The Canadian military plans to expand operations at Alberta’s CFB Suffield: Cmdr
A military training base in southern Alberta can expect to see more activity this summer, a Canadian Army commander said.
Lt-General Michael Wright told an audience at a defense parade Thursday that Canadian Forces Base Suffield, the country’s largest training facility, will be used more as a testing ground for new technologies and to expand training.
“Suffield is a training base that we haven’t used very much in the last 10 or 11 years, but in an agreement between Canada and the United Kingdom, we will start using it on an ongoing basis this summer,” Wright said at the Defense Aerospace and Security Exhibition of Western Canada, or DEFSEC West.
“It’s great to see, but we also have an investment we need to make at CFB Suffield, like many of our bases around the country.”
Wright did not specify what kind of investment will be made but he said that it will not reach the point where thousands of soldiers will be trained as it was seen before.
The site, located in the southeast corner of Alberta, just north of Medicine Hat, is approximately 2,700 square kilometers in size – more than three times the size of the city of Calgary – and its use dates back more than half a century.
In the early 1970s, the British Army signed an agreement with Canada to send thousands of soldiers to the east of Calgary for weapons training and exercises, until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 stopped everything.
Canada, the UK and other allied forces are seen taking part in exercises at CFB Suffield in 2010, before the COVID pandemic in the early 2020s halted training.
File photo
When reports in 2021 suggested that the British would pull out of Suffield altogether, the UK’s then defense minister Ben Wallace revealed that weapons training would be “shifted” elsewhere.
In 2023, the UK Ministry of Defense announced that it would begin to phase out operations and training at Suffield.
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The UK government has announced that it will spend £17 million (Cdn$31 million) to maintain the British Army Training Unit Suffield.
In January, UK Defense Secretary Al Carnes said Suffield continued to be used for training and testing purposes.
Two British training missions were planned for Suffield in 2025-26.
In the interview, Wright said there may be more. “I can’t speak for the British Army, but they are planning to use more,” he said.
Another was planned for 2027, the UK government said.
The base is still used by Canadian training facilities, and some of those soldiers are joining the NATO mission in Latvia.
Canadian and allied forces are seen participating in chemical and biological training at CFB Suffield in August 2019.
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Each year, the Defense Research Development Canada branch holds joint biological and chemical agent training.
Wright said the foundation needed to be used after a long period of inactivity.
“As the Canadian military builds and the Canadian military builds, we’re going to need that capability to do more training across the country,” he said.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
