Your Suffield Military Relocation Realtor was chosen as the Local Real Estate Expert for personnel who are buying or selling their home. As your Local Expert we will provide “one on one service” throughout the relocation process.

You receive a Posting Message the first step in being part of the Military Relocation process. This can be a stress filled process that is hard on the service member and his family.  You have to handle the countless details of organization, while quickly making the arrangements of selling a home and buying a new one in typically unknown market.  This is why your Military Relocation Expert is so important in ensuring you get the Top Price when selling and you are also able to Purchase a New Home that meets all your families needs at a  Price you can AFFORD!

Medicine Hat Relocation Realtor

Medicine Hat is the largest City in close proximity to Suffield .  Contacting a Military Relocation Realtor in Medicine Hat could be the best way to get a Full View or options prior to making a decision on where your family should reside.

Canadian Forces Housing Agency

(CFHA) – Affordable Military Rental Housing Agency’s mandate is to operate and maintain the portfolio of approximately 16,000 military family housing units (married quarters) at Canadian Forces bases and wings across Canada. This includes allocating housing to Canadian Forces members and their families.

Unfortunately the CFHA has been reducing the number of homes that are available to rent and in some cases have cut their number of homes on bases by up to 50%.  Relying on the CFHA to provide adequate rental housing would probably not be a wise choice.

Canadian Forces Base Suffield (also CFB Suffield) is the largest Canadian Forces base and the largest military training base in the Commonwealth. It is located in southeastern Alberta, 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) north-northwest of Suffield, 50 km (31 mi) northwest of the city of Medicine Hat and 250 km (160 mi) southeast of Calgary. It is accessible via Highway 884, a public road that bisects the main hub section of the base.

The base has its own radio station, BFBS, which airs programming for both the Canadian and British military personnel stationed at the base. The Crown Village of Ralston is located on base lands.

Chemical warfare training

The lands comprising modern-day CFB Suffield were known as the “Suffield Block”, resulting from the Dominion Land Survey, and comprised marginal agricultural land, given the perpetual semi-arid climate. Some settlement was attempted, but during the droughts of the 1920s most farms were abandoned, along with some horses, whose feral descendants formerly roamed the region. The total area measures approximately 2,700 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi) and borders an area north of the South Saskatchewan River.

Following the fall of France to Nazi Germany, the British Army required a new training facility for carrying out experiments in chemical warfare to replace the one it previously used in French Algeria. In 1941, the federal government expropriated the Suffield Block, purchasing the majority of the land from the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson’s Bay Company; 452 residents were displaced. Experimental Station Suffield commenced operations on June 11, 1941.

British forces left the joint operation of Suffield to the Canadian Army in 1946. In 1947 the Canadian Army turned operation of Experimental Station Suffield over to the Defence Research Board, now Defence Research and Development Canada. In 1950 the facility was renamed Suffield Experimental Station, and in 1967 it was renamed to Defence Research Establishment Suffield (DRES). Throughout the period from 1947 to 1971, the Canadian Army continued occasional use of the Suffield ranges.

RCAF Aerodrome

In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed at 50°16′N 111°11′W with a variation of 22 degrees east and elevation of 2,540 ft (770 m). One runway was listed as follows:^[5]

British Army

On August 25, 1971, the Canadian Government ratified a ten-year agreement with the British Government that allowed the British Armed Forces to use the northern three-quarters of the Suffield Block for armoured, infantry, and artillery live-fire training. On December 1, 1971, Canadian Forces Base Suffield (CFB Suffield) was officially created and allocated to Mobile Command. Over 160 staff members, 90 buildings, 80 vehicles, and the Crown Village of Ralston were transferred from Defence Research Establishment Suffield to the newly created base and CFB Suffield was co-located with the Research Establishment  By January 1972, the British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) was established and the first live round was fired by a battlegroup from the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (4th RTR) on July 15, 1972.

British Army training has continued at Suffield since 1971, with the shared-use agreement being extended several times (made indefinite in 2006). Regular and reserve units of Canadian Army began to make use of the base beginning in 1991, around the same time as the downgrading of CFB Wainwright. The British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) consists of pool training equipment used by army units rotating through the base on exercises, as well as a training “opposition force” (OPFOR).

In 1996/1997, CFB Suffield had two federal heritage buildings recognized on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings: Central Laboratory, Building B-1 and Ralston School.

DRES was merged into a new organization Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in 2000.

Defence Research and Development Canada, Suffield

Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) is an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence responding to the scientific and technological needs of the Canadian Forces. Its mission is to ensure that the CF remains scientifically and operationally relevant. The agency is made up of eight research laboratories, one of which being DRDC Suffield. DRDC Suffield is the lead laboratory for Chemical and Biological Defence research, as well as in areas generally related to military engineering, mobility systems, and weapons system evaluation.