Bonnyville Shooting Sports an Option for RCMP Rifle Training

The process to certify Bonnyville’s range as a training facility moving forward.

The RCMP are looking into the possibility of using the Bonnyville Shooting Sports range for riffle training. Constable Matt Nadeau explains that currently the training facility is in southern Alberta, making it hard for some officers to travel; thus the Bonnyville range is being reviewed as a possible training and certification location.

Nadeau, a carbine rifle, pistol and firearms instructor with the RCMP, spoke to Bonnyville Town Council at Tuesday’s regular meeting. The constable explains that he and another member of the Bonnyville Detachment have been in contact with the Alberta RCMP cadet training unit to see if they would be willing to host a training session in the Bonnyville area. “To either get trained or re-certified,” Nadeau explains the RCMP must re-certify yearly. “We asked them if they would be willing to come to Bonnyville to host training for the eastern side of Alberta.”

One of the instructors came to Bonnyville and viewed the range, confirms Cst. Nadeau, “he found it appropriate for our needs. Talking with the Bonnyville Shooting Sports Association, it’ll probably be a go-ahead and we’ll start seeing more RCMP cars rolling into town coming fall.”

There will be a real benefit to the community, Cst. Nadeau anticipates an increase in hotel and restaurant usage. There are roughly 2,800 members in the province with over half of them carbine rifle trained and the RCMP is looking at training another 800+ members this year. “We’re really pushing hard to get everyone trained,” Cst. Nadeau says training is a week-long and re-certification is a one-long; which results in members needing accommodations in the community.