Yes, sir.
The 1 CRPG resides in the north—north of 60—with one exception. There's a patrol in northern B.C. that's only accessible from the Yukon. So there is one patrol from 1 CRPG that's actually in British Columbia—in Atlin, B.C. It is an army unit. 1 CRPG belongs to the Canadian Army. It's under OPCON of JTFN. It is the largest unit in the Canadian Armed Forces, by the way, numerically speaking, with about 1,750 rangers spread across those 60 communities that I mentioned.
We recently had a visit to Yellowknife by the Canadian Armed Forces ombudsman to look at the ranger program, specifically in the Arctic, to identify some challenges that they're facing. They do have challenges, as any organization does. I believe it was in the mandate letter of the Minister of National Defence to look at expanding the ranger program writ large, which is across all five ranger patrol groups.
The ability to do that would be predicated on expanding the ranger instructor pool first, the personnel who provide the military instruction to the rangers. When they're on the land with the ranger patrol, it's questionable who is actually instructing whom, because the rangers are the experts. I spent last weekend in the Baker Lake area with a patrol, and it was an eye-opening experience to see their abilities on the land. They are experts in that field, and that's what we need to promote and to harvest.
The ranger program has been around for almost 70 years. It's going to continue, and it can only get better. As General Bowes alluded to, paired with that is the junior ranger program, which is kind of like cadets, but it isn't. It's based on survival skills and the like. That is another success story, in the north in particular.