Past and current members of the Canadian military's oldest front-line medical unit were honoured with a Freedom of the City ceremony on Sunday outside of St. Albert Place in recognition of the unit's 125th anniversary.
Traditionally, Freedom of the City involved allowing armed soldiers to walk freely inside the walls of fortified municipalities, back when physical walls represented a city's boundary. Nowadays, and in St. Albert this past weekend, the ceremony relies on symbolism and speeches from distinguished guests to bestow honour and recognition to the military, although a dozen or more bayonets are still involved.
Sunday's unit of honour, 1 Field Ambulance, is now based out of CFB Edmonton. It is one of three such units in the country, but when it was formed in the summer of 1898 in Halifax it was the first.
Members of 1 Field Ambulance were deployed during the First World War, and since then, to South Africa, Korea, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and more.
On hand to honour the unit on Sunday was Alberta Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani; Canadian senator and retired rear admiral Rebecca Patterson; numerous high-ranking Canadian Armed Forces leaders; Archie Arcand, a Métis elder and the current president of the St. Albert-Sturgeon County Métis Local 1904; St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron; and four city councillors.
During the ceremony, commanding officer Lt. Col. Josh Robinson said in the past two years the unit has been deployed to the middle east, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Poland, and most recently to British Columbia to aid with ongoing wildfires.
“This is all to say that we are busy,” Robinson said, adding that the unit expects to be deployed to Latvia again in 2025 “where we are providing direct support for our NATO allies.”
Following a speech from Heron, members of the St. Albert RCMP lowered and removed the city's flag outside St. Albert Place, and 1 Field Ambulance members raised their own flag, which flew for the day.
“I'm super proud,” Heron said. “I'm proud to be the mayor of a city that grants this honour.”
“That honour is awesome to give to 1 Field Ambulance.”
What does 1 Field Ambulance do?
Lt. Bennjamin LeClercq of the Royal Canadian Navy said 1 Field Ambulance is currently made up of about 170 individuals with all three major branches of the military — army, navy and air force — represented.
“We're the largest medical unit in western Canada,” LeClercq said, adding the unit is operating at about 70 per cent of its desired target because of ongoing staff shortages in the military.
Given 1 Field Ambulance is a tactical medical unit, members include doctors, dentists, physician assistants, and medics, LeClercq said.
“We have roughly 10 members out of the unit right now in British Columbia, and what they'll be providing is routine (medical) care, so if members become injured, maybe they twist an ankle or have cuts, that sort of thing, they can be seen immediately,” he said.
“We also have a physician assistant, so if some higher level of care is needed, for example, resuscitation, then we would have a subject matter expert on ground.”
LeClercq said the unit commonly uses a Special Equipment Vehicle that turns into a shelter, which is then used like a walk-in medical clinic; a traditional army ambulance and armoured Bison vehicle, which are both used in the field; and a regular ambulance similar to those used every day by EMS responders.
The last Freedom of the City ceremony in St. Albert was in 2011, when then-mayor Nolan Crouse granted the honour to the army's Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadian) armoured regiment, which is a tank unit.
