The federal government will spend $1.4 billion to revitalize Ottawa’s Dwyer Hill Training Centre, the home of Joint Task Force 2, the Canadian Armed Forces’ elite special operations force.

Defence Minister Anita Anand made the announcement at the Department of National Defence headquarters on Tuesday morning.

“This is the first major refresh of Dwyer Hill since the Canadian Armed Forces acquired these facilities in 1993,” she said.

The money, to be spent over the next 10 years, will replace the facility’s 89 aging buildings with 23 “modern, reliable, state-of-the-art” new ones, Anand said. Existing facilities will also be renovated.

The Dwyer Hill Training Centre is about 50 kilometres southwest of downtown Ottawa. It has been home to JTF2 since the elite unit known for its counter-terrorism operations was created in 1993.

“All in all, this investment will provide more than 100,000 square metres of space so that our special operations forces can train to excel in the jobs that we ask of them,” Anand said.

The revitalization project will also create 2,000 jobs in the Ottawa region, she said.

Construction is scheduled to start this May.

More to come…