2010 Police State: Military & Police Training in Pemberton
Canadian Forces descending on Pemberton
Olympic security exercise planned for February
The Pique Newsmagazine, Jan. 21, 2009
By Jesse Ferreras
The Pemberton* Airport will soon become ground-zero for military operations, as it hosts training ops by the RCMP and Canadian Forces in advance of the 2010 Olympics.
Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy said at a council meeting Tuesday morning that the Canadian Forces will soon be installing a temporary radar facility at the Pemberton Airport. The facility, Sturdy said, will help security personnel track air activity above the mountains.
"As you can imagine, the geography you live in, radar that's currently installed for air traffic doesn't really deal with any aircraft that's below 10,000 feet
because of the height of the mountains," he said. "As a security issue, there would be concern that they could access venue sites by flying low, essentially."
Security personnel have already used the airport for what Sturdy called a "bronze training exercise," which consisted of what could have been the "biggest tabletop exercise the RCMP have ever had in Canada.
It's expected that the temporary radar facility will be installed at the airport in time for "silver training" to take place there from Feb. 9 to 13. Sturdy said that training would include ground exercises, but he did not provide further specifics.
"Gold training" for security personnel is expected to take place in the fall. That stage will confirm whether existing plans for 2010 security are working.
Pique reported in August that 1,800 military personnel could find
themselves at home in the Sea to Sky corridor during the Olympics. Sturdy said at the time that Canadian Forces representatives had expressed interest in the Pemberton Airport for a temporary housing camp, though no commitments had been made at that point.
When asked on Tuesday about the progress of a military camp in Pemberton, Sturdy said that the Canadian Forces are looking to make use of a firefighting base beyond the Pemberton Airport.
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* Pemberton is a small, settler community north of the Whistler ski resort, and just 5km from the Lil'wat reserve at Mt. Currie.