Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission The Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was a special commission established by the House of Commons of Canada , on the recommendations of the British Battle Exploits Memorials Committee . The Canadian House of Commons established the committee in September 1920 with the mandate of selecting and establishing First World War memorial sites in France and Belgium . History . In February 1919 , the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee , a Special Committee of the House of Commons , was formed in the United Kingdom with the mandate of identifying the principal battle sites and allocating sites to appropriate countries . The Canadian representative to the committee , Brigadier General Garnet Hughes , applied for eight memorial sites based upon the recommendation of a collection of Canadian military officers , presided over by Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant General Arthur Currie . In April 1920 , the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee announced that it had been awarded eight sites — five in France and three in Belgium — on which to erect memorials . The committee recommended that memorials be erected at " Vimy , Bourlon Wood , Le Quesnel , Dury and Courcelette in France and St . Julien , Hill 62 ( Sanctuary Wood ) , and Passchendaele in Belgium . " The Battle Exploits Memorials Committee also recommended that Canada hold an architectural design competition , open to all Canadian architects , designers , sculptors and other artists , to determine the design or designs to be adopted . The committee also suggested that a temporary honorary commission be established to hold the design competition , select the designs and undertake the contractual work . In September 1920 , the Canadian government formed the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission to discuss the process and conditions for holding a memorial competition for the sites in Europe , as suggested by the Battle Exploits Memorials Committee . The commission held its first meeting on 26 November 1920 and during this meeting reaffirmed the principle of a design competition open to all Canadian architects , designers , sculptors and artists . Interested parties submitted 160 design drawings and the jury selected 17 submissions for consideration , commissioning each finalist to produce a plaster maquette of their respective design . In October 1921 , the commission selected the submission of Toronto sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward as the winner of the competition , and that of Frederick Chapman Clemesha as runner - up . The complexity of Allward ' s design precluded the possibility of duplicating the design at each site . The commission revised its initial plans and decided to build two distinctive memorials — that of Allward and Clemesha — and six smaller identical memorials . At the outset , members of the commission debated where to build Allward ' s winning design . Committee member and former Canadian Corps commander , Lieutenant - General Arthur Currie argued in favour of the government placing the monument in Belgium on Hill 62 . In the end , the commission selected Vimy Ridge as the preferred site , largely because of its elevation above the plain below . In the interval between the 1st and 2nd session of the 14th Canadian Parliament , Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons and Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission committee member Rodolphe Lemieux went to France to negotiate the acquisition of land on Vimy Ridge . In December 1922 , Lemieux concluded an agreement with France in which France granted Canada " freely and for all time " the use of of land on Vimy Ridge , in recognition of Canada ' s war effort . The only condition placed on the donation was that Canada use the land to erect a monument commemorating Canadian soldiers killed during the First World War and assume the responsibility for the maintenance of the memorial and the surrounding battlefield park .