DT News interview: Major Afzal on ex TRILLIUM DRAGON and please complete the 2020-21 PSES
Video / January 13, 2021
Transcript
(Taylor) Nearing the end of 2020, Joint Task Force Central conducted exercise TRILLIUM DRAGON across Ontario, with 31 Canadian Brigade Group establishing a mobile command centre at Wolseley Barracks in London, Ontario.
The annual exercise takes place to support Canadian Armed Forces preparedness to address major emergencies across Canada, including natural disasters, and events like COVID relief.
During the exercise, we spoke to Deputy Commanding Officer of 31 Canadian Brigade Group's Territorial Battalion, Major Fahad Afzal.
(Maj Afzal) So this exercise is meant to enhance our training, to support domestic operations in Canada in terms of assisting provincial and local authorities to deal with natural disasters, whether it's flooding or COVID relief. What we do here is get together as a headquarters, plan for a scenario that may have happened, which is based on past experiences of such domestic operations, and plan on how best we can deploy as quickly as possible when local authorities, provincial authorities need us to assist with helping Canadian communities and Canadian citizens deal with national disasters, to preserve lives, save lives and reduce suffering.
We have had several recent domestic operation responses that have required the Canadian Forces to deploy in support of the communities. Most recently, this past year, lots of our soldiers had deployed in support of COVID relief. Previously, last year, there was significant flooding incidents in the Ottawa area where a lot of Canadian reservists went and assisted the communities to deal with these floods.
(T) A reminder that civilian employees have until Friday, January 22 to complete the 2021 Public Service Employee Survey.
The Department of National Defence and federal public service continue to adapt to the changes in our workforce due to COVID-19, while ensuring conditions are set for a safe, diverse and inclusive work environment.
Your input matters more than ever, so please visit the related links on how to complete the survey.
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