Re: Canadian Forces Recruitment

by Jackal Thu 22 Sep 2022, 7:40 am

Four staff working on modernizing military recruitment process but no timeline set for improvements

“As this work is still in the early exploratory stages, we do not have those specific details at this time"

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Sep 21, 2022

The Canadian Forces recognizes the importance of overhauling its recruiting system but does not yet have an idea when it wants improvements to be put in place, defence officials say.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre has acknowledged the military is facing major recruiting problems and has ordered initiatives to deal with the situation.

As a result, Maj.-Gen. Lise Bourgon, head of the military personnel branch, announced in mid-July the Canadian Forces will overhaul its recruitment process.

Four Canadian Forces members were assigned in late June to the newly created Recruiting Modernization Implementation Team, National Defence has confirmed.

But Bourgon’s command acknowledges there is no timeline on when such changes will be put in place, if at all. “As this work is still in the early exploratory stages, we do not have those specific details at this time,” Derek Abma, a senior communications advisor for military personnel public affairs noted.

Bourgon said during an online forum with soldiers in mid-July that changes were coming, including using more private contractors to handle some tasks in recruitment. “We have just stood up a Recruitment Modernization Team that will look at a complete re-design of our recruitment process,” she told troops. “They will also look at contracting activities that don’t need military personnel to complete (screening/medical etc.).”

But despite Bourgon’s statement, the command noted it can’t confirm that the team will be examining contracting out activities such as screening recruits and handling medicals. In addition, the Canadian Forces could not answer whether it will be consulting unions on contracting out jobs.

During the online forum in July, Bourgon fielded questions from Canadian Forces members and heard concerns from personnel that decades ago the recruitment process took only a few months, but now it takes years.

Bourgon’s recruiting modernization initiative is the result of a directive issued in late June by Gen. Eyre and National Defence deputy minister Bill Matthews. That 49-page document outlined a plan to prepare the military for the future as well as “overcome deficiencies that are hampering the composition and readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces.”

That directive, leaked to this newspaper, noted the need for reconstitution of the armed forces because of ongoing problems the military has had attracting new recruits and retaining skilled personnel. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced recruiting and the failure of military leaders to take care of their personnel has led to retention problems. The sexual misconduct crisis that has engulfed the Canadian Forces has also harmed retention and recruitment, according to the directive.

The directive from Eyre and Matthews noted there had been a “significant loss of experience and expertise with the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces), creating a requirement to recover and rebuild the organization.”

In her online discussions with Canadian Forces personnel, Bourgon noted that top-notch military instructors were critical to improving retention and culture.

“Instructors are the most important people in our reconstitution effort and our culture change initiative; therefore we have to be careful on who we pick and to ensure that we have the right person,” she explained in the online discussion. “When we talk about retention and people leaving because they went through a bad experience, a lot of cases are linked to training events.”

Bourgon, however, could not explain how the Canadian Forces will ensure that it has the right kind of military instructors in place.

In the meantime, the Canadian Forces has launched another survey of personnel to get their views on pay and benefits and other topics such as harassment and discrimination. The answers will help direct military leadership “in the development of personnel programs and policies,” the Military Personnel Command announced on social media Tuesday. Such surveys are done annually.

Defence Watch

by **Braven** Sun 25 Sep 2022, 3:53 pm

Military sounds alarm over recruiting problems as Canadians steer clear

Published Sept. 25, 2022

The Canadian Press

by **Joker** Tue 11 Oct 2022, 4:04 pm

Jesse Kline: Armed Forces admit there's no one left to use its rusted out gear

The current personnel crisis is the end result of decades of neglect and priorities that have little to do with military readiness

Jesse Kline
Publishing date: Oct 11, 2022

In case anyone hadn’t noticed, our military is in crisis. For years, we’ve heard stories about how Ottawa’s chronic neglect of the Canadian Armed Forces has left it with outdated hardware — sidearms that belong in a history museum, Cold War-era fighter jets, second-hand subs that even the most unscrupulous of used car salesmen wouldn’t try to hock — but a recruitment deficit exacerbated by the pandemic and a series of sexual assault scandals has exposed an even bigger problem: even if we had state-of-the-art equipment, there’s no one there to use it.

Canada’s active troop strength has been steadily declining since the end of the Cold War, dropping from 88,000 in 1989 to 72,000 in 2019. It currently stands at 63,781 — 10,000 short of where military brass think it needs to be to meet current demands — putting us behind adversaries and allies alike. Canada has about 1.9 active military personnel for every 1,000 people, compared to 2.1 in the United Kingdom, 2.5 in Australia, 4.2 in the United States and 7.1 in Russia, our perennial adversary and northern neighbour that has no qualms about using military force to achieve its aims.

We don’t even have enough experienced officers to train new recruits. The situation has become so dire that, on Thursday, Gen. Wayne Eyre, the chief of defence staff, ordered the Forces to put an immediate halt to all non-essential activities and focus on a sustained recruitment drive. Eyre’s order states that, “The rebuilding process needs to occur on an accelerated timeline given the geopolitical environment that we find ourselves operating within, especially in light of the invasion of Ukraine,” yet it’s still expected to take up to eight years (probably longer, if history is anything to go by) and will necessitate an “associated reduction in readiness levels.”

This, as the Post’s New World Disorder series has been exploring in exquisite detail, comes at a time of increasing geopolitical instability. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has served as a stark reminder that the horrors of war are neither a thing of the past, nor confined to far-flung parts of the world that can be easily ignored. Moscow’s increasingly bellicose threats to dust off its nuclear arsenal for use in actual warfare hearken back to Cold War fears of humanity’s imminent demise, only the Soviets were smart enough to know that using such weapons was not in their interest.

On the Pacific front, China has taken an increasingly aggressive stance against democracies in the West and within its own sphere of influence. Beijing has already crushed Hong Kong’s democratic institutions, and has now set its sights on Taiwan. Russia and China have engaged in international election meddling and disinformation campaigns that have sown discord in even the most robust democracies, while actively working to dismantle the postwar international order that has allowed free trade and capitalism to flourish and lifted countless millions out of abject poverty. Both have designs on Canada’s Far North.

None of this is lost on our military leaders. “Russia and China are not just looking at regime survival but regime expansion. They consider themselves to be at war with the West,” Eyre told the House of Commons standing committee on national security. “They strive to destroy the social cohesion of liberal democracies and the credibility of our own institutions,” along with “the rules-based international order, which has underpinned world stability, and indeed our national prosperity for generations.”

Although the reconstitution order represents a drastic change for our Armed Forces — shifting its focus from overseas deployments to recruitment and retention efforts at home — it is one that is clearly necessary given our diminished troop strength. Yet it is also one that is indicative of a military that is increasingly beholden to the faddish whims of the current government in Ottawa.

It’s telling, for example, that while Eyre said he is “concerned that as the threats to the world’s security situation increase … our readiness is going down,” and admitted “the military that we have today is not the military that we need for the threats that are occurring in the future,” he refused to tell MPs whether he needs more funding. The answer, of course, is that the current defence budget is woefully inadequate. Over 15 years ago, NATO defence ministers agreed to spend at least two per cent of gross domestic product on defence. This is a level that Canada maintained until 1990, but which has steadily fallen to a mere 1.4 per cent today.

To be sure, the two per cent level has always been a rule of thumb. If the Trudeau government were to get serious about national defence, it would, in all likelihood, start printing cheques like it was the early days of COVID again, leaving our army with a glut of $500 hammers and $600 toilet seats — and not much else. What’s really important is not whether we’re spending some arbitrary percentage of GDP on defence, but whether we’re providing our military with the tools and resources it needs to defend us. Which clearly we are not.

Properly equipping the CAF would require a significant “investment,” along with a concerted and serious effort to identify our defence goals and ensure the military has not only the resources, but the procurement capacity, to achieve them. Eyre surely knows this, and the fact that he is unwilling to discuss money shows that he is well aware of just how unserious the Liberals are about meeting their foreign obligations and protecting their citizens from external threats.

There are also legitimate concerns about the effects the Liberals’ woke diversity, inclusion and equity ideology is having on our military. In the spring, the government’s Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination recommended that the Armed Forces ban chaplains representing religions that don’t afford the same rights to women as they do to men — which, let’s face it, is pretty much all of them. Although the defence minister eventually threw out the recommendation following a public outcry, the fact that it happened at all is reflective of our current defence priorities (or lack thereof).

The Forces recently updated its dress code to remove “gendered language” and restrictions on hair length and hair colouring, and allow personnel to wear articles of clothing traditionally reserved for the opposite sex. It has also placed an emphasis on attracting women, First Nations and other minorities — which is fine (in a perfect world, our military would reflect Canada’s diversity), so long as it doesn’t distract from the goal of creating the biggest, baddest army we can muster. I’m just not convinced that it won’t.

Maybe if the Department of National Defence had devoted fewer resources to finding ways to make the military just as diverse as the proto-hobbits in “The Rings of Power” — or any modern Hollywood production, really — and ensuring that its policies would not offend anyone who believes we’re living in a post-gendered world, and instead focused on recruiting those who are most likely to sign up, it wouldn’t now find itself so short-staffed.

The current personnel crisis is the end result of decades of neglect and priorities that have little to do with military readiness. Until we have a government in Ottawa that is serious about improving our defence capabilities in order to defend our sovereignty, protect our citizens and play a proportionate role on the world stage, very little is going to change.

National Post
jkline@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/accessd

Cold Lake Sun

by **Rockarm** Sat 15 Oct 2022, 2:55 pm

Good luck with that! If you do not see or understand where the problems are, it's time to hang up your uniform.
Rockarm.

Defence chief calls on Canadians to rally behind military during personnel crisis

Lee Berthiaume · The Canadian Press · Posted: Oct 15, 2022

Canadian Forces Recruitment - Page 4 Military-misconduct-20220530

The Canadian Press

by Rocko Sun 23 Oct 2022, 5:05 pm

Military recruiting issues may be ‘more serious’ than senior ranks letting on: Hillier

By Rachel Gilmore . Global News
Posted October 23, 2022

As the Canadian Armed Forces grapples with how to boost recruitment amid growing global dangers, a former chief of the defence staff is warning that the situation might be even worse than the top brass are letting on.

Current Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre has warned in recent weeks that, due to recruitment issues, Canada does not have the military “that we need” to tackle future threats — and that readiness within the CAF is “going down.”

“In reality, I believe the case is much more serious than what Wayne has articulated,” said retired Gen. Rick Hillier, speaking in an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson.

The Canadian Armed Forces is supposed to be adding about 5,000 troops to regular and reserve forces, to meet a growing list of demands, but are instead short more than 10,000 trained members – meaning about one in 10 positions are currently vacant.

However, Hillier says the number that he’s hearing suggest the military is down “far greater than 10 per cent.”

“Instead of being at 70,000 people, the Canadian Forces are operating probably somewhere at about 45,000 people — and out of that, there are a significant percentage of them who are not operationally deployable or capable,” Hillier said.

“So the capability of the Canadian Forces, what we rely upon to look after us in Canada and then to represent us and protect our interests around the world and to take our values with them, that part that can do that is minuscule right now, and we need to change it.”

While military officials aren’t placing blame on any single issue with respect to the recruitment problems, the Canadian Forces have been shaken in recent years by a sexual misconduct crisis that touched even the highest ranks in the armed forces, along with wider attention on systemic racism.

The reputational problem has been compounded by concerns about the presence of right-wing extremists in the ranks. Location is proving to be an issue as well — most CAF bases and wings are in rural areas, while the majority of Canadians live in cities.

Earlier this month, the defence chief issued an order setting a new direction for the military after years of high-tempo deployments and operations, making recruitment and retention of personnel its top priority.

“We need to rebuild the Armed Forces, we need to get the numbers back up,” Eyre said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “And we’ve got to do it with a sense of urgency and priority because it is affecting our ability to respond around the world.”

The shift away from deployments and towards beefing up recruitment efforts could be part of the problem when it comes to attracting new enlisters, Hillier said, in addition to more high-profile support.

“If anybody thinks that Wayne Eyre, for all his ability, is going to fix this problem, then they are mistaken. They are wrong. He cannot fix this alone,” Hillier said.

“We need a Prime Minister who is going to show support for the Canadian Forces visibly.”

“You need that kind of visible support. You need dollars (going) into the continuing forces, and you need a full up, active, number-one-priority mission to recruit young Canadians to come and serve our nation in uniform.”

Until the recruitment issue is addressed, the Canadian Forces will continue to be “in a huge amount of trouble,” he warned.

From Canada’s ability to respond to domestic emergencies, such as the recent hurricane that battered the east coast, to the country’s ability to respond to global challenges through NATO or the United Nations, Hillier said the CAF is falling short.

“Our ability to do that goes down to almost zero — and that’s not good for a nation that’s a G7 nation,” he said.

— With files from The Canadian Press

Global News

by **Forcell** Mon 31 Oct 2022, 11:35 am

Military attrition has hit its highest level in 15 years, warns briefing prepared for generals

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Oct 31, 2022

The Canadian military is facing its highest attrition rate in 15 years and will need more than a decade to get numbers of soldiers back up to needed levels, according to a briefing prepared for defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre and other senior leaders.

Military leaders should make it a priority to fast-track increases for various benefits that allow Canadian Forces members to help offset the high cost of living, according to the briefing prepared earlier this month. The briefing was leaked to this newspaper.

“Compensation and Benefits are directly related to CAF members (quality of life), and are a key driver in both Recruitment and Retention,” the briefing for the Armed Forces Council noted.

It acknowledged the military is facing a “workforce crisis” and pointed to a plan put in place for what Eyre is calling the “reconstitution” of the Canadian Forces. That plan is supposed to unfold over the next eight years to bring staff levels back to proper levels.

But the briefing warned Eyre and other senior leaders that it is likely it will take another three years beyond that, for a total of 11 years.

That’s because the “Worst Case” scenario for military staff levels is becoming “Most Likely,” noted the briefing, prepared by the office of Maj. Gen. Lise Bourgon, chief of military personnel.

The briefing also warned of increasing attrition.

“Although attrition was forecast to be higher than average for two years post-pandemic, we are realizing likely 1000 higher than forecast, the highest in 15 years,” the briefing noted.

Specific attrition numbers weren’t included in the briefing documents, which pointed out that the regular force military currently has a trained effective strength of 62,852.

National Defence noted in an email to this newspaper that attrition for regular and reserve forces in 2021-2022 was 9.3 per cent. During that period, 5,873 regular force personnel left the ranks while 4,331 reservists exited. In 2020 to 2021, the attrition rate was 6.9 per cent.

According to the Armed Forces Council briefing, a number of military health-related jobs, as well as aviation technician and air operations, army telecommunications and cyber operations positions, have dropped to “critical staffing” levels.

A series of changes need to be made to deal with the situation, the briefing noted. Advertising budgets need to be increased to attract new recruits.

In addition, to move recruits through the system faster, the BMQ, the basic military training program for future non-commissioned members, is being cut from 10 weeks to eight weeks.

Even with various changes underway, the briefing warned there is an “applicant crisis” as there are not enough recruits.

In April, this newspaper reported on an opinion poll provided to National Defence that found the majority of Canadians don’t see the military as an organization they would want to join.

Military leaders acknowledge the ongoing sexual misconduct crisis has hurt recruiting. The lack of housing for military families and failure to increase cost of living benefits has also contributed to serving military personnel leaving the forces.

In July, Bourgon announced the Canadian Forces will overhaul its recruitment process as it tries to deal with the staffing problems.

Bourgon said during an online forum with soldiers that changes were coming, including using more private contractors to handle some tasks in recruitment. “We have just stood up a Recruitment Modernization Team that will look at a complete re-design of our recruitment process,” she told troops.

In a recent interview with Global News, retired defence chief Gen. Rick Hillier claimed the situation is actually worse than Eyre has outlined in public. Hillier claimed the military is operating with 45,000 personnel and a significant many of those individuals can’t be used on operations. But Hillier offered no actual evidence of his claim.

National Defence, in a statement to this newspaper, noted that Eyre “has ordered a significant and serious effort to reconstitute the armed forces, and will continue to provide frank and professional military advice to the Government of Canada while encouraging a whole-of-society effort to raise awareness of the benefits that come from service of one’s country, and help us bring the Armed Forces back to where it needs to be to meet current and emerging threats.”

Defence Watch

by **RunningLight** Sun 06 Nov 2022, 6:45 am

Canadian Armed Forces now allowing permanent residents to enlist amid low recruitment

Published Nov. 5, 2022

CTV News

by Sandman Thu 08 Dec 2022, 11:38 am

Military received 2,400 applications from permanent residents in November

Published Dec. 8, 2022

The Canadian Press

by **Warrior** Thu 29 Dec 2022, 11:32 am

Canadian Army feeling squeeze of more demands, fewer soldiers

Published Dec. 28, 2022

The Canadian Press

by Mountaineer Wed 01 Feb 2023, 6:52 pm

Two military recruits hospitalized after being pushed in physical fitness training – investigation underway

The two Canadian Forces recruits were allegedly subjected to physical fitness training that went far beyond what is considered necessary.

David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen

Published Feb 01, 2023

Two Canadian Forces recruits are in hospital amid allegations they were subjected to physical fitness training that went far beyond what is considered necessary.

Retired and serving military personnel told this newspaper that the recruits were hospitalized during their first week of basic military training at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, NB. They allege the physical fitness training verged on sadistic.

The two are being treated for dehydration and Rhabdomyolysis, according to military sources.

Rhabdomyolysis is considered a serious medical condition and is due to a direct or indirect muscle injury. One of the causes of Rhabdomyolysis is overexertion.

Canadian Army spokesperson Maj. Sandra Lévesque confirmed that the two recruits are in hospital. Neither the names nor the medical condition of the soldiers is being released.

“The Infantry School has launched a unit-level investigation,” Lévesque confirmed.

The investigation will allow the army to better understand the events that led to the soldiers being hospitalized.

“At this point, we are limited into the level of information we can share due to the investigation,” Lévesque added.

The U.S. military has raised concerns about Rhabdomyolysis. In 2021, the U.S. military had 513 cases of exertional Rhabdomyolysis. The highest numbers were among males, less than 20 years old.

In a 2010 study, the U.S. military noted Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle cells that release proteins and electrolytes into the bloodstream. If not treated, it can be fatal and result in kidney failure, heart attack or stroke, the study noted.

In 2018, another U.S. study noted that cases of exertional Rhabdomyolysis were on the rise among American military personnel and high school and college athletes. An individual’s fitness level, a sudden increase in exercise intensity, or specific types of exercises can put a person at risk, added the study published in Military Medicine journal.

In 2000, Rhabdomyolysis and severe swelling of leg muscles ended the Canadian Forces career of a first-year Royal Military College cadet who was hospitalized with renal failure.

The cadet’s family alleged that instructors at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School abused their authority and pushed the soldier and other recruits beyond their limits.

But a Canadian Forces board of inquiry blamed the soldier for his injuries, claiming he had pushed himself too much.

A later investigation by the office of the Canadian Forces Ombudsman determined the board of inquiry did not obtain expert medical evidence, and it misunderstood the medical information it did receive.

The ombudsman’s office also recommended the Canadian Forces develop a formal system to track and report on the evaluations of the training regimen that are being conducted.

The officer cadet was kicked out of the Canadian military as he had life-long medical complications as a result of the incident.

The Canadian Forces is currently dealing with a recruiting crisis as fewer young Canadians are interested in joining the ranks. Military leaders have also acknowledged the ongoing sexual misconduct crisis has hurt recruiting.

One recommendation presented to the senior leadership is to move recruits through the system faster. The BMQ, or basic military training program, for future non-commissioned members should be cut from 10 weeks to eight weeks, it has been recommended.

In addition, the Canadian military is facing its highest attrition rate in 15 years and will need more than a decade to get numbers of soldiers back up to needed levels, according to a briefing prepared for defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre and other senior leaders.

The briefing was leaked to this newspaper in October.

The lack of housing for military families and failure to increase cost of living benefits has also contributed to serving military personnel leaving the forces.

Defence Watch

by Cypher Fri 10 Mar 2023, 5:56 am

Military seeks public input on how to cope with low recruitment and a world of threats

Richard Raycraft · CBC News · Posted: Mar 09, 2023

Canadian Forces Recruitment - Page 4 Canadian-military-20230309

CBC News

by **Joker** Sat 01 Apr 2023, 8:53 am

The Royal Canadian Navy introduces a new recruitment opportunity

March 31, 2023

National Defence

by Looper Mon 01 May 2023, 7:33 pm

Royal Canadian Navy introduces no-strings-attached pilot program amid recruitment crisis

Melissa Lopez-Martinez . Published May 1, 2023

The Royal Canadian Navy has launched a new program in an attempt to boost recruitment amid a decline of members.

The Naval Experience Program (NEP) is a one-year program intended to give Canadians with an interest in joining the navy the full experience, without the pressure of past programs that usually last between three and five years, according to Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee.

"They're going to get the full experience of the life of a sailor," Topshee told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.

"We're trying to make sure that we account for the fact that a lot of people don't know what the navy does, and this is an opportunity for them to join the navy – one year, all expenses paid, experience life in the navy – and see if it's for them."

The Canadian Armed Forces recently reported there has been a shortage of approximately 16,000 members. Among the positions that need urgent filling are naval operators, as well as medical officers, aviation specialists, communications and technical tradespeople.

The NEP is said to offer trainees eight weeks of basic training to become a general duty sailor, followed by nine months of exposure to navy life at a home base in Nova Scotia or British Columbia. Topshee says there is also a component of experience on a foreign port to expose participants to the extensive traveling that is a requirement of the job.

"Part of the value proposition of the navy is you join the navy to see the world, so we want to make sure they experience that and see if they like the lifestyle, because it's not for everyone, being on board a ship is a different thing," he said.

Trainees will be paid a year salary of $42,000 and will also have the option to use 20 days of vacation with paid travel accommodations. Once the program is over, trainees can choose to either remain in the navy full-time or part-time, or leave all together if they decide it's not for them.

Topshee says with this program, the Royal Canadian Navy is aiming to reel in 80 per cent of participants to become full-time members.

CTV News

by Ringo Tue 15 Aug 2023, 11:25 am

The Pilot Project Podcast: Featuring Paul Hodgson, intake management officer with Canadian Forces Recruiting Group

BY SKIES MAGAZINE | AUGUST 15, 2023

SKIES MAGAZINE

by Covert Wed 13 Sep 2023, 11:24 am

Long hair, signing bonuses and 'try before you buy': How Canada's military is responding to a staffing crisis

1 in 10 positions in Armed Forces is unfilled and recruitment isn’t keeping up

David Common · CBC News · Posted: Sep 13, 2023

Canadian Forces Recruitment - Page 4 Sailor-1st-class-anton-parker

CBC News

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