Royal Canadian Mint
The Royal Canadian Mint is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under an act of parliament referred to as the Royal Canadian Mint Act. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada.
The mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufactures circulation coins on behalf of other nations. The mint also designs and manufactures precious and base metal collector coins; gold, silver, palladium, and platinum bullion coins; medals, as well as medallions and tokens. It further offers gold and silver refinery and assay services.
The mint serves the public's interest but is also mandated to operate "in anticipation of profit". Like private-sector companies, the mint has a board of directors consisting of a chair, the president and CEO of the mint, and eight other directors.
History
For the first fifty years of Canadian coinage, the coins were struck at the Royal Mint in London, though some were struck at the private Heaton Mint in Birmingham, England. As Canada emerged as a nation in its own right, its need for coinage increased. In 1890, building a branch of the Royal Mint in Ottawa was proposed and was eventually authorized in 1901.The Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint was officially opened on January 2, 1908. During a short ceremony, Lord Grey and his wife, Lady Grey, activated the presses. The first coin struck was a 50-cent coin. When the facility first opened, it had 61 employees. Three years later, the mint began refining gold by electrolysis in its assay department. This method proved to be too time-consuming, and, in 1915, the mint introduced a new chlorination process developed in Australia to reduce processing times and increase the mint's gold refining capacity.
In 1931, Canada became an independent dominion of the British Empire and the assets of the mint were transferred to the Canadian government. In December 1931, the mint was established as the Royal Canadian Mint and as a branch of the Department of Finance via an act of Parliament.
In 1960, Master of the Mint Norval Alexander Parker proposed a new facility to expand minting capacity. At this time, the Ottawa mint had reached capacity, while a large number of Canadian 10¢ coins were produced in the Philadelphia Mint in the United States and all numismatic coins were produced in Hull, Quebec. A 1968 study also showed that the Ottawa Mint facility was antiquated. Funds were allocated for a new facility, but no space within Ottawa was found.
In April 1969, the Royal Canadian Mint was reorganized as a Crown corporation via the Royal Canadian Mint Act for the purpose of minting coins and associated activities. As a Crown corporation, the mint was no longer a branch of the Department of Finance but operated autonomously with its own board of directors and increased decision-making powers.
Then, in February 1970, Supply and Services Minister James Richardson proposed building the mint's new facility in Winnipeg. This was controversial because the minister was himself from Winnipeg, and the facility would be more than from the Ottawa facility. A study showed that the proposal had merit because raw materials could be purchased from a supplier in Alberta, rather than a competitor outside of Canada. Eventually, it was agreed in December 1971 that the mint would build a facility in Winnipeg. In 1972, the land was purchased and construction began, and by 1976 the facility was officially opened.
In March 2012, the Canadian government decided to cease the production of pennies. The final penny was minted at the RCM's Winnipeg plant on the morning of May 4, 2012.
In April 2012, the mint announced it was developing MintChip, a digital currency to allow anonymous transactions backed by the Government of Canada and denominated in a variety of currencies. On January 12, 2016, MintChip was sold to Toronto-based nanoPay.
In 2021, reports of racism and sexual harassment at the mint surfaced. A subsequent external report described the workplace culture as "toxic".
Operations and institution
Traditionally, the president of the Royal Canadian Mint is known as the master of the mint. Since 2018, Marie Lemay has held that position. The board of directors, through the chair, is accountable to the minister of finance. The minister serves as the link between the mint, Cabinet and Parliament.The mint was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. from 2007 to 2010.
Organizational structure
The Royal Canadian Mint is a Crown corporation and operates under the Royal Canadian Mint Act. In serving the public's interest, a Crown corporation has greater managerial independence than other government entities, meaning it may operate in a commercial manner. Like private sector companies, the mint has a board of directors composed of a chairman, the president and CEO of the mint and eight other directors.Traditionally, the president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint is known as the master of the mint. The president is Marie Lemay, and the chairman of the board is Phyllis Clark. In descending chronological order, the people who have been the mint's master engraver are: Cosme Saffioti, Sheldon Beveridge, Ago Aarand, Walter Ott, Patrick Brindley, Myron Cook, and Thomas Shingles.
The government department responsible for the Royal Canadian Mint is the Department of Finance. There are 10 members of the mint's board of directors, and 12 members on its executive team. The Royal Canadian Mint has four lines of business: Bullion and Refinery Service, Canadian Circulation, Foreign Business, and Numismatics.
| Name | Term |
| James Bonar | 1908–1919 |
| Arthur H.W. Cleave | 1919–1925 |
| John Honeyford Campbell | 1925–1937 |
| Henry Edward Ewart | 1938–1944 |
| Alfred Percy Williams | 1946–1947 ' |
| Walter Clifton Ronson | 1947–1953 |
| Alfred Percy Williams | 1954–1959 |
| Norval Alexander Parker | 1959–1968 |
| E.F. Brown | 1968–1970 ' |
| Gordon Ward Hunter | 1970–1975 |
| Yvon Gariepy | 1975–1981 |
| D.M. Cudahy | 1981–1982 ' |
| James C. Corkery | 1982–1986 |
| M.A.J. Lafontaine | 1986–1993 |
| M.R. Hubbard | 1993–1994 |
| Danielle Wetherup | 1994–2002 |
| Emmanuel Triassi | 2002–2003 ' |
| David C. Dingwall | 2003–2005 |
| Marguerite Nadeau | 2005–2006 ' |
| Ian Bennett | 2006–2014 |
| Marc Brûlé | 2014–2015 ' |
| Sandra Hanington | 2015–2018 |
| Jennifer Camelon | 2018–2019 |
| Marie Lemay | 2019–present |
| Name | Year appointed |
| Phyllis Clark | 2018 |
| Serge Falardeau | 2017 |
| Pina Melchionna | 2019 |
| Cybele Negris | 2017 |
| Gilles G. Patry | 2018 |
| Barry M. Rivelis | 2019 |
| Evan Price | 2023 |
| Cindy Chao | 2023 |
| Kevin Darling | 2023 |
Facilities
Ottawa facility
The Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint was officially opened on January 2, 1908, by Lord Grey and his wife, Lady Grey.When the facility first opened, it had 61 employees. The last surviving member of the mint's original staff was Owen Toller. He started in the mint as a junior clerk and retired as an administrative officer after 45 years of service on January 6, 1953. Toller died in November 1987 at the age of 102.
In 1979, the Royal Canadian Mint building in Ottawa was designated a National Historic Site, on the grounds the building is representative of the federal government's approach to using the Tudor-Gothic architectural style to create a distinctive identity in Canada's capital, and of the patriation of control over Canada's currency from Britain.
Winnipeg facility
The mint facility in Winnipeg was officially opened in 1976. The new facility was completely different in appearance from the facility in Ottawa. Architect Étienne Gaboury designed a striking triangular building that rises up dramatically from the surrounding prairie. Gaboury was design architect, in collaboration with the Number Ten Architectural Group led by partner-in-charge Allan Hanna.The Winnipeg facility produces circulation coins for Canada and other countries, while the Ottawa facility concentrates solely on collector coins.
Financial revenues
Security
Royal Canadian Mint Protective Services employs full-time and casual security officers who are responsible for the security and inspection of RCM facilities. They wear a distinctive black uniform with body armour and carry a 9 mm Glock Model 17 while on duty. Their duties include:- Operating x-ray machines
- Inspection of garbage in high-security production area
- CCTV monitoring
- Access control
- Monitor shipments received and dispatched from RCM facilities
- Security escorts
- Parking management
- Evacuations
- In 2000, the Royal Canadian Mint lent a series of the new plated 10¢, 25¢ and 50¢ issues to the vending industry for testing purposes. These coins were issued with the letter P below the Queen's effigy. Some of these coins were not returned to the RCM by the vendors and it is possible some were sold to collectors at a considerable premium.
- On June 2, 2009, the Auditor General of Canada reported a discrepancy between the mint's 2008 financial accounting of its precious metals holdings and the physical stockpile at the plant on Sussex Drive in Ottawa. A review released on December 21 said that all of the misplaced gold was fully accounted for. A previously unaccounted was attributed to estimation errors, and a further was recovered through an extensive refining of slag within the mint.