Let’s get creative: CAF can’t keep picking up emergency response shortfall

OTTAWA—As Canada watched in horror last month, Alberta's landmark town of Jasper was engulfed in a wildfire, and the federal government announced that the Canadian Army would provide disaster assistance. In this instance, some 75 members of the Second Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry deployed to help residents of Jasper safely return to the remnants of their charred town. Over the past few years, the sight of Canadian military personnel assisting citizens in the wake of disasters has become all too commonplace. Forest fires in Alberta? Send in the military. Flooding in Quebec? Send in the military. Massive blizzard in Newfoundland? Send in the military. Pandemic stricken long-term care facilities in Ontario? Send in the military. Power lines downed by a hurricane in Nova Scotia? Send in the military. The image of uniformed military personnel on site with specialized equipment is reassuring to civilians, and to be honest, it is a great public relations exercise for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). However, what the average layperson fails to grasp is that this is not the primary task for what is supposed to be a combat-capable Armed Forces. Every unscheduled deployment interrupts the scheduled training and professional development necessary to keep our military formations sustained. Now, it is no secret that the CAF is woefully understrength at present due to a crisis in both retention and recruitment. At last count, there were 16,500 vacancies in an authorized regular and reserve joint strength of 105,000. The recruitment shortfall is not due to citizens not being willing to volunteer. Last year, some 70,080 individuals signed up at the recruiting centres, but only 4,301 could be processed and sent to basic training. The reason for this is twofold as the bureaucratic process is backlogged, and—due to the shortfall in personnel—trainers are in short supply as well. Again, for those not familiar with a modern military, soldiers do not simply go through entry-level training and become combat capable. At all levels, personnel receive advanced weapons training, leadership training, trades training, and—when money and ammunition stocks permit—actual formation-level training exercises. Pulling a unit out of that rotation for unscheduled disaster relief operations throws a monkey wrench into the works. And when you are dealing with a profession that involves the use of lethal force, there should not be a cutting of corners. Recently retired chief of defence staff General Wayne Eyre understood all too well the impact that Operation Lentus has been having on the state of readiness of the CAF. Operation Lentus was initiated in 2010, and is the blanket term for any domestic deployment of the CAF as aid to the civil powers. In an April 23 virtual town hall video conference with the senior leadership of the CAF, Eyre stated: “I made it quite clear to other departments that our capacity to do what we did last year is not the same, especially with reduced readiness , increased deployments to Latvia. We’re not going to have the same forces available … for the scale and duration of response.” This year, the CAF commitment to the forward-deployed battle group in Latvia as part of NATO's Operation Reassurance is set to grow from the current 800 personnel to roughly 2,200 Canadian troops. As the overall force numbers continue to decline, and the fixed commitments continue to grow, something will eventually break. Given the reality of climate change, the demand for federal disaster assistance will only increase. The answer cannot always be "send in the military." They are a spent force. Why not implement a limited form of national service and create a manpower pool nationwide that could be called upon in an emergency? There is already in existence Team Rubicon, which is a volunteer force of mostly retired military personnel. Why not build heavily upon this organization as the foundation with a registry of community-minded Canadian citizens willing to deploy when needed? While we are being creative, why not purchase 24 Canadian-built CL-415 water bombers, and create a full squadron of firefighters based on retired Royal Canadian Air Force aircrew? For those Colonel Blimps still fretting about Canada not spending the full two per cent of gross domestic product on national defence, we can add the cost of these organizations to the defence budget. Defending Canada's natural resources in the face of extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change is more patriotic than militarily occupying a hostile third-world country. Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times