Hell of a great idea, but I would stay away from any gov funding.
One heck of an undertaking and maybe it’s best use of peoples time and money ( travel, lodging...) to use the points you list and more to look at what they feel they may be weak on and simply go attend the nearest course on it. Gun clubs, college, university or back to the earth courses on Ag, same for electrical/ solar, mechanical courses,...

Like everything, you find like minded people in these courses that are also interested in other things. Having paid to go to large security events, it is costly in money and time, and THEN!!!!!!! There is the organization of it all. Huge undertaking.
Seems like folks here are all over canada, so maybe best bet is local courses and develop contacts with those in the class or teaching it, to broaden knowledge.

I would be happy to participate in what you mention because I believe it could be very effective, but one hell of an undertaking.

One other issue that would need to be considered is opsec! I am “guessing” that any gathering of people who are of independent thought etc “may” fall under surveillance or shall we say the eye of various gov entities! I have little doubt this site is monitored, so a gathering provides great opportunity to photograph and probe even folks. Folks who read, but don’t comment, but who may show up, could be surveilled.

Sad to think about, but in my world, it is SOP

Wayne, IMHO, this is the "school of life." People learning skills based on interests.

There are certainly some bushcraft classes out there. Then there are firearms classes and hunting safety courses. There are first aid classes ranging from basic CPR to medical first responders. Community leagues may offer gardening programs, etc.

I would be very weary of any school that teaches "Prepper Lifestyle" which would likely be little more than grabbing your AR15, grabbing your go-bag and going on a camping trip. This is doomsday prepped shit and is ludicrous but I'm sure there are programs out there that would take your money in exchange to some "training "

Well said helli. Lots of local courses on just about every skill set needed. One that may be harder to reach is offensive or defensive driving course. I think that may help a lot of people in normal life and should they ever really need to get past congestion or any goons at a roadblock etc

Having done six years of the local Ottawa area summer gathering, I can honestly say that its both a great idea and its also a total crap shoot.. with on average four and on some years up to six subjects covered in the day, which covered a lot of different subjects.

Some years we had lots of people, some years we barely had anyone, some years the costs were very reasonable overall because it was just that kind of year, other years the cost was much higher (the one year I traded out a speaking or training course to a number of the speakers at the event) while it was "free" to the guests, it was certainly not free to me, as I kept my word and lost three days at other's events. I am glad that I was able to trade, as one of the speakers on year normally gets 175 for per event for her and the others range between 50 to 200 depending) for their time.

If you want to do a rental and a full day event in regards to some of these related subjects.. I have the basic's, I have worked with two others to full day events, we charged 50 per day per person with a cap of 50 to 65 people and when it all came out.. after all costs, it runs about 300 for your day if you sell out your tickets, and let me tell ya.. Pre-sell your tickets

It works fine for the homestead, garden, harvest, canning, tree pruning, seed starting and drying and so forth.. the people interested in these types of skills will pay between 50 to 100 per day with pre-sale tickets.

I can honestly say that its a lot of work to put a good half day or full day program together.. I would lift my hat to someone that could pull off a school but I think on the flip side that you will find many talented and skilled people will not attend a "prepper" gathering.. I have had at least 60 plus percent of the people I have talked to turn me down in regards to a prepper gathering, where they will turn around and come teach at a homesteader gather..

Sad but true.

Plus I agree.. Canada is huge.. even in Ontario, on our best years in regards to the Ottawa gatherings its because amazing people on the board have driven hours to come to them to help fill the seats. But also gives a wave an a nod to some of our local's that have come for a number of years as well.. THANK YOU

Thanks for your input Farmgal. I can't start to describe the number of prepping/homesteading books that I've read. The greatest majority of these are poorly presented.

It seems that people today are more accepting of preparing for a 3-day crisis. Several organizations (like the Red Cross) encourage people to do so. That said, government hasn't really done anything (of which I'm aware). Someone will float the idea of local preparation seminars, or develop handouts which will no doubt be funded. Emergency services will require training. All of this will in-time be undertaken; it's just a matter of time. Hopefully we will have enough of it...

Wayne, welcome and its strange because its both true and not.. lol

there are lots of those folks.. the ones that are three days an done.. but there is so much more going on.. so much more!

Example a) national wide training going on in regards to equine-farm livestock fire or emergency planning training courses.. all over the country these are tracking place and this ground movement is the driving force to creating locally run emergency setups.. the detail and help this working on creating for fire, earthquake and flood etc is point in fact outstanding and made me re-do an revamp a number of my plans

Example b) I had been hired to do a preservation seminar, and while I was in the getting to know the room, I asked for a show of hands, how many root celler, how many can etc.. when I asked how many dry food with dyhdrator.. every single hand in a room of over 50 went up.. it stumped me.. I moved on in the talk till we got to the drying part and I explored it more.

Why did all these people have dryers, some has them from cabelas, ok.. some for drying things due to being apartment with limited space and this was how they could buy in season and preserve.. but the biggest reason... Cosco, Ottawa's Cosco store, carried them at huge discount and ran classes in store how to use them and still at the time I presented, sold prepared or recommended items to dry..

honestly it would never have occurred that a store would be the reason why.. but there it was.. commercial sales that turned into the strongest preservation tool in the group of people

Example c) look to the local movements, you will be amazed at what is happening quietly, I am part of a landrace growers group and just one of the projects we are working on is butternut squash, we are breeding a butternut that will produce in our climate and keep once properly cured for a year.. I never had to be the one that requested a full years storage and we are working on a pumpkin that so far we have held for 16 months with no spoil.. we are also working on a dryland Russian rice project.. you could say they are garden.. but local Canadian rice supply, winter food supply that can hold for a full year from harvest to harvest.. and the sweet potato project and so so much more

if you an I sat for coffee and I could share what has been happening quietly over the past ten years.. a small group her and a small group there.. do you know just as a example.. we have helped bring in and get over 12000 strawberry plants into the local gardens into our local food system in the past five years and we order in bulk and then sell into our food shed area.

ever little bit helps.. but us girls also have a thing we say about a lot of those homesteading books.. regurge.. they read it, repeated it and never did it themselves in x zone.. take with grain of salt an then some.

Wayne, Farmgal has said it all. There are local emergency preparedness classes given in my city, but they still focus on the immediate aftermath - 72-hrs - rather than anything long term. For those of us interested in hands-on learning for longer term/ongoing prepping, it's more piecemeal. Farmgal & Adagio have done an amazing job for the Ottawa-area annual meetup, a few years back I went to a Survival Expo in Niagara, and there is an annual prepper's meet near Toronto. It's a massive effort to organize. Beyond that, it's mostly classes/workshops offered based on specific skills or mutual interests, not all together. I agree with helicopilot - most of the "survival" courses avail to general public- with the exception of some legit bushcraft ones, are pretty gimmicky and don't really scratch the surface. Maybe you can learn to start a fire (if you never took boy scouts) but what good are they otherwise?

There is some crossover between gardening & food preservation, bit otherwise all of my hands-on skills have been learned from different groups. I also volunteered at my work, which makes me eligible for more (paid) training for advanced first aid, fire suppression, emergency mgmt, etc - if that's an option in your job. Firearms from a range/gun club, gardening from local horticulture societies, first aid from St John's Ambulance, etc, ham radio from amateur radio clubs, etc. There might be preppers going to these, but they may not come out and say this to everyone 😉 I have found that a few in each group turn out to be 'closet preppers' once you start getting to know them 😉

You do have to hand it to the preppers around Toronto. I've been following one group, the Toronto Survivalism Meetup Group, and they arrange meetups for courses on all sorts of skills. They're listed as having 1400 members, too, so they're a pretty big group with plenty of resources. That's not to say you can't find courses in your own area, though. For the subjects you are interested in, do internet keyword searches of the subjects you are interested in. Doing that I've found some pretty interesting courses including canning, wilderness survival, wilderness medicine and small engine maintenance and repair. They're out there, you just got to find them.