During the early 1980s, DEVCO built new locomotive shops at Victoria Junction, between Sydney and Glace Bay, and shut down the Glace Bay roundhouse and shops.

DEVCO also built a large coal preparation and wash plant at Victoria Junction, as well as new international shipping piers on Sydney Harbour, replacing the antiquated export piers inherited from DOSCO.

DEVCO also shut down a coal wash plant at Sydney Mines and built a large coal preparation and wash plant at Victoria Junction in its place, as well as new international shipping piers on Sydney Harbour, replacing the antiquated export piers inherited from DOSCO.

The industrial Cape Breton area faced several challenges with the closure of the Cape Breton Development Corporation's ( DEVCO ) coal mines and the Sydney Steel Corporation's ( SYSCO ) steel mill.

The company was dissolved in 1968 after the majority of its coal mining and steel mill industrial assets in Industrial Cape Breton were expropriated and nationalized by the federal and provincial governments ( see SYSCO and DEVCO ).

On March 30, 1968, DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and railway, settling for a payment of $ 12 million.

Although DEVCO initially sought to reduce coal mining, the global energy crisis of the mid-1970s saw the federal government change its mind and coal production increased with new mines being developed near New Waterford and on Boularderie Island.

The government of Canada expropriated DOSCO's coal mines at the same time, as well as the coke ovens that produced the pollution flowing into the Tar Ponds, naming this operation Cape Breton Development Corporation ( DEVCO ).

On March 30, 1968 DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and the S & L, settling with Hawker-Siddeley for a payment of $ 12 million.

On March 30, 1968 DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and the S & L, settling for a payment of $ 12 million.

As DEVCO had been created to shut down the Cape Breton coal industry, the Devco Railway did not have expansion in mind at the outset.

The October 1973 Yom Kippur War and the ensuing 1973 oil crisis led the federal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to re-examine all Canadian energy production, including the potential nationalization of Alberta's oil, as well as an expansion of DEVCO coal production, reversing the recommendation of the 1966 Donald Commission to phase out production and diversify the Sydney area economy.

With federal government financing, DEVCO was in expansion mode and with the high international prices for coal, sought to produce more Cape Breton coal for export than ever before.

The SYSCO steel mill stopped using DEVCO coal to produce coke as a fuel for its blast furnaces in the mid-1980s.

DEVCO was out of the coal mining business, however for a period of approximately 1 month, it was in the coal importation business.

DEVCO subsequently decommissioned the Victoria Junction coal wash plant and began to immediately prepare remediation of the mine sites.

On December 18, 2001 DEVCO sold all surface assets, including the international shipping piers, railway track, railway rights-of-way, locomotives and rolling stock, and a coal storage facility and locomotive shops at Victoria Junction to 510845 New Brunswick Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., the holding company which owns Nova Scotia Power Incorporated ( Nova Scotia Power Corporation having been privatized in 1992 ).

DEVCO was organized primarily into two divisions: a community economic development organization, and the coal division.

On March 30, 1968 DEVCO expropriated DOSCO's coal mines and the Sydney and Louisburg Railway, settling for a payment of $ 12 million.

DEVCO had several operating divisions, including its Coal Division, as well as economic development divisions, intended to help the Industrial Cape Breton area diversify its economy from an over-reliance on the coal and steel industries.

Initially, DEVCO focused on operating the coal mines throughout the Sydney Coal Field that it had inherited from DOSCO, while attempting to invest in other initiatives such as establishing a post-secondary education institution in the area ( what would become the University College of Cape Breton, now Cape Breton University ), tourism developments, industrial parks for non-coal / steel related manufacturing industries, and investing in small area businesses and community infrastructure projects to help unemployed coal miners and steel workers who had been laid off during the 1960s drawdown in production.

The October 1973 Yom Kippur War and the ensuing 1973 oil crisis led the federal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to re-examine all Canadian energy production, including the nationalization of Alberta oil, as well as an expansion of DEVCO coal production, reversing the recommendation of the 1966 Donald Commission to phase out production and diversify the economy of Industrial Cape Breton.

DEVCO subsequently decommissioned the Victoria Junction coal wash plant and began to immediately prepare remediation of the mine sites.

DEVCO subsequently decommissioned the Victoria Junction coal wash plant and began to immediately prepare remediation of the mine sites.

On December 18, 2001 DEVCO sold all surface assets, including the international shipping piers, railway track, railway rights-of-way, locomotives and rolling stock, and a coal storage facility and locomotive shops at Victoria Junction to 510845 New Brunswick Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera Inc., the holding company which owns Nova Scotia Power Incorporated ( Nova Scotia Power Corporation having been privatized in 1992 ).

DEVCO was out of the coal mining business, however for a period of approximately 1 month, it was in the coal importation business, with trains operating from the international coaling piers to the storage facility and on to the Lingan Generating Station.

On December 18, 2001 DEVCO sold all surface assets, including the international shipping piers, railway track, railway rights-of-way, locomotives and rolling stock, and a coal storage facility and locomotive shops at Victoria Junction to 510845 New Brunswick Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Emera, the holding company which owns Nova Scotia Power and operator of the Lingan Generating Station.

* the northwestern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, i. e., the part lying northwest of a line drawn northeast from Bras d ' Or Lake to the northeast extremity of East Bay, due north to Portage Brook, northeast along Portage Brook, Blacketts Lake, the Sydney River, Highway 125, Trunk 4 ( Grand Lake Road ), Northwest Brook, the western shoreline of Grand Lake, the DEVCO Railway, and its northern branch ( running towards the Community of Dominion ) to its second intersection with Northwest Brook ( north of Grand Lake ), and then north and northeast along that brook, Lingan Bay and Indian Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.

The S & L, along with other assets of the corporate successor to DOMCO, Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation ( DOSCO ), were expropriated by the Cape Breton Development Corporation ( DEVCO ) on March 30, 1968.

DEVCO ceased to exist on December 31, 2009, with its remaining assets and staff turned over to Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation.

By the late 1980s, production problems at DEVCO saw the last of the older mines inherited from DOSCO shut down, with production concentrated at Lingan, Phalen and Prince ; the latter not receiving any rail service.

With federal government financing, DEVCO was in expansion mode and with the high international prices for coal, sought to produce more Cape Breton coal for export than ever before.

By the late 1980s, production problems at DEVCO saw the last of the older mines inherited from DOSCO shut down, with production concentrated at Lingan, Phalen and Prince ; the latter not receiving any rail service.

Faced with rising subsidies for DEVCO, the federal government announced it was getting out of the coal industry in January 1999 by mining out the rest of Phalen by the end of the year and attempting to sell the Prince colliery.

On December 31, 2009, DEVCO was amalgamated with Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation ( ECBC ).

On July 7, 1967, the Cape Breton Development Corporation ( DEVCO ), was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.

On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.

On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.

On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.

Overall, until 1973, DEVCO was more-or-less focused on continuing the operation of its former-DOSCO mines and railway, while providing new economic growth for the region.

In mid 2008 DEVCO sponsored the new Industrial Research Chair in Mine Water Remediation & Management at Cape Breton University in order to assist in the mine closure and to research in new environmentally friendly after uses of the mining legacy.

On July 7, 1967 the Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was established to operate the mines in the interim, while phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, develop new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.