Yes.
You've got to come back to the Canada First defence strategy. The Canada First defence strategy has laid out the targets for the regular force and the reserve force. Within that discussion you then have to look at the issue of what they're speaking to. In most cases in the reserve force, it's part-time reservists, not class B reservists.
The expansion as laid out by the government is to increase the reserve force to a higher number, 3,000; that is, expanding part-time reservists across Canada in the armouries. This expansion is still on track and is not affected in any way by this discussion.
On the reserve side, class B reservist, it's very simple. As I mentioned, we had about 4,000 to 5,000 historically. As the operational tempo goes down, as more people come through the training pipeline and are ready to assume those responsibilities and duties, the number of personnel who are on full-time class B employment will come down. That's the challenge.
I throw this out as an example of something that's worth the committee taking a look at. That is, if somebody decided to leave unannounced tomorrow morning from my organization--a colonel who has been in the organization for 25 years has decided to leave and is gone--how do I fill that, to be clear?
First, I would go to the merit list that we've talked about before, and I'd look at that person on the merit list and say that person is promoted. In some cases, if you have gone too far down the list, you have to ask, how far down do you go? Are we ensuring that individuals have the time behind them, and the experience and the credibility to move into those positions? That's why you might fill that position with someone who may have been around--regular force, one, two, or three years at every rank level, corporal, master corporal, sergeant. I have a sergeant who works for me who was regular force. He is on a three-year contract; he's filling a gap. His contract expires shortly and that's it. It was to fill the gap as someone is moving along who'll be able to fill it as we expand the Canadian Forces.