Accommodations Nova Scotia
Your Guide To Accommodations In Nova Scotia
Debert, Nova Scotia
Debert is an unincorporated farming community located
approximately 20 km west of the town of Truro.
Situated near coal and iron ore deposits, Debert was established on
the Halifax-Montreal mainline of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada
in the 1870s.
For more information, consult the main CFS Debert article.
During the Second World War Debert was the location of the Debert
Military Camp and RCAF Station Debert. Camp Debert was a large army
facility capable of accommodating division-size units where
personnel received training prior to deployment to Europe. RCAF
Station Debert was used as a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
facility which saw pilots and aircrew from Commonwealth nations
trained for military service.
Demobilization of the military during the post-war brought about
many other changes at Camp Debert with many of the barrack buildings
and workshops being demolished. Many materials were salvaged from
the demolition and reused to help construct numerous new homes in
the nearby village of Debert and throughout this part of Colchester
County.
For a brief period shortly after the war, the Nova Scotia
Agricultural College operated out of the old Camp Debert hospital.
The temporary relocation of NSAC resulted from a major fire that had
occurred at the principal campus in Bible Hill, which destroyed many
barns and academic facilities.
Camp Debert's role as a training facility was eliminated in the
early 1950s with the opening of the much larger Camp Gagetown in New
Brunswick. The airfield was downgraded at this time to an adjunct
facility for RCAF Station Shearwater.
A new lease on life was given to the military facility in the early
1960s when Camp Debert was chosen as the location for a Regional
Emergency Government Headquarters, also known as a "Diefenbunker".
This facility became the focus of the newly-formed CFS Debert by the
late 1960s.
The primary unit attached to CFS Debert was the 720 Communications
Squadron, which maintained the REGHQ and provided communications
support to Canadian Forces units throughout Atlantic Canada and
around the world. Substantial antenna facilities were constructed
close to the nearby villages of Masstown and Great Village to
support the military operations at CFS Debert, providing worldwide
radio communications.
In 1971 the aerodrome and training facilities were declared surplus
and were purchased by the provincial government to create the
"Debert Air Industrial Park" as well as a municipal airfield.
CFS Debert was closed in the mid-1990s and decommissioned in 1998
with remaining site facilities being transferred to a local
development authority named "Colchester Park". The ongoing residual
military communications role of Debert was transferred to the
transmitter/receiver facility near Great Village.
The Debert Airfield is now also the location of Royal Canadian Air
Cadet Summer Glider Scholarship program for the Atlantic region.
More than 50 cadets earn their Transport Canada Glider Pilot License
during a 6 week course each summer.
In 1994, a significant Paleo-Indian site was discovered on the
grounds of the old military camp by a private contractor who was
preparing a plot of land to be used as a tree farm. Researchers from
Saint Mary's University were requested to conduct a thorough
archaeological excavation on the site. Preliminary reports suggested
that the site held evidence of human activity that pre-dated any
other sites found within the northern part of Nova Scotia.
