RCAF Station Winisk

Royal Canadian Air Force Station Winisk (RCAF Station Winisk) was a military installation located in Winisk, Ontario.[1]

RCAF Station Winisk
Mid-Canada Line Sector Control Station 500
Part of Mid-Canada Line
Winisk, Ontario, Canada
RCAF Station Winisk
Coordinates55.2442°N 85.1117°W / 55.2442; -85.1117
Site information
Controlled by Royal Canadian Air Force
Site history
Built1957
Built by Royal Canadian Air Force
In use1957 - April 1965

RCAF Winisk was one of eight Sector Control Stations on the Mid-Canada Line system of radar stations.[2] Each SCS received signals from a series of unmanned detection sites located approximately 50 km apart. In Winisk, radio wave signals were transmitted along the chain of stations to the SCS, then to MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis via tropospheric scatter system and finally to RCAF Station North Bay by land line. As there is no road or rail access to Winisk, an airstrip was also built to serve the base (and still exists on the site).

Opened in 1957, and fully operational in 1958,[3] RCAF Station Winisk was in operation for just eight years. The eastern portion of the Mid-Canada Line was shut down in 1965 and the Winisk base was closed. Buildings and roads on the site remain.

Environmental legacy

As of 2006, environmental issues remain at the abandoned station. Local First Nations and Timmins—James Bay Member of Parliament Charlie Angus have urged the federal government to clean up the site, which they say is contaminated with asbestos, PCBs and other toxins. In 2006, Angus stated that there are over 50,000 barrels of toxic material and that PCB levels in the soil are 16,000 times acceptable levels.[4]

References
  1. Ozorak, Paul (1991). Abandoned Military Installations of Canada: Volume I: Ontario. ISBN 0-9695127-1-6.
  2. "MID CANADA LINE SECTOR CONTROL STATION 500 Winisk ON".
  3. The NBC Group (1997). "Mid-Canada Line". A History of the Air Defence of Canada 1948-1997. ISBN 0-9681973-0-2.
  4. Hammond, Michael (2006-08-26). "Military needs to clean up toxic bases in northern Ontario, says MP". Canadian Press.
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