CSE facilities: Rideau Annex

Part two of my “brief” tour of CSE’s facilities, past and present.
(Part one; part three.)

Rideau Annex (1950-1961)


CBNRC’s (CSE’s) second headquarters was in a former convent that had been used as a military hospital during the Second World War.

The building was built by the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa (the Grey Nuns) in 1915 and served as their novitiate until 1941, when it was converted for use as the Rideau Military Hospital. As the photograph shows, the building had four storeys plus a basement. (Kudos to author Mark Kristmanson for finding this photo.) Judging from that photo, and the 1958 air photo reproduced below, the gross size of the building was about 6000 square metres. (More precise information would be welcome.)



After the war the building was no longer needed as a hospital, and in October 1948 the Grey Nuns rented it to the NRC, which was looking for a new home for CBNRC.

In August 1949 the Department of Public Works let a contract to renovate the building to serve as the home of both the CBNRC and the NRC’s Division of Radio and Electrical Engineering (REED). At the time, REED had about 250 employees and CBNRC was growing towards its approved establishment of 227. The two organizations were thus expected to have a total of about 475 employees, which is about the number of people a building of that size would have been expected to accommodate at that time.

Among other modifications made to the building in preparation for CBNRC's arrival was the installation of an incinerator for the destruction of classified waste, eliminating the need to truck waste to the NRC’s Montreal Road site for secure destruction.

CBNRC’s Comcentre was moved to the new site, now called the Rideau Annex, in December 1949. The rest of CBNRC moved to the site in January 1950.

The Cold War intervenes

It is not clear whether REED ever took up residence in the building. If it did, however, it was quickly pushed out.

By 1950 the Cold War was rapidly heating up. The Soviets had tested their first atomic weapon, based on a stolen U.S. design, in August 1949, and in June 1950 the communist regime of North Korea invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. The post-war demobilization of Canada's armed forces was rapidly reversed and military spending skyrocketed.

Intelligence-gathering was also stepped up dramatically. In November 1950, CBNRC’s establishment was increased to 393. Four months later, in March 1951, it was increased to 449, twice the size it was when CBNRC moved into the Rideau Annex and enough to require the entire building.

At the time CBNRC moved to the site, the Rideau Annex was surrounded mainly by farmland. Located east of the Rideau River near Hurdman Bridge on Alta Vista Drive (which was then Churchill Drive in Gloucester), it was nicknamed “the Farm” by those in the know.

According to Mark Kristmanson, "the building's location in a sequestered field overlooking the embassy district of Sandy Hill made it an ideal site for Colonel Drake's Communications Branch." Despite its rural setting, "the Farm" was not far from downtown Ottawa: "The spire of Parliament was clearly visible, rising above the embassy district across the river." (Mark Kristmanson, Plateaus of Freedom: Nationality, Culture and State Security in Canada, 1940-1960, University of Toronto Press, 2003, pp. 108-109.)

Kristmanson also reported an interesting bit of detail about operations within the building: "The Branch's administrative sections occupied the Nunnery's lower levels, preparing briefs to be transported twice daily by armed courier across the bridge and downtown to the Privy Council Office in the East Block of the Parliament."

The building was vacated by CBNRC in 1961 and demolished sometime during the 1960s, so it is not possible to visit the building today. However, this 1953 air photo shows the location of the Rideau Annex (circled in red). The spot is now occupied by the Alta Vista Towers apartment buildings.



This website confirms that the Alta Vista Towers were built on the site of the former Grey Nuns convent. Here is the spot today.

No Room for Canadians

CBNRC’s years in the Rideau Annex were a time of rapid growth and transition for the agency. CBNRC Director Ed Drake was a Canadian, but much of the upper echelon of the organization had been and was still being recruited from Britain at that time, and by early 1950 resentment began to boil over within CBNRC over the lack of opportunities for Canadian staff. As the History of CBNRC tells it, "The word went round among the CB staff that NRC had come to mean ‘No Room for Canadians’" (Chapter 27, pp. 28-29).

The appointment of former MI6 officer Peter Dwyer as Head of Reporting, replacing Steve Diditch, the Canadian who had been serving as acting head, was one of the catalysts of the controversy. Dwyer moved to the Privy Council Office two years later, and eventually became Director of the Canada Council. Diditch was formally confirmed as Head of Reporting in 1953.

Recruits from Britain continued to play leading roles in the agency for several decades to come—Kevin O’Neill, recruited from Bletchley Park in 1946, served as Drake’s second-in-command from the departure of GCHQ official Geoffrey Evans in 1949 until Drake’s death in 1971; he then served as Director CBNRC (and first Chief of CSE) until his retirement in 1980. By the mid- to late 1950s, however, the dominance of British recruiting was over and the controversy had died down.

The Rideau Annex was an improvement over the facilities CBNRC had occupied in the La Salle Academy. But it was far from ideal by today’s standards, with no air conditioning, primitive electrical infrastructure, and only one cantankerous freight elevator.

Writing many years later in CSE's in-house newsletter, Harold Stewart called the building “drafty and cold in the winter, hot and humid in the summer," and "ramshackle", with a cafeteria that "consisted of two rooms adjacent to each other in the basement" that had formerly been used as the hospital morgue (Tillian, May 1979, p. 31). The lack of air conditioning led to work cancellations on the hottest days:

A hundred people, more or less, worked in one big room on the second floor. I say ‘worked’ because that’s what most of them claimed they were there for. In the summer when it was very hot one of the girls would fake a faint (so the story goes) and ‘due to the threat of heat prostration’ everyone would get the rest of the day off...

We used to play horseshoes at the rear of the building. It became quite a pastime at break and at noon hours. Even in the extreme heat we would play. But, I can recall some people becoming quite incensed on occasion and vocally took us to task for jeopardizing their chances of getting off due to the heat. If management saw a few of us enjoying ourselves in recreation with no apparent ill effects they would surely see no reason for sending employees home. (p. 32)

Stewart also contributed a story about the building elevator:

The old freight elevator, the only elevator in the building, was a rather hazardous vehicle and quite tempermental [sic]. We were not supposed to operate it without the assistance of "Marty", the official operator. One day I did. I made the mistake of overloading. "Never overload the elevator" I was told. Anyway, I did and just before closing the elevator door along comes Mr. Drake, the Director, and hops on with me....and the several too many boxes....minus "Marty", of course. Never get on the elevator "minus Marty!!" After a cheerful "good morning" the vehicle moved...one floor and a half...and STOPPED! Well, that left us, of course, between floors, immobile! Mr. Drake looked at me - I looked at him - and one of us said "I guess we're stuck!" I don't recall how long we were there, and I don't recall the conversation. But, for some reason Mr. Drake never forgot my name after that. Two days after this little incident a memo was circulated throughout the building advising one and all, once again, "not to overload the lift"...or words to that effect....reminding us, too, that "Marty so-and-so" still had a worthwhile contribution to make, running the elevator! (p. 32)

Others had equally amusing memories of life at the Farm:

Some of the entertainment was unscheduled, like the evacuation demonstration of the building on behalf of the Emergency Measures Organization (EMO), when the demonstration smoke bombs were found to be toxic and inextinguishable too late, as the entire building was filled with smoke that would not go away and the entire staff choked and gasped their way outside. Fortunately, there were no real casualties except for a few inhalers who felt they needed oxygen at a local hospital, and the hapless and luckless demonstration casualty who had been strapped to a stretcher preparatory to being lowered from the fifth floor by ropes, and couldn’t escape the toxic smoke. Next day it was business as usual, even if your clothes smelled funny for the next few days and fellow passengers in buses eyed you oddly. Then there was the day a sudden gust of wind hit the big room on the second floor and everybody’s work sheets and papers were blown about the room, with those tables beside the windows (the DPW still considering our request for window screens) scattering across the adjoining fields “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. The mad dashes about the fields that day must have looked to onlookers like something out of “The Rites of Spring”. (Tom Chadsey, Tillian, Spring 1980, p. 24.)

Other aspects of security, beyond the lack of window screens, were also rudimentary by today’s standards.

An RCMP guard was stationed at a desk in the main entrance to Rideau Annex, and checked the passes of entering staff members. There was also a chain-link fence surrounding the property, with a guard house intended to control entry to the premises. The gate and guardhouse were, however, not put into full operation until May 1952, at which time a Commissionaire was stationed at the gate and checked the passes of all who entered. There was only one gate in the ten-foot fence, which was topped with barbed-wire. (Curiously, the barbed-wire was slanted inwards, giving rise to comments that the fence was intended to keep the staff in, rather than to keep out intruders.) (History of CBNRC, Chapter 26, pp. 6-7.)

More importantly, the building lacked any kind of modern emission security features to prevent eavesdropping on inadvertent emissions from its cryptographic and other electronic equipment. The Western intelligence community had become acutely aware during the 1950s of how top-secret information could leak through cables, power lines, and even through the air, and it was busy both exploiting and attempting to defend itself against the phenomenon. The History of CBNRC records that “GCHQ showed great concern” about some redacted element of the Rideau Annex’s security (Chapter 26, p. 21). Almost certainly, its concern related to emission security.

Size also eventually became a problem. By 1956-57, CBNRC had grown to close to 470 staff, roughly the same as the combined CB and REED establishments (about 475) at the time the Rideau Annex was first occupied, suggesting that the building was probably close to full. And it was still growing. By the end of 1958, CBNRC's staff target had risen to 600 employees, a total that could not all be accommodated at the Rideau Annex.

When it was first occupied in 1950 there had been plenty of space in the building, but by the late 1950s that was no longer the case:

I remember when we moved in that we had to spread out our desks to make our large room on the third floor look occupied. In the 11 years that we spent at Rideau Annex (as that building became known), how much CB grew. The empty fourth floor, where we used to have pingpong tables was taken over, the back room on the first floor was put into use and the cafeteria in the basement expanded across the hall. Finally, some of the sections had to head for the Montreal Rd. Complex of NRC because the building became too small to hold us all. (Frank Cumming, Tillian, Spring 1980, p. 38.)

M36 (1956-1961)

To ease the crowding, T&D Section, later known as T Group, was moved to temporary accommodations in NRC’s M36 building at its Montreal Road campus. The move took place in November 1956, just as the brand new building was opening. The building is currently the home of NRC’s “Design and Fabrication Services”, and it is possible that it housed the same kind of activities when it opened. T&D Section’s work, which involved the production and distribution of COMSEC materiel, may have been considered in need of less rigorous secrecy than SIGINT work and certainly would have been more easily separated from the work at the main building than any section of the SIGINT program.

Moving again

By the late 1950s, it had become clear that the Rideau Annex was no longer a suitable location for CBNRC. Its age, its lack of emission security features, and, ultimately, its size led eventually to a decision to build a new headquarters specifically for CBNRC.

The contract for construction of the Sir Leonard Tilley building was let in February 1959, and in June 1961, fifty years ago this month, CBNRC moved out of the Rideau Annex and into its new home.

[This post was modified on 7 April 2013 and again on 10 September 2013 to update my estimates of the size of the Rideau Annex. Minor updates were also added on 7 March 2017.]

CSE facilities: La Salle Academy

Part one of a brief (well, it was supposed to be brief) tour of CSE’s facilities, past and present.
(Part two; part three.}

La Salle Academy (1946-1950)

The first headquarters of the Communications Security Establishment, or Communications Branch of the National Research Council (CBNRC) as it was then called, was in the La Salle Academy on Guigues Street (now Avenue) at Sussex Drive.

The site was first used for signals intelligence purposes in August 1943, when the third floor of one wing of the school was occupied by the Army, Air Force, and Navy Discrimination Units. The building also soon hosted a Joint Machine Unit, which operated Canada’s first code-breaking machines, the forerunners of CSE’s massive computer arrays of today. On August 1st, 1945, the Army and RCAF Discrimination Units, the Joint Machine Unit, the Japanese processing elements of the Examination Unit, and a communications and cipher office were amalgamated as the Joint Discrimination Unit (JDU).

The JDU was renamed the Communications Research Centre in July 1946. Still housed in the La Salle Academy, the CRC formed the core of the CBNRC on the latter’s creation in September 1946. At its moment of birth, CBNRC had a staff of 62, most of whom had simply transferred from the CRC, many becoming civilians in the process. CBNRC had an approved establishment of 179, probably slightly higher than the peak number of personnel at the site during the war, but post-war recruitment was slow, and staff numbers reached that level only around the time the agency moved to its next location, in January 1950.

The present-day building consists of multiple, joined structures. The structure on Sussex Avenue (on the left in the photo above) was built in 1852 as the College of Bytown, which eventually became the University of Ottawa. This building subsequently went through several uses before becoming, in 1899, the La Salle Academy, a Roman Catholic school for boys. The long wing along Guigues Street (on the right in the photo; see also below) was built in 1934 as classroom space for the Academy. Later additions were made in the 1960s and afterwards, and the entire building is now heritage designated. Since the 1970s it has hosted a variety of government offices.

As far as I can tell, CBNRC and its predecessors occupied only the 3rd floor of the 1934 structure during most of their tenure in the building (image from Google Street View). The 1934 structure is now connected on several floors to the original 1852 building, but at the time it was a free-standing building, and I am not aware of any evidence that CBNRC ever occupied any space in the 1852 structure. By 1949 or earlier, the agency expanded to occupy two classrooms on the 2nd floor of the 1934 building. However, it was forced to relinquish that space in September 1949, a few months before it left the La Salle Academy entirely.

It appears therefore that CBNRC had only about 1250 square metres of space to house its staff (or about 1430 after the expansion to the second floor). By today's standards, that would provide enough space for about 50-60 people, perhaps 70 given that the furnace room and other utilities were located outside CBNRC's spaces; it seems clear that even by the standards of the time the agency must have been facing considerable crowding by the time it moved out of the Academy.

In addition to space issues, CBNRC also had a problem with disposing of classified waste at the site.

After a short period during which the waste was burned in the East Block of the Parliament Buildings [which housed the Department of External Affairs and other elements of the civil service at the time], and later in the E.B. Eddy Paper Mill in Hull, secure arrangements were made to use a large incinerator (the "Boiler Room") at NRC's Montreal Road Laboratories. (Kevin O'Neill (ed.), History of CBNRC, 1987, Chapter 26, p. 5.)

It is likely that the government never intended the La Salle Academy to be the CBNRC’s permanent post-war home. Incredible though it may seem given today’s approach to security, Canada’s then ultra-secret signals intelligence agency was not alone in the La Salle Academy. As the History of CBNRC attests (Chapter 26, p. 6), the Catholic boys’ school continued to operate in the building during the entire time CBNRC and its predecessors were there. Indeed, the reason CBNRC had to withdraw from the 2nd floor was that the school needed its classrooms back.

Weird or what?

Even more incredibly, from 1948 on, the building also hosted professional theatre productions, first by the Ottawa Stage Society and later by the Canadian Repertory Theatre:

The only theatre the society had been able to find was the auditorium of the La Salle Academy, a Roman Catholic boys’ school. At that time the space was not in use, and when the Stage Society rented it, it consisted of a bare stage, space in the basement, and none of the backstage facilities that most theatres of even modest size provide. (Diane Mew, Life Before Stratford: The Memoirs of Amelia Hall, Dundurn Press, 1989, p. 93.)

The first production staged at the La Salle Academy was While the Sun Shines, by Terrence Ratigan, which opened on May 10th, 1948:

Seats in the orchestra were a dollar and those in the balcony were fifty cents. Twenty-nine people turned up on opening night. Among those who had been invited but who did not attend was Viscount Alexander of Tunis, the governor general. Nine weeks and nine productions later, when the same play was repeated, the governor general and his wife were in the audience, along with two hundred members of the diplomatic corps. (p. 91.)

It seems unlikely that the Soviet embassy turned down a chance to attend.

CBNRC employees also took advantage of the theatre’s presence. Writing many years later in CSE’s in-house newsletter, Gwen Flahven, one of the employees from that time, recalled “watching rehearsals in the theatre below and meeting Christopher Plummer, William Hutt, Betty Leighton, William Shatner, and other actors and actresses” (Tillian, Spring 1980, p. 11).

[Update 13 December 2019: In this interview, Christopher Plummer talks about what it was like to work at the La Salle Academy.]

[Update 29 October 2016: The photo below, possibly dated 1938, shows what the building looked like around the time it was occupied by CBNRC and its predecessors.



The school auditorium occupied the first two floors at the far end of the building.]

The number of people on CBNRC's staff continued to grow throughout its time at the La Salle Academy. Late in 1947, the agency's establishment was increased from 179 to 227. CBNRC had not yet reached that number by the time it left the Academy in January 1950, however, and it is unlikely that it would have been able to accommodate them all if it had. As early as August 1948, CBNRC Director Ed Drake had called the President of the NRC, C.J. Mackenzie, to complain "about his cramped office space" (Mark Kristmanson, Plateaus of Freedom: Nationality, Culture and State Security in Canada, 1940-1960, University of Toronto Press, 2003, p. 108).

For space, security, and perhaps other reasons (the school may have wanted its 3rd floor back), it was clear that CBNRC could not remain permanently at La Salle Academy. In August 1949, the Department of Public Works let a contract for "extensive alterations and improvements" to the Rideau Military Hospital to accommodate both the Communications Branch and the Division of Radio and Electrical Engineering of the NRC, and by the beginning of the next year CBNRC had moved to its second headquarters site.

[This post was updated on 3 December 2011 and again on 7 February 2012 to incorporate more accurate estimates of the space occupied by CBNRC within the La Salle Academy. My thanks to Mark Weiler and to Brother Maurice Lapointe for information about the La Salle Academy's buildings during the 1940s.]

May 2011 CSE staff size

1906, a new record!

(If you click through on the link and get a different figure, it's probably because the Canada Public Service Agency has updated its website; they update the numbers once a month.)

CSE budget growth

Here's a chart of CSE's budget since 1995-96 (also shown is CSE's Personnel budget, which is of course included in the Total Budget line). All figures have been converted to 2011 dollars to account for the effects of inflation.

As the chart shows, CSE's budget was stagnant or even declining in the late 1990s. But then came The Day That Changed Everything: September 11th, 2001.

Since that day CSE's budget has skyrocketed.

CSE's 2011-12 budget is almost three times as large--in constant dollars--as it was in 2000-01. Its personnel budget is roughly two and a half times as large as it was then. Its actual number of staff has more than doubled, and is still growing.

The GWOT has truly been good to CSE. Other factors, notably the growth of the Internet and electronic communications in general, have also been in play. But there can be little doubt that it was Osama Bin Laden who turned on the money taps.

70 years of cryptanalysis

Today, June 9th, 2011, is the 70th anniversary of cryptanalysis in Canada.

Canada's first cryptanalytic agency, the Examination Unit, began operations on 9 June 1941. Shown above, the XU staff in mid-1942. Oliver Strachey, a British cryptanalyst seconded from GC&CS to replace Herbert Yardley as head of the XU, is seated in the third row from the front, second from left.

More information about the XU here:

This date in history: XU began operations

XU approved

Herbert O. Yardley

And a bit on the more recent (although now out of date) history of cryptanalysis in this country:

The fall and rise of cryptanalysis at CSE

CSE to leave DND?

Is CSE planning to leave the Department of National Defence?

That seems to be the subtext of this job posting for a "special advisor" to provide strategic advice to CSE's Chief Financial Officer AKA Director General Finance:

[CSE] has experienced a rapid infusion of funds and growth since 2001.Further changes might become necessary in order to support [the agency's] enhanced mandate, including possible changes to CSE's organizational status and/or reporting relationship within Government. The CFO for CSE has been mandated to consider and assess the implications on the financial management function, infrastructure and capacity of possible changes to CSE's organizational status, including the impact of CSE becoming a separate agency under the [Financial Administration Act].

REQUIREMENTS

The CFO of CSE requires a Special Advisor to:

A) Coordinate the development and implementation of plans for selected scenarios, including the identification of internal and external expert resources and/or partnerships with other departments required to support the project.

B) Provide strategic advice to the CFO (and to CSE's senior management, on an as and when required basis): the complex financial issues arising in the event of a change in CSE's organization status, the associated resource implications, resourcing options and implementation timelines; and options for partnering or interface arrangements with other federal government organizations to achieve a required state of readiness with due consideration to cost and affordability issues.

C) Lead a comprehensive gap analysis between the current financial responsibilities, accountabilities, capacity and infrastructure of CSE, and future requirements for the full range of governance models options available for CSE.

D) Act as an independent advisor to the CFO when advising Senior Management on the implications of the various options.

E) Advise the CFO on the development and implementation of strong financial management governance, policy, program, performance, and reporting and accountability frameworks to support implementation of a new status for CSE.

F) Conduct representational, advocacy and negotiation initiatives with senior officials of Central Agencies, DND, other federal departments, consultants and other external stakeholders and partners, on an as and when required basis.

In providing this advice, the consultant will take into account the current needs and requirements of CSE for robust and modern financial management governance and service delivery model, the ranges of options for possible changes to CSE status and/or reporting relationship within Government, resulting changes anticipated in financial responsibilities and infrastructure, costs and affordability, as well as the long term direction for CFO organizations within the federal government.

See also this ad.

Sounds like CSE is looking at becoming a free-standing agency like CSIS.

That would presumably simplify CSE's currently somewhat convoluted reporting relationships, but who would be the responsible minister? The Defence Minister, as it is now? DND has traditionally been CSE's main customer, but that may become less true as the Afghanistan mission winds down. Foreign Affairs? CSE is a foreign intelligence agency after all, and Foreign Affairs is both a major customer and the department that traditionally led the SIGINT policy-making process. Public Safety? The PS minister already handles both CSIS and the RCMP, among other agencies, but that ministry is probably too domestic-focused, despite CSE's increasing role in security intelligence.

And what is DND's view? Would this be an amicable separation?

Perhaps DND would be happy to see CSE go if it means they don't have to pay for CSE's new billion-dollar headquarters complex, which CSE somewhat bizarrely is now boasting will be "the largest repository of Top Secret information in Canada."

Trust bureaucrats to emphasize how many files they have.

Update 12 June 2011

From the Department of Barn Doors

Boy howdy, it only took about one day for all three of the job postings I linked to above to get pulled. This is the Internet, people. Once it's out there, it's out there. You think you're the only guys with data repositories?

The interesting bits from the first link are already posted above. For the record, here are the interesting bits of the other two posts:

Our government client Canadian [sic] Security Establishment is currently seeking a temporary Special Financial Advisor

Requirements
• Bilingual
• Secret Security Clearance

Duties
• Coordinate the development and implementation of plans for selected scenarios, including the identification of internal and external expert resources and/or partnerships with other departments required to support the project.
• Provide strategic advice to the CFO (and to CSE's senior management, on an as and when required basis): to the complex financial issues arising in the event of a change in CSE's organization status to the associated resource implications, resourcing options and implementation timelines; and to options for partnering or interface arrangements with other federal government organizations to achieve a required state of readiness with due consideration to cost and affordability issues.
• Lead a comprehensive gap analysis between the current financial responsibilities, accountabilities, capacity and infrastructure of CSE, and future requirements for the full range of governance models options available for CSE.
• Act as an independent advisor to the CFO when advising Senior Management on the implications of the various options.
• Advise the CFO on the development and implementation of strong financial management governance, policy, program, performance, and reporting and accountability frameworks to support implementation of a new status for CSE.
• Conduct representational, advocacy and negotiation initiatives with senior officials of Central Agencies, DND, other federal departments, consultants and other external stakeholders and partners, on an as and when required basis.
• In providing this advice, the consultant will take into account the current needs and requirements of CSE for robust and modern financial management governance and service delivery model, the ranges of options for possible changes to CSE status and/or reporting relationship within Government, resulting changes anticipated in financial responsibilities and infrastructure, costs and affordability, as well as the long term direction for CFO organizations within the federal government.
• Develop and present an implementation plan to the Technical Authority (T A) -a draft version of the implementation plan must be presented first.- upon receipt, CSE may supply comments for incorporation into a final version
• Analyze and document necessary actions required to implement the CFO model based on the gap analysis review. Develop position papers which will include arguments justifying proposed functions to be implemented.
• Monthly electronic progress reports to the Technical Authority (T A) outlining progress against the schedule and implementation plan. Problems or potential problems shall be highlighted.
• Presentations of the results to the T A and various CSE Committees such as Steering Committee (SC), ExCom, People Planning Resource Committee (PPRC), etc.
• An overall final report of all deliverables in Microsoft Power Point presentation and/or Word
document format in English only.
Have a current and valid professional accounting designation from a recognized association (CA, CMA or CGA).
• Be fluently bilingual at the Public Service (at minimum CCC Level), to be able to conduct interviews and make presentations in both official languages.
• Have held for a minimum of two years, in the last five years, a Chief Financial Officer/Senior Financial Officer position in the Government of Canada (GoC) at the EX-04level or above.
• Significant experience of ten (10) years (minimum) within the last fifteen (15) years, at the senior level in GoC (DG level or above) in the management of the finance function as defined by the Comptroller General of Canada in the CFO Model and the application of best practices in the areas of finance and contract management.
• At least one (1) year of senior level experience with the management of independent agencies, as well as with various governance and funding models in use in Canadian government agencies.
• At least one (1) year of experience in the Treasury Board Secretariat in the areas of Program Analysis and/or development, and in the areas of governance, common service policies and shared services.
• At least one (1) year of experience in structuring/modernizing financial management practices in federal government organizations.

and number two...

Current Opportunities - Career Description
Other - General Application - Ottawa, Ontario
...

If you are interested in employment with the CSEC but didn't see a position that fit your skill set, we encourage you submit your application into our general inventory for future consideration.

About CSEC

The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) relies on the expertise and knowledge of approximately 2000 employees to help the Government protect information of national interest through leading-edge information technology and to provide cyber security advice and services. CSEC is also mandated to collect foreign signals intelligence as per the Government of Canada's intelligence priorities. Federal security and law enforcement agencies, in the performance of their own lawful duties, also benefit form CSEC's capabilities.

CSEC is located in the Confederation Heights area of Ottawa, close to the Rideau Canal and Carleton University, and easily accessible by public transport (OC Transpo bus or O-train). In 2014, CSEC will be moving to a new, state-of-the-art, high security facility, in the Gloucester area of Ottawa. It will be the largest repository of Top Secret information in Canada.

Update 17 June 2011

The "largest repository" line is also used here.