Peer Support Units for the Langley RCMP and Township Fire, and a trauma dog for the detachment – announced as the Rolling Barrage wrapped its cross-Canada PTSD-awareness ride in Aldergrove.
LANGLEY – As more than a hundred motorcycles rolled into Aldergrove on Saturday to finish the public portion of the Rolling Barrage – a 10,000-kilometre, coast-to-coast ride for PTSD awareness – Langley Strong released the first plank of its 2026 platform: two promises for the mental health of the Township’s first responders, both brought forward by Councillor Barb Martens, a retired Vancouver police officer.
A Langley Strong council will work with the Langley RCMP and the Township Fire Department to create a Peer Support Unit, so members, call-takers and personnel receive support and check-ins after traumatic events and calls. It will also introduce a dedicated Operational Stress Intervention Dog for Langley first responders, partnering with a local foundation or charity to help fund the dog’s care.
“First responders meet people on the worst day of their lives – over and over, for an entire career,” said Martens. “The fatal crash, the overdose, the aftermath of a violent death. Those calls don’t end when the shift does. They follow you home – into your sleep, into your relationship, into your family. I’ve watched good colleagues carry that weight for years; some never put it down. A Peer Support Unit means nobody in the Langley RCMP or Township Fire carries it alone.”
Research by the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment found 44.5 per cent of public safety personnel screen positive for symptoms of one or more mental health disorders – roughly four times the rate in the general population. Newer research from the same team, gathered in 2022–23, found the mental health of serving RCMP members is getting worse: a serving member is now six times more likely than the general population to screen positive for a mental health disorder.
The research also shows peer support delivers: a 2023 review of programs for public safety workers found peer-led support breaks down stigma, catches operational stress injuries early, and gets members to professional help sooner – before a hard call becomes a career-ending injury, or worse.
“These are not weak people – they are strong people, hurt by what we ask them to do,” Martens added. “Checking on them after the hard calls isn’t a luxury. It’s the least a respectful employer owes.”
On the second promise, Martens draws on what she saw in Vancouver, where the police department brought in its first trauma dog in 2016 and in 2021 became the first police agency in British Columbia to put accredited facility dogs to work supporting its own employees. Both were raised and trained by the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society, a B.C. charity, and community donors covered their operating costs.
“I watched what a dog in the building does,” said Martens. “People talk. Conversations happen that would never happen in an office. Surrey has Ragnar, Victoria has Daisy, Calgary has Sadie – Langley’s people deserve the same, and a charity partner means it comes at the smallest possible cost to taxpayers.”
“These aren’t strangers we’re talking about – they’re the police officer who coaches your kid’s team, the firefighter two doors down, the dispatcher who stays on the line until help arrives,” said Jay Lundgren, Langley Strong’s candidate for mayor. “We started our platform here on purpose. Everything Langley Strong stands for is restoring respect, and respect starts with the people who run toward our worst days. They check on us every single day. It’s time Township Hall checked on them.”
Langley Strong thanks the riders and organizers of the Rolling Barrage, founded in 2017 by veteran Scott Casey, for carrying the message of trauma awareness from St. John’s to Aldergrove. The Rolling Barrage is a non-partisan charity and does not endorse candidates or parties.
Langley Strong will release the balance of its platform in September.
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