A large military exercise is scheduled to take place in May in Bruce and Huron Counties.
The 31st Canadian Brigade Group of reservists from around Southwestern Ontario will be training in the Bruce County, from Walkerton and Mildmay to the Bruce Peninsula and Tobermory.
Major Paul Pickering from the 31st Territorial Battalion of the Canadian Armed Forces gave a presentation to Bruce County Council earlier this month, outlining some of the plans for the 36-hour Trillium Venture exercise from May 3rd to 5th.
Maj. Pickering told councillors it will be a training scenario for an emergency response to a heat wave and severe storm with power outages. Scenarios will include downed trees on power lines and search and rescue simulations. There’s the possibility of escalating the exercise to include a forest fire scenario.
The headquarters for the exercise will be based out of Blyth. Locally, as part of the exercise, soldiers are expected to be doing wellness check simulations in Mildmay, Lucknow, Walkerton and Lion’s Head with the support of OPP, going door to door.
Maj. Pickering also explained there is a planned simulation of a cooling centre in Walkerton, and support for a long-term care home as well as a planned tree clearance simulation exercise between Chesley and Paisley.
Another group will be in Sauble Beach and Wiarton with members of the naval reserve. They’ll be training around Dyer’s Bay, and Lion’s Head and as part of an ATV search and rescue exercise at Cabot Head.
Bruce County Councillor Luke Charbonneau noted, following Maj. Pickering’s presentation, “I think it’s really positive to see the Canadian Armed Forces coming up into our region and simulating your response to something that’s likely to happen, or could happen, a hot weather event with a major storm, that’s the kind of incident that could well be in our future.”