National Defence Committee on Feb. 18th, 2015

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

It's not so much for the allies. In that particular case, there is an Arctic survival training camp that the European nations utilize, and because the local expertise happens to be within the Rangers, they have contracted them to support and provide survival training. That's not unusual. Again, it's to be able to live off the land, conducting local sustenance training and hunting and survival skills.

We also do the same thing whenever we take Rangers, for example, in support of the Arctic survival training that's done in Resolute for the air force. We bring Rangers out there to show how to do winter shelters, live off the land, how to fish in a survival context. We do that with most soldiers, and we take that training opportunity when we put them in a northern operation.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

The Inuit have been doing that for centuries, teaching people how to live in the north.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

That's time, Mr. Harris.

Mr. Norlock, go ahead for seven minutes, please.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

General, could you provide some more details strictly with regard to the surveillance tasks carried out by the Rangers and how they directly contribute to the defence of North America and more specifically to Canadian sovereignty over the north? Perhaps you could add to that some insight as to the level of interaction and interoperability between members of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves and regular force members or reservists of the U.S. military and how these contribute to the defence of North America.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Yes, sir.

When it comes to surveillance, again it's a part of their day-to-day presence. That, I can't stress enough, is one of the advantages we have.

When they're out on the land, out in isolated regions, if they see something unusual.... I'll just use an example from Resolute. There was a First Air aircraft crash in Resolute. Among the very first people on site were the Canadian Rangers. They were local. They were close, and they were able to respond.

They're there not just for domestic activity—there's the observation or sovereignty piece—but also for security, such as when there is unusual boat traffic or unusual aircraft fly over top, or a periscope pops up out of the ice, and those types of things happen. This type of passive surveillance is a real-time piece that's then transmitted back through the chain of command. They all recognize it as a function of their day-to-day responsibilities to do that. Unless they're purposely tasked, they are given a sovereignty patrol to conduct, which is a specific type of patrol they do in conjunction with the rest of the defence team. But normally it's a day-to-day activity to be out in the isolated region.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you very much.

I've spoken personally to one of the folks in charge in northern Ontario, Captain Rittwage. He speaks very highly of the persons he commands. I believe that's in the northern part of Ontario. Whereabouts would that be exactly? Is that in the areas of James Bay and Hudson Bay?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

That's correct.

The Canadian Rangers go all the way along James Bay, up Hudson Bay, along the east coast, right up to the Arctic Circle, right to the edge of the Arctic Circle where it goes into Quebec.

It's a little bit of a misnomer. Almost everyone believes the Arctic portion, or the isolated region, is within only Inuvik, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon. But there is actually a portion of that in Quebec, just in a very isolated region. In fact, I'm going to Kuujjuaq and Schefferville this weekend to participate in a training exercise of the 2nd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group out of Quebec.

The conditions are very austere. You don't have to go very far, for example, even north of Winnipeg, until you're in an isolated region and in pretty austere conditions. Northern Ontario can get very austere very quickly as you start moving two or three hours north of the Canada-U.S. border.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

I did ask about the interoperability with our ally to the south. Specifically what kind of training or what kind of activity would they do together that would contribute to the defence of North America?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

There are a variety of exercises. I'll speak to the ones in my lane that I'm aware of, from the army perspective, and certainly within anything the Canadian Rangers and army reserves have done.

We have joint training exercises or we invite the United States military forces to train with us on exercises such as Operation Nunalivut and Operation Nanook. We have northern training exercises. Anything conducted north of 55° is considered a northern training exercise, a NOREX. We have done that repeatedly, and we will continue to do so, and increasingly both the United States Army National Guard and the army reserve units will participate with us. As recently as a few months ago, 5th Canadian Division did that up in Labrador.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you.

I also note there has been a role for a reserve unit other than the Canadian Rangers, namely the Yellowknife Company in the Canadian Arctic. I believe that is also within the purview of your responsibilities. I wonder if you could expand on what its duties are.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Absolutely.

The Yellowknife Company is a company minus organization that was set up I believe in about the 2009-10 timeframe established at that time to expand and have more of a military presence, in this case a primary reserve presence in the north.

It is a company of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, so it's part of that organic unit. It has been fairly slow to continue and it is primarily a rifle company, not necessarily Arctic trained when it gets full operational capability. It has yet to achieve IOC. The company will be around 135 strong, ultimately.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

You said “yet to achieve IOC”.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Sorry, initial operating capability.

We are building the nucleus of leadership, which is the critical portion. We're now at about 38 folks in that company and continue to slowly expand. But they don't have a specific role in northern training other than being a force generator for anything that would happen within 41 Brigade, which they come under.

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Thank you.

In an interview given in June 2012 you stated that during the mission in Afghanistan the army reserve transitioned from a strategic force to an operationalized force. Can you explain that so the average person out there can understand what that means? Would there be a reversion to the strategic force now that combat operations are completed?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

What essentially occurred is that as we were more protracted in operations within Afghanistan the reserve became more operationalized. What I mean by that is that as we were force generating task forces to go out for deployment every six months around 2005-06 we started to see that almost 20% to 25% of those task forces were comprised of reserve soldiers. These task forces that went out, because of this component, we were then force generating an operational component. So the term “operationalization of the reserves” was a result of what we call line of operation 3, a more sustained, deliberate operation of which we would then find ourselves continually in a force generation mode 4.

We now consider ourselves more of an integrated force so that as we go through there remain specific capabilities for line of operations 1 and 2, both of which are domestic operations. We have specific role mission at task 4 for the reserves: our Arctic response company groups or territorial battalion groups, which I think you are aware of, and then line of operation 3, which again is the sustained mission. If one comes up, we would be expected to provide certain capabilities for that task 4 on a specific integrated role.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, General.

Your time is up, Mr. Norlock.

Ms. Murray, please, you have seven minutes.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I'm going to start with a question about the regular reserve force that you are the chief of staff for.

I understand that in an earlier committee, the committee members heard that there was a challenge with reservists returning from Afghanistan or from operations. They may be in contact with their commander for maybe three months, and then after that they are back into their workplace or civilian life of some sort. It was a problem that mental illness challenges were not identified the way they were with the regular forces. The committee made some recommendations to address that.

Can you tell me if those recommendations were implemented or how that concern that reservists were falling between the cracks in terms of mental challenges and PTSD is getting addressed?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Yes, ma'am.

I'll keep my comments to my specific responsibility and my awareness of the problem.

As we had individuals come back from operational tours they then returned to their class A part-time unit in many cases, if they were a part-timer.

Where the problem began and was of issue was if the individual became non-effective, no longer paraded, the unit was not aware, and they were essentially released. In most cases for all the right reasons the individual decided they no longer wanted to stay in. That was a small number. There was concern that some of those folks and soldiers may have had issues and whether they were able to access the level of care.

Part of the problem we had was if they were still in the unit we could track them and provide that level of care, but unless they self-identified, this became a bit of an issue. There was not a large number but there was that potential.

I must admit I don't remember exactly what the recommendations of the committee were. I would have to get back to you on that.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Yes, that's the situation I was raising, but my question really is, what's being done to address that? The specific recommendation included chains of command remaining in regular contact with CFHS case managers and taking an active interest in the soldier's treatment program, as well as ensuring that there was some follow-up and tracking. Is there a change of procedure? This was written in 2009.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Correct. Yes, there has been a variation and change to the joint personnel support unit, how the individual and the reservists would get into the joint personnel support unit, and that interaction with the unit. What I was referring to was the individual who was released, who was no longer in the military system, and how it's very difficult for the unit to have any responsibility for the individual because they're no longer in the system.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

So we haven't figured that out yet.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

What it is now—and again I would probably refer that to Veterans Affairs and the other aspects of the JPSU—is that there is the ability to come through Veterans Affairs and identify an issue and a problem, and to come into the support system that is there. Once an individual leaves the unit, it's very difficult for a commanding officer or the chain of command to maintain contact with that individual.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Yes, reserves are a different category from just leaving a unit as a full-time soldier.

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

I would say it would be the same issue with a regular soldier who left and did not identify that he or she had a problem.