Serving Medicine Hat, Cochrane and Ralston Village.
BATUS HIVE
Community Centre
BATUS
BFPO 14
Email:
batushive@armymail.mod.uk Tel: 001 403 544 4600
Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 0900 - 1300hrs
"The Medicine Man"
The British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) is the British Army's premier training unit located at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Suffield in the South Eastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. BATUS is sited here because of the large expanse of prairie allocated as a training area where live-firing exercises may take place.
Alberta is a province that stretches from the Canadian Rockies in the West to the province of Saskatchewan in the East, and from the Northwest Territories in the North to the United States of America in the South. It is a province of mountains, prairie and badlands. It is one of the more affluent provinces in Canada.
BATUS is in the very heart of the prairie, 35 minutes from the nearest metropolitan area of Medicine Hat. The main quartering area for BATUS is in the Crown Village of Ralston which is 3km from the base; however, there are also some hirings in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Cochrane. The Crown village of Ralston has approximately 200 houses which are shared between Canadian and British military families.
Ralston boasts a wealth of community facilities, including a gym, swimming pool, baseball diamond, basketball, tennis and squash courts, ice arena, children's splash park, church, school, preschool, community centre, pub/restaurant, library, shop and rodeo ground. Medicine Hat is a city of approximately 50,000 people and has all the amenities expected of a city this size.
BATUS provides many opportunities to try out a host of different sports and hobbies including skiing, snowboarding, horse riding (western style), wild water rafting, hiking/trekking, golf, dog sledding and much more. BATUS offers family ski packages during the winter which offer excellent tuition for all ages and standards.
The weather in Canada tends to be one of extremes, and whilst the prairies do not get the worst of these extremes, the weather is still much more active than what we are used to at home. Temperatures in the summer can reach well into the 30°C and it is generally hot, sunny and dry. In the winter, temperatures can be as low as -40°C, and can feel lower with wind chill, however, it is a dry cold rather than the damp coldness associated with the UK.
Western Canada is an exciting part of the world to live with easy access to British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the neighbouring US states of Montana, Idaho and Washington. There are many travel opportunities available both within Canada and the US as well as further afield.