Canadian Forces base
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A Canadian Forces Base or CFB (French Base des forces canadiennes or BFC) is a military installation of the Canadian Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces Base, it must station one or more major units (e.g., army regiments, navy ships, air force wings).
Minor installations are named Canadian Forces Station or CFS (French Station des forces canadiennes or SFC). A Canadian Forces Station could host a single minor unit (e.g., an early warning radar station). Many of these facilities are now decommissioned for administrative purposes and function as detachments of larger Canadian Forces Base nearby.
Current
Army
- CFB Borden, Ontario
- CFB Edmonton, Alberta
- CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick
- CFB Kingston, Ontario
- CFB Montreal, Quebec
- CFB Petawawa, Ontario
- CFB Shilo, Manitoba
- CFB Suffield, Alberta
- CFB Valcartier, Quebec
- CFB Wainwright, Alberta
- RCR Hanley, Yukon
Note: Primary Lodger Units at the Naval Bases are individual commissioned ships of Maritime Command.
Air force
Note: Primary lodger units at air force bases are wings.
- CFB Bagotville (3 Wing), Quebec
- CFB Borden (16 Wing), Ontario
- CFB Comox (19 Wing), British Columbia
- CFB Cold Lake (4 Wing), Alberta
- CFAD Dundurn, Saskatchewan (Detachment of CFB Winnipeg)
- CFB Gander (9 Wing), Newfoundland
- CFB Goose Bay (5 Wing), Labrador
- CFB Greenwood (14 Wing), Nova Scotia
- CFB Kingston (1 Wing), Ontario
- CFB Moose Jaw (15 Wing), Saskatchewan
- CFB North Bay (22 Wing), Ontario
- CFB Shearwater (12 Wing), Nova Scotia (Detachment of CFB Halifax)
- CFB Trenton (8 Wing), Ontario
- CFD Mountain View, Ontario (Detachment of CFB Trenton)
- CFB Winnipeg (17 Wing), Manitoba
Air Command and CF Northern Area also maintain a chain of Forward Operating Locations at various points across northern Canada, capable of supporting fighter operations. Elements of CF-18 squadrons periodically deploy to these FOLs for short training exercises or Arctic sovereignty patrols.
All services
- Department of National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, Ontario
- CFS Alert, Nunavut
- CFS Leitrim, Ontario
- LFCATC Meaford, Ontario
- Connaught Range and Primary Training Centre (CRPTC), Ottawa, Ontario
- CFNA HQ Whitehorse, Yukon Territory
- LFAATC Aldershot, Nova Scotia
- CFNA HQ Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Closed
Former active bases
- CFB Calgary, Alberta, (Redesignated as ASU Calgary)
- CFB Chilliwack, British Columbia (Redesignated as ASU Chilliwack)
- CFB Winnipeg (Kapyong Barracks), Manitoba
- CFB Chatham, New Brunswick
- CFB Moncton, New Brunswick, (Redesignated as Moncton Garrison)
- CFB Cornwallis, Nova Scotia
- CFB Clinton, Ontario
- CFB Centralia, Ontario
- CFB Toronto, Ontario (Redesignated as ASU Toronto or Denison Armoury, Houses 32 CBG HQ and other 32 CBG units)
- CFB London (Wolseley Barracks, redesignated as ASU London), Ontario
- CFB Picton, Ontario
- CFB Rockcliffe, Ontario
- CFB Uplands, Ontario
- CFB Summerside, Prince Edward Island
- CFB Penhold, Alberta
- CFB St. Jean, Quebec
- CFB Baden-Soellingen, Germany
- CFB Lahr, Germany
- CFB Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
- CFB Rivers, Manitoba
Former active stations
- CFS Beaverlodge, Alberta
- CFS Aldergrove, British Columbia
- CFS Baldy Hughes, British Columbia
- CFS Holberg, British Columbia
- CFS Kamloops, British Columbia
- CFS Ladner, British Columbia
- CFS Masset, British Columbia
- CFS Beausejour, Manitoba
- CFS Churchill, Manitoba
- CFS Flin Flon, Manitoba
- CFS Gypsumville, Manitoba
- CFS Coverdale, New Brunswick
- CFS St. Margarets, New Brunswick
- CFS Barrington, Nova Scotia
- CFS Debert, Nova Scotia
- CFS Mill Cove, Nova Scotia
- CFS Newport Corner, Nova Scotia
- CFS Shelburne, Nova Scotia
- CFS Sydney, Nova Scotia
- CFS Gander, Newfoundland
- CFS Goose Bay, Labrador
- CFS Frobisher Bay, Nunavut
- CFS Armstrong, Ontario
- CFS Carp, Ontario
- CFS Cobourg, Ontario
- CFS Falconbridge, Ontario
- CFS Foymount, Ontario
- CFS Gloucester, Ontario
- CFS Inuvik, Northwest Territories
- CFS Lowther, Ontario
- CFS Moosonee, Ontario
- CFS Ramore, Ontario
- CFS Sioux Lookout, Ontario
- CFS Chibougamau, Quebec
- CFS Moisie, Quebec
- CFS Mont Apica, Quebec
- CFS Lac St. Denis, Quebec
- CFS Senneterre, Quebec
- CFS Parent, Quebec
- CFS Alsask, Saskatchewan
- CFS Dana, Saskatchewan
- CFS Yorkton, Saskatchewan
- CFS Whitehorse, Yukon
- CFS Bermuda, Bermuda at Daniel's Head, 1963-1993
- RCAF Station Jericho Beach, transferred to Canadian Army in 1947; CF Detachment Jericho Beach (closed 1996)
- RCAF Station Marville, France, 1955-1967
- Royal Canadian Naval Base, HMCS Somers Isles, Bermuda, 1944-1945
The Canadian Forces were reduced during the 1990s from a high of 90,000 personnel in the late 1980s to the present force levels. Coinciding with personnel and equipment reductions was the politically-controversial decision to close a number of bases and stations which were obsolete or created duplication.
A small number of these "closed" facilities have actually continued operating as before; but, because of cost and administrative efficiency—or, in the case of radio and radar facilities, automation—, they have been absorbed into other nearby bases and therefore do not qualify for separate designations. For example, the CF Leadership and Recruit School at St. Jean, Quebec, is now a lodger unit of CFB Montreal, and the former CFS Masset is a detachment of CFS Leitrim. Other facilities are now used as training grounds for reserve/militia units.
