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SYDNEY, N.S. — The Stone Church Restoration Society is among the groups to benefit from a community outreach component of a Canadian Armed Forces training exercise in Cape Breton over the next month.

The army’s 4 Engineer Support Regiment is on the island over the next month and will conduct infrastructure repair and restoration at the society’s St. Alphonse Stone Church in Victoria Mines.

“This is the Canadian army’s handymen and women. They are the skilled trades of the Canadian army,” said Captain Jamie Tobin, public affairs officer for the training exercise.

“When something needs to be built, 4 Engineer Support Regiment is there to do it.”

At the church in Victoria Mines, the soldiers’ focus will be on building a new roof. Structural and cosmetic repairs will also take place.

“There’s a number of skilled trades that are soldiers that will be going to that stone church to complete that project,” he said.

“It’ll help them obtain their individual and collective training. The stone church, being a very large restoration and repair project, fits all the criteria for those specific soldiers to get the training they need.”

In Cape Breton, soldiers will also be working on the siege trail at the National Historic Site properties in Louisbourg and constructing the Freshwater Brook bridge.

A bridge will also be constructed in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, while a snowmobile trail will be constructed in Wreck Cove.

Further work will take place at the Canadian Coast Guard College where soldiers will perform port inspection and dive training with the Royal Canadian Navy.

All of these outreach opportunities tend to be mutually beneficial to the army and various community groups, according to Tobin.

“A lot of those training objectives are around construction projects such as infrastructure and renewal, restorations, construction of bridges and trail systems,” he said.

“These community-based initiatives not only allow us an opportunity to conduct training and meet those training objectives, it also allows us to give back to the communities.”

All community groups that apply for the use of the regiment’s expertise must provide materials. A place for troops to assemble is also among the other details they sometimes require.

greg.mcneil@cbpost.com