Remote First Aid in Calgary & Leduc
The entry point to the wilderness program: first aid fundamentals for remote settings where help is delayed, over a weekend.
RFACalgary
Leduc
Know before you book
Length
20 hours, with more than half taught in a non-urban setting. Certification needs full attendance.
Prerequisites
You must be in good health and physical condition. More than half of this course is taught outdoors in a non-urban setting.
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Tell us roughly when you need this done by, and whether Calgary or Leduc is closer. If there is a season attached, hunting season, a planned trip, a camp opening, say so; that is what lets us prioritise where the next date lands.
Come dressed to work on the floor and to be handled: clothing you can kneel, crawl and be rolled in, closed shoes, layers. Scenario work is physical, and playing the patient is half the learning.
Register with your legal name spelled exactly the way it should appear on the certificate, and tell us in advance about anything that affects how you take part. We can plan around most things with notice.
Certificate
Your certificate is valid for 3 years. You are welcome to renew earlier. The Red Cross encourages more frequent training for skill retention, and some employers, colleges and registration bodies require it.
What you’ll be able to do
Five of the 20 skills you practise on this course. Choose one to see it.
Bleeding and wounds
Applying a tourniquet
You practise putting a tourniquet on an arm or a leg, tightening it until the bleeding stops and noting the time it went on. It is for life-threatening bleeding from a limb.
Medical emergencies
Epinephrine pen
You practise with a trainer pen until you can help someone use their own epinephrine auto-injector in a severe allergic reaction, quickly and without hesitating. You also learn the signs that tell you it is needed.
Bones and joints
Splinting
You keep an injured bone or joint from moving with a splint, padding and whatever else is on hand. You practise on a partner until the splint holds firm and the person stays comfortable.
Bones and joints
Arm sling
You tie a triangular bandage into an arm sling that cradles the forearm and takes the weight off an injured arm. You practise it on a partner and check the fingers for warmth and colour before and after.
Heat and cold
Hypothermia wrap
You build a hypothermia wrap around a partner, layering insulation inside a barrier against wind and wet, so a person with hypothermia stops losing heat. You practise moving them gently while you do it.
Course details
The facts
- Certificate
- Remote First Aid & CPR C Valid for 3 years Issued by Canadian Red Cross
- Duration
- 20 hours, with more than half taught in a non-urban setting
- Locations
- Calgary Leduc
- Price
- $400.00 + GST & applicable taxes (charged at checkout for your province)
- Prerequisites
- You must be in good health and physical condition. More than half of this course is taught outdoors in a non-urban setting.
- Recertification
- You are welcome to renew earlier. The Red Cross encourages more frequent training for skill retention, and some employers, colleges and registration bodies require it.
- Format
- In-person (Calgary, Leduc, or your location)
Where we teach this course
We teach this course in Calgary and Leduc. No public dates are posted at the moment.
We also deliver this course at your worksite for groups, useful for crews who can’t release staff to travel. Onsite delivery carries an additional fee on top of per-person pricing. Request an onsite quote.
We travel for private and group training across Canada, and internationally by arrangement. If you’re outside Alberta, tell us where you are and we’ll price it.
Our Calgary classroom
1550 5 St SW #300, Calgary
Street view image: Google Our Leduc classroom
4810 50th Ave Suite 100, Leduc
Street view image: Google
The full course
What you’ll be able to do
- Size up an incident when no ambulance is minutes away
- Deliver first aid fundamentals with the kit you actually carried
- Improvise splinting, wound care and warmth from pack contents
- Perform CPR to the Level C standard on adults, children and infants
- Use your own take-home pocket mask for ventilations
- Make stay-or-move decisions and know what each one commits you to
- Look after a patient over hours, not minutes, without losing the plot
- Know exactly where you sit on the wilderness ladder and what the next tier adds
Where Remote First Aid sits on the wilderness ladder
Delta's wilderness program is a ladder, and the hours explain the prices.Read moreShow less
Delta's wilderness program is a ladder, and the hours explain the prices. Remote First Aid is the twenty-hour entry tier, a weekend. Wilderness First Aid is the forty-hour tier for people who lead others or go further out. Wilderness First Responder is the eighty-hour professional tier for guides and expedition staff. Each tier goes deeper and stays out longer.
Choose by two questions. How far from help do you actually go, and how long would you be the only care available? A day hiker an hour from the trailhead needs this course. Someone guiding paying clients for days at a time needs to be higher on the ladder, and we would rather point you up the ladder now than have you discover the gap in a real situation.
If you are not sure which tier fits, tell us what you actually do outside and we will answer honestly, including when the answer is that the cheaper course is enough.
First aid when the ambulance is hours out
Because this is a Canadian Red Cross course, the Red Cross owns the curriculum and we teach to their standard rather than reprinting their outline here.Read moreShow less
Because this is a Canadian Red Cross course, the Red Cross owns the curriculum and we teach to their standard rather than reprinting their outline here. What is ours to describe is the shape of the problem. City first aid assumes paramedics arrive in minutes and take over. Remote first aid assumes they do not, and that changes what matters: decisions hold consequences for hours, improvised equipment matters because the kit you carried is the kit you have, and the patient in front of you might also be cold, far from the vehicle, and yours to look after for a long time.
The scenarios are built by people who have worked real backcountry and roadside calls. Expect floor time, improvised splinting and wound care with what a pack actually holds, and decisions about staying put versus moving that have no textbook-tidy answer.
CPR is part of the course, to the Level C standard, adults, children and infants, because remote does not get to choose its patients.
A pocket mask that goes home with you
Your fee includes a hard-shell pocket mask: the real clamshell mouth-to-mask device, with the one-way filter valve, the elastic strap and the case.Read moreShow less
Your fee includes a hard-shell pocket mask: the real clamshell mouth-to-mask device, with the one-way filter valve, the elastic strap and the case. It comes out of its packaging in class, you train with it on the manikins, and then it goes home with you.
Nobody hands you a mask another class used and wiped down. Yours is new, and after the course it belongs in your pack, next to the first aid kit you are about to take more seriously.
Who this suits, and who should climb higher
Remote First Aid fits people whose distance from help is real but bounded: day hikers and scramblers, hunters and anglers, quadders and sledders, cabin and acreage owners, canoeists on accessible water, and camp staff who are near a road but far from a hospital.Read moreShow less
Remote First Aid fits people whose distance from help is real but bounded: day hikers and scramblers, hunters and anglers, quadders and sledders, cabin and acreage owners, canoeists on accessible water, and camp staff who are near a road but far from a hospital.
Climb the ladder instead if you are responsible for other people in the backcountry. Trip leaders, youth group leaders taking kids out overnight, and anyone paid to have others in their care should read the Wilderness First Aid page. Guides, trip staff on multi-day expeditions and backcountry professionals should read Wilderness First Responder.
The honest test: if something went wrong on your usual trip, would you be a participant who helps, or the person everyone turns to? Participants who help belong here. The person everyone turns to belongs higher up.
How it runs, and the certificate
The course runs about twenty hours over two days, typically a weekend, in Calgary or in Leduc for the greater Edmonton region.Read moreShow less
The course runs about twenty hours over two days, typically a weekend, in Calgary or in Leduc for the greater Edmonton region. There is no publicly scheduled date at the moment, so the button on this page registers your interest, and enough interest from one area is genuinely how the next date gets scheduled. Groups move fastest: a hunting camp, a quad club or a workplace with remote crews can often get a date built around them.
What you receive on successful completion is a Canadian Red Cross Remote First Aid & CPR C certificate. Certification requires demonstrating the skills to the instructor to the Red Cross standard; nobody is passed on attendance alone. The validity period is printed on the certificate, so read the date the day you get it.
We also deliver this course onsite for an additional fee, at camps, lodges and worksites across Alberta, elsewhere in Canada, and internationally on request.
Who this course is for
- Day hikers, scramblers and trail runners in the Rockies and foothills
- Hunters and anglers whose spots are deliberately far from everything
- Quad, snowmobile and side-by-side riders
- Cabin, acreage and remote property owners
- Canoeists and paddlers on road-accessible water
- Camp staff and outdoor program workers near a road but far from a hospital
- Workers whose sites sit hours from the nearest ambulance
- Anyone starting the wilderness ladder before a bigger objective
Where this course fits
Related reading
- Before the First Cold Snap: The Winter Injuries to KnowFrostbite, hypothermia and carbon monoxide arrive with the first real cold, not the worst of it. Who gets hurt in an Alberta winter, and what this week covers.
- The Ten Minute Trip Plan That Finds YouA rescue starts when someone notices you are late. Ten minutes of writing before you leave decides how long that takes, and where they look.
- Why Cold Makes a Simple Injury SeriousCold is rarely the emergency you set out to treat. It is often the one that makes everything else worse. Here is the reasoning, and why you treat it early.
Where to go next
Meet the people behind Delta Emergency
Our instructors are working paramedics and firefighters who keep training in their own fields.
Meet the team
What is the difference between Remote First Aid and Wilderness First Aid?
Hours and depth. Remote First Aid is the twenty-hour entry tier over a weekend. Wilderness First Aid is the forty-hour tier that goes deeper and assumes you are further out for longer, often with others in your care. If you lead people in the backcountry, read the Wilderness First Aid page before booking this one.
Is CPR included?
Yes. The certificate is Canadian Red Cross Remote First Aid & CPR C, so CPR to the Level C standard, adults, children and infants, is part of the course.
Do I need any experience or a previous certificate?
No. There is no prerequisite. Reasonable comfort working on the floor and outdoors helps, but there is nothing to hold before day one.
When is the next date?
There is no publicly scheduled date yet, so register your interest and name your deadline or season. Several people needing it at once is usually what causes the next date to be scheduled, and groups can often get a date built around them.
Can you run this at our camp or worksite?
Yes. We deliver onsite for an additional fee covering travel and setup, at camps, lodges and worksites across Alberta, elsewhere in Canada, and internationally on request. Send us your group size and location.
How long is the certificate valid?
The validity period is set by the Canadian Red Cross and printed on the certificate you receive, so read the date the day you get it and put a reminder in your calendar before a big season.
I guide or lead trips professionally. Is this enough?
Probably not, and we would rather say so now. People responsible for others in the backcountry generally belong at Wilderness First Aid or Wilderness First Responder, and some employers name a specific tier. Send us the wording you have been given and we will read it with you honestly.
Is the course physically demanding?
Yes, pleasantly so. Expect floor and scenario work, kneeling, rolling patients and being rolled, and improvised carries. Tell us in advance about anything that affects how you take part and we will plan for it.
Cancellation, transfer, and refund terms are shown before payment and confirmed at registration. Not sure which course fits? Email us and we’ll help.
All coursesLast reviewed 2026-08-01