Members of the Canadians Armed Forces took part in a winter training exercise to learn how to deal with domestic disasters and major emergencies in the climate of Canada’s northern and Arctic regions.
Around 75 Canadian army reservists from 38 Canadian Brigade Group, 3rd Canadian Division travelled to the Yukon for Exercise Arctic Bison 2019.
As part of the training, soldiers were given a fictional scenario where they were asked to create a secure route between the Killarny Research Station and an aircraft crash site. This took soldiers across 110 kilometres of mountainous terrain to a crash site around 40 kilometres north of Haines Junction, a village in the Yukon.
According to a CAF news release, the goal of the exercise was to ensure soldiers are “able to provide a relevant, responsive, and effective task-tailored force to respond to any request for assistance by various federal, provincial, and municipal government organizations.”
“38 Canadian Brigade Group’s Arctic Response Company Group proved to be very proficient in operating in an austere cold weather environment. Soldiers, with support from 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, accomplished all tasks in an effective and safe manner. I think Canadians can be confident in our soldiers’ ability to deploy in extreme conditions when they are called upon to support domestic operations or to respond to a Northern incident,” said Lt.-Col. Dennis Desrochers in a news release.
