Let’s mobilize our veterans

OTTAWA—There is no denying that Canada's once-proud military is facing an existential threat. Already woefully understrength, the current deficit between recruitment and retirement has the Canadian Armed Forces on what the minister of national defence admits is a “death spiral.” With close to 16 per cent of the authorized personnel roster vacant, all three military branches are already failing to meet their operational obligations to NATO and NORAD. The Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force have had to cancel international deployments due to a scarcity of trained personnel. The Canadian Army has had to cut down training exercises for those battle groups preparing to forward deploy to Latvia as part of NATO's Operation Reassurance. The plan is now for those Canadian troops to hone their combat skills once they are already sitting on the Russian border. This challenge of sustaining the Latvia commitment will only increase as Canada has promised to increase that force from the current reinforced battalion to that of a full mechanized brigade. Now add to this mix what is known as Operation Lentus, and even a casual observer will understand how the CAF is being pushed beyond the breaking point. Operation Lentus is the umbrella term for all CAF domestic deployments. In the past few years, this has involved numerous operations to fight wild fires, combat floods, evacuate refugees, and provide clean-up crews in the aftermath of hurricanes and deadly blizzards. The number of troops deployed in these instances has varied from 60 people to 2,600, which most armchair generals will realize as being a rather large percentage of the current CAF. These unscheduled disaster-relief missions interrupt scheduled training courses, and of course they burn out those personnel actually deployed away from their families for extended periods of time. This year, the weather experts are predicting an incredibly intense storm season, which will no doubt result in another wave of natural disasters. While it is a positive exercise in public relations to deploy the military to assist Canadian civilian victims of these disasters, the truth is that at some point, the entire CAF institution will simply collapse. One potential solution would be to stand down Operation Lentus as a regular force tasking. Let the CAF focus on rebuilding its ranks, and managing its actual combat-related duties. To backfill the government's ability to provide aid to the civil power, why not expand upon the existing veteran-led humanitarian organization named Team Rubicon Canada? Founded in 2016, this organization is a spin-off of a similar veteran-led initiative in the United States. Presently, Team Rubicon Canada is a largely volunteer organization with limited resources and funding. However, I think that if there was government will to do so, a large number of CAF veterans would heed the call to provide disaster-relief assistance to fellow Canadians. Especially if by doing so it would mean the current Regular Force element of the CAF could get back on track, and focus on rebuilding the institution. Obviously, there would need to be a structure of support in place in terms of compensation, and medical coverage, etc. The government could also greatly expand the resources and equipment available to Team Rubicon. Why not create a squadron of retired RCAF pilots and equip them with water bombers to operate as Air Rubicon? Our CAF veterans have the same wide variety of special skills that makes the Regular Force valuable in the aftermath of natural disasters. While they may be a little long in the tooth, I am confident that a large number of retired veterans would jump at the chance to once again serve Canada. Protecting our natural resources and fellow citizens would in fact be far more personally rewarding than fighting a war they could not win in a hostile Afghanistan. Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

Let’s mobilize our veterans

Let the CAF focus on rebuilding its ranks, and expand on the existing veteran-led humanitarian organization Team Rubicon Canada.

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Let’s mobilize our veterans

Let the CAF focus on rebuilding its ranks, and expand on the existing veteran-led humanitarian organization Team Rubicon Canada.

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