The Royal Canadian Navy then named the ship after the town closest to Prince Albert National Park.

The frigate was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 16 June 1943 at Victoria, British Columbia with the pennant number K 330.

[4] The River-class frigate was designed by William Reed of Smith's Dock Company of South Bank-on-Tees.

[5] The name "frigate" was suggested by Vice-Admiral Percy Nelles of the Royal Canadian Navy and was adopted later that year.

[5] 15 Canadian frigates were initially fitted with a single 4-inch gun forward but with the exception of HMCS Valleyfield, they were all eventually upgraded to the double mount.

[6] For underwater targets, the River-class frigate was equipped with a Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar and depth charge rails aft and four side-mounted throwers.

[5] River-class frigates were the first Royal Canadian Navy warships to carry the 147B Sword horizontal fan echo sonar transmitter in addition to the irregular ASDIC.

Waskesiu opened fire with its main armament, scoring four hits on the submarine's conning tower.

The task set for EG 6 was to perform an anti-submarine patrol guarding the western edge of the English Channel from Land's End to Brest, France.

Switching coasts, Waskesiu began a tropicalization refit for future service in the Pacific Ocean in June 1945 at Esquimalt.