement, announced officially by Prime Minister Mackenzie King on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, had Ottawa footing the lion’s share of the costs. Canada paid $1.6 billion of the total cost of $2.2 billion. In terms of 2007 money, it meant that every Canadian taxpayer contributed $3,000 to pay for the program.
The program, known as The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), established 360 schools at 231 training facilities across Canada’s nine provinces. (It wasn’t until March 31, 1949, Newfoundland officially became a Province of Canada.)
During the time of its operation, the BCATP employed 3,540 aircraft, 33,000 air force personnel, and 6,000 civilian employees.
It has been said that Canada’s involvement remains history’s largest single-most co
ntribution in aviation training. The BCATP was responsible for training an estimated half the personnel required for WW11.
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan base at Malton can be seen in the lower portion of this photo. The entrance to the base was at the intersection of Britannia Road and the 6th Line (Airport Road). The barracks are the ‘H’ shaped buildings while to the north are the hangers for the Toronto Flying Club. Opposite the runways is the new Toronto Airport. North of the Toronto airport, at the southern edge of the Village of Malton, is the Victory Aircraft plant where the Canadian Lancaster Bombers were built. Canadian Forces Photo, courtesy of the Workmen’s Compensation Board.