Getting a rare look inside the Operations Centre of Joint Task Force North

It’s the brain-child, the point of contact in the event of an emergency in the Arctic and officials are providing a rare and open look into it during their “Operation Arctic Ram.”

Walking the media through the operations centre of Joint Task Force North, members sit around watching computer screens of the latest data transmitted from Resolute to Yellowknife.

They’re sitting around what appears to be a board-room table, but on their screens, it’s so much more.

The men and women who have taken over this facility are able to track the exact movements of their fellow soldiers thanks to a state of the art global positioning system.

“It’s the 21st century and a big piece of what we’re trying to do here is make sure we can fully understand and be fully comfortable with the ability to command, control and coordinate the movement of soldiers over long distances,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Fraser, commanding officer of the territorial battalion group.

In this case they were watching soldiers traverse over a 1,700 kilometre distance while watching for satellite debris in their mock scenario.

“It’s extremely important, the ability to have a centre like Yellowknife with Joint Task Force North here and the ability to interact with the governments of Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories. To be able to mobilize all the government assets that are there is absolutely crucial to this sort of thing because the Canadian military doesn’t do the job by itself, we’re part of a whole government team.”

“This is over 60 per cent of Canada’s land mass, it contains a large percentage of resources that are the birthright of all the people in Canada. It is our responsibility to make sure we can protect it if necessary, cause that’s a key part in being able to assert and maintain sovereignty, to be able to protect it if necessary,” said Fraser.

While talking to Fraser, a medic at the head table was coordinating the medical transport of an American military official from Resolute after he came down with a case of frostbite. The nearest hospital was eight hours away.

“This is what we do, for instance a couple of years ago when we were having a major exercise, there was a really tragic plane crash in Resolute. Luckily we were there on site and managed to make sure the accident was not as terrible as it could have been.”

The crash he was referring to was that of First Air Flight 6560, a Boeing 737-200 charter transporting 15 people from Yellowknife. It crashed near the airport killing 12 people.

Fraser says it’s about acclimatizing the men and women of his platoon before they get the call to head north on a real call.

“This gives our men and women a chance to go where very few people have gone before and be able to test their metal against some of the most harsh conditions that anyone ever encounters.”