The Junior Rangers are coming to Iqaluit

On this map you can see all the places where there are already Junior Ranger patrols in Nunavut — soon Iqaluit will see a Junior Ranger patrol of its own. (MAP COURTESY OF DND)

For Iqaluit mayor Madeleine Redfern, it’s great news that her city will soon see its own Junior Rangers patrol.

“I’m so excited and pleased that Iqaluit will have a Junior Rangers’ program, as it offers our youth another option for activities. Many of our kids want to go out on the land, gain that knowledge; experience and skills but can’t – for a variety of reasons. I’m sure we’ll have a good number of youth wanting to register in the program,” Redfern said in a Nov. 23 news release.

The city council unanimously passed a resolution Nov. 22 that will set the creation of a Junior Rangers program in motion.

By next spring the first Junior Rangers — who wear red and green outfits similar to those worn by Canadian Rangers — should be meeting on a regular basis.

The move to bring the Junior Rangers program to Iqaluit came out of meetings with Brig. General Guy Hamel from the Joint Task Force North in Yellowknife and General Walter Natynczyk, the chief of defence, Redfern said.

The Junior Ranger program, established in 1996, is open to youth from 12 to 18.

Affiliated with the Canadian Rangers, the Junior Ranger program began as an experiment in 1994, when a small patrol was organized in the Inuvialuit community of Paulatuk.

After 1998, when Ottawa accepted the Junior Rangers as equivalent in status to army and air cadets, the program took off.

Roughly 3,500 young people are now enrolled in more than 110 patrols scattered throughout Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Labrador and the northern regions of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

Iqaluit already has an active Royal Canadian Air Cadet program.

And there’s been “some resistance and concern” that a community like Iqaluit can’t support a cadet program and a Junior Rangers’ program, Redfern acknowledged.

“I knew our community had grown to the point that we could support both programs and that both could be strong and viable. This summer I met General Natynczyk, Canada’s top solider, in Iqaluit. I explained to him that we need Junior Rangers programs in order for Canada’s Arctic Rangers to be sustainable in Canada’s Arctic – including Iqaluit,” Redfern said. “General Natynczyk was very supportive.”

The military will assist in setting up the program.

That will ease the burden of organizing the new group and avoid any competition for volunteers with the cadets, the news release said.

Registration for future Junior Rangers in Iqaluit will likely take place early in 2012.

The program is slated for a possible spring 2012 start-up, the release said.