National Defence committee  First, Mr. Chairman, to refer to exhibit J and give a little explanation, the green line represents actual attrition over the three- to four-year period depicted on the graph. The number one category, as shown in the dotted blue line, is voluntary attrition. That's our biggest source of loss.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, it depends really on the occupation in which the individual is enrolled, but basic recruit training is standard. It's 13 weeks for a private and I think about 11 or 12 weeks for an officer candidate. After that, there are a number of factors that determine how long it takes to get qualified.

National Defence committee  Yes, we are, and they're no different from the rates in the rest of the Canadian Forces. I think that's an indicator of our success.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have that information on hand, but we do maintain a database that tracks people. It's kept separately from the main human resource management information system database simply because that information is personal. People self-identify as belonging to these groups.

National Defence committee  So we keep that database confidential and separate, but we do track them to see how they are progressing, because as part of our periodic systems reviews that we are required to perform under the Employment Equity Act, we look to see if certain groups are disadvantaged in any way.

National Defence committee  Based on very preliminary research, because some cohorts have only been back in what I would call non-operational duty for a short period of time, there's no difference in the attrition rates between those who have served in Afghanistan and those who haven't when those samples are matched on a variety of characteristics.

National Defence committee  There are two groups that I haven't mentioned already. With the aboriginal population, for example, where our goal is 2.8%, we have cultural orientation programs where they can try out the military. We have the Bold Eagle program that originated in Saskatchewan; it's western-based.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, the general model for determining representation goals in the federal public service and other areas of the economy that are federally regulated are determined by the labour department and the work availability estimates they have for those populations. However, given that the military is not homogeneous in terms of its jobs--there's a wide variety of jobs, and they would like us to think in those terms--we have explained to them that joining the military is not like taking a job in corporation X or corporation Y.

National Defence committee  Correct. Mr. President, I think there are really three factors that we need to look at in terms of explaining and dealing with senior-level attrition and retention. One is the structural issue that the general has referred to. Back in the 1970s, when the terms of service structure for the Canadian Forces was designed and implemented, they put in place a provision that at certain gates people had the option of leaving voluntarily or the Canadian Forces had the option of directing release if they felt there were surplus numbers there or if they wanted to retain a more robust population in the Canadian Forces.

National Defence committee  Exactly. The other issue that I think we need to look at, which makes senior-level management loss a concern, is that the demographic profile of the Canadian Forces is far from ideal. In fact it is bimodal, if you want to put it that way. We have a very large cohort of young people, we have a very large cohort of long-service people, and we have a very small cohort of mid-career folks—and that is the future leadership of the Canadian Forces.