Thank you very much for the question.
The naval reserve in Canada, first and foremost, is a strategic reserve. These are part-time citizen sailors who play a key role in engaging in their local communities and establishing a Royal Canadian naval presence in communities that are far from salt water, who get that message out and allow bridges to be built and dialogue to be encouraged. They allow folks to learn more about their navy, what it does for them, and encourages them to be able to ask the right questions, especially when it comes to choosing to serve. So, first and foremost, that's what our several thousand naval reservists do. We have 24 naval reserve divisions in Canada from coast to coast and, of course, in all of your constituencies, I'm sure.
Having said that, they are primarily involved in strategic engagement locally. One of the principles for our naval reservists is that they must be trained and prepared to go to sea, because at the end of the day a reserve is all about surge and capability when the need presents itself, such as when the militia was surged to support the Canadian Army in the mission in Afghanistan.
So all our sailors in the naval reserve choose a trade as officers or sailors and are trained in those trades. One of the key missions they do for the navy is crew our Kingston-class minor coastal defence vessels, the 12 that we have in the inventory.
What the chief and I are moving toward, because we found that this model is not sustainable, is what we call the “one-navy concept”. I would like to see our naval reservists not only go to sea in the minor coastal defence vessels, but also have opportunities to go to sea in the larger major combatants—the frigates, the destroyers, and the underway replenishment ships—and that our regular force sailors also have the opportunities to sail in our Kingston class. We've begun to do this. I want to create a one-navy mindset, a culture where naval reservists and regular force sailors look at each other on an equal level. I think this is a powerful way to go forward.