Members of the Canadian military have descended upon the Fraser Valley this weekend.
Nearly two hundred army reserve combat engineers and support troops are taking part in the exercise in the Vedder Crossing- Cultus Lake area until Monday.
The training helps the army provide support to provincial and local officials in the event of a natural disaster, such as the 2003 B.C. wildfires and this year’s floods in Alberta.
Major Ryan Donahue with 41 Combat Engineer Regiment, 33 Engineer Squadron says it is an annual exercise for combat engineers from across the country.
“Helping people to get to where they need to go, whether they need to go to a hospital or helping the emergency services to get to the location they need to when there are no roads and no infrastructure, this is the area where the engineers thrive and that’s what we are rehearsing on this exercise,” says Donahue.
He says their focus is the ability to provide mobility for the army.
“We need to be able to create roads and erect bridges where they are none. So what we can do here is hone those skills,” says Donahue.
Some of the reserve soldiers participating in the training this weekend are veterans of international operations in Afghanistan and the Balkans, as well as domestic operations like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
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