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New military facility in Resolute Jeanne Gagnon Northern News Services Published Monday, December 12, 2011
The centre will be built as an addition and renovation to the existing Natural Resource Canada polar continental shelf facility, said Maj. Bill Chambre. Mayor Tabitha Mullin said two community residents are working on the project. If the military is around, the community will likely get help when in need. This past August, 12 people died when a First Air flight crashed on approach to Resolute. The three survivors received quick medical attention because the Canadian Forces were in the community for Operation Nanook. "When the military does come up for their training, I know they will employ the members of the community that are with the Rangers and possibly buying locally from the store, that would do a lot of help for the community," said Mullin. Chambre said an approximately 1,200 square-metre, two-storey accommodation wing of 35 rooms will be built to accommodate 140 people - four people per room. The existing warehouse will be doubled to a total of 2,000 square metres of usable space, said Chambre. It will contain offices, classrooms, an operations centre adjacent to the one for NRCan, a small medical treatment room, an orderly room for daily administration, a mechanical work bay as well as storage space for 35 ATVs and 35 snowmobiles. They will share a common kitchen, dining area and some of the recreational facilities. Chambre said the centre will cost approximately $18 million to build and will be ready in the summer of 2013. Basic foundation work is currently happening and pre-fabricated modules will be sealifted in next summer, said Chambre. "We'll be using it year round," he said. "There won't be military people there all the time, so NRCan will be operating it but we'll have different courses going up at different times. We'll be wanting to run courses through the winter so our people are able to operate in an Arctic environment in the worst of the weather." "The operating centre will be used for training and be a useful asset should the CF (Canadian Forces) be called upon by civilian authorities to support the conduct of operations in response to an emergency," stated Capt. Marc Greatti, directorate of army public affairs, via e-mail.
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