MacKay meets with Rangers ahead of High Arctic exercises

POSTMEDIA NEWS

WHITEHORSE — Canada’s defence minister met July 24 with Canadian Rangers ahead of a major, annual Arctic sovereignty operation.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay presented members of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group with Canadian Forces decoration medals in honour of their 12 years of service.

Starting Aug. 8, the 1st Ranger patrol group will take part in Operation Nanook, the military’s annual northern training exercise, which will involve more than 1,000 troops.

Exercise Nanook is to play out in several phases on and near Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island throughout August. It will involve CF-18 fighter jets as well as surveillance and transport aircraft, a warship, infantry companies from Quebec and Alberta, and five Canadian Ranger patrols who have broad experience surviving in the Arctic.

MacKay has called Nanook 2011 “the largest operation that has taken place in recent history.”

“All of this is very much about enlarging the footprint and the permanent and seasonal presence we have in the North. It is something that we as a government intend to keep investing in,” he said earlier this month.

MacKay and Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk will visit the High Arctic for Op Nanook.

The Rangers, a sub-component of the Canadian Forces Reserve, were also called to Ontario last week to help evacuate First Nations communities threatened by forest fires.

The numbers of Rangers continue to climb, MacKay said, to nearly 4,700 Rangers from the 4,100 in 2007. The government’s goal is to have 5,000 Rangers by the end of 2012.