Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, everyone.
On behalf of Canada Company, with “many ways to serve”, I very much appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today.
My name is Blake Goldring. I'm the founder and chairman of Canada Company. Our organization was created in 2006 to bring business and community leaders from across Canada together to support our Canadian military and their families.
Canada Company is apolitical, and we take no government money.
Some of our initiatives that you might know include our camps for the children of deployed soldiers, and also the scholarship fund, which provides post-secondary school funding for children of military parents who have been killed serving on an active mission.
Today we're here to seek your support for a fair and effective compensation program for the employers of Canada's military reservists. We believe that such a program is necessary to recognize the sacrifices made by both reservists and their employers and to strengthen a relationship that is vital to Canada's safety and security. Most important, this program will send a strong signal about the importance of reservists' public service by sharing its true costs across society.
The Canada Company submission is based on recommendations made by the C.D. Howe Institute that were recently endorsed by the Pratt report and the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute. This institute is supported by major employer groups, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Whether serving in peacekeeping or nation-building efforts or in combat zones, military reservists are a growing component of Canada's security at home and abroad. Last year the C.D. Howe Institute issued a report that showed that existing federal and provincial job laws created to protect jobs of deployed reservists actually dissuade employers from hiring reservists. We believe that the stick, as embodied by the current patchwork quilt of various employment legislation across provinces, must be accompanied by a carrot, our proposed compensation program. By that I mean that incentivizing employers and covering their true costs will improve overall conditions for reservists and signal to employers that their efforts and costs are important to our society.
The costs incurred by employers include recruiting and training a replacement, overtime costs to cover absences, productivity loss, and retraining costs of returning soldiers. These costs are particularly challenging for smaller businesses, which find them more difficult to absorb within their operations. That is why our proposal is tailored primarily for smaller companies.
Reservists are also affected by the current system, sometimes choosing not to deploy in deference to employer opposition, hiding the reservist's status, and finding fewer employment opportunities. The conclusion of both the C.D. Howe Institute and the Pratt report found that the system needs to be changed, or else the employer pool will be eroded and will further increase pressure on our military planners to recruit and retain reservists.
Our proposal incorporates the best of the learning from the programs in the United Kingdom and Australia. Based on 2011 deployment levels, the C.D. Howe Institute projects that a fair and effective employer compensation program can be implemented at the per annum cost of $8 million. This cost-effective program will more equitably distribute employee deployment costs across society rather upon than a small number of employers; second, it will ensure a vibrant pool of reservists by improving their reservist employment opportunities and working conditions; it will ease reservist deployment and transition back to civilian life; it will enable DND to make better personnel decisions and plan for the future; and most importantly, it will send a clear signal that the public service of a reservist is noble and a good thing to do.
In conclusion, the men and women who serve as military reservists make many sacrifices to protect Canadian values at home and abroad. We think the time has come to implement an employer compensation program that demonstrates our appreciation for this essential public service.
Mr. Chair, we thank you and the committee members for your consideration of this important initiative and for your continued support for Canada's military.
Thank you.