The Department of National Defence is spending $36 million in New Brunswick on new training facilities for identifying and disposing of improvised explosive devices and other explosive ordinance.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan made the announcement Monday at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B.
He says it is part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to ensure Canadian Armed Forces have the support they need, including safe and modern facilities in which to work and train.
The money will be used for new buildings to house the training centre as well as upgrades to roads for field exercises.
Cpl. Mark Hoogendoorn, a combat engineer, lost his leg when he stepped on an IED made of wooden pressure plates in 2010.
“To have proper facilities in place is extremely beneficial to saving lives in the future where we can conduct proper training and proper scenarios so that in the future, if and when it happens real time, that we’ve already done it in training,” Hoogendoom said.
“In order to have things progress in training to hopefully mitigate things where I was injured is awesome for me personally – to not have to see anybody else go through what I went through would be extremely extremely beneficial”
About 100 of the Canadian deaths during the war in Afghanistan were the result of attacks that used IEDs.
Sajjan also announced another $2.3 million for other infrastructure upgrades on the New Brunswick training base.
With files from Global News.
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