National Defence Committee on Feb. 18th, 2015

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

The other recommendation had to do with the Canadian Forces improving their informing and educating military members and their families about the nature and treatment of OSI, but with an enhanced focus on reserve force commanders, particularly those—

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Excuse me, Ms. Murray, we have a point of order.

Mr. Bezan.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Chair, I'd just like to remind Ms. Murray that we just finished doing a study on ill and injured, and we're now dealing with defence of North America. We heard from reserve command when we talked about ill and injured. I wish that she'd actually talk about the defence of North America since that's what we're studying.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I thank my colleague, but perhaps he doesn't believe that illness and injury have anything to do with—

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

No, not at all. That's not what I'm saying.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

—the defence of North America, but I do, so I'd like to continue my question here.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

We're talking about operations and protection.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

This one particularly.... And these are people, so I'm talking about how people are being treated and cared for.

Recommendation 21 particularly mentioned those who resided some distance from a military installation, so the enhanced focus on commanders to be aware of the personnel, their families. Let me link this to the Rangers. What are the concerns on a human resources level, if any, with the personnel in the ranger service? What kind of challenges are there?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

I think you'll find that the Rangers have the exact same challenges that anyone within their communities will have. We do not see any specific activities or issues different to the Rangers as we would, say, with the normal primary reservists, unless he or she has been put on operations. It's not to say that there's an event or something that would occur to a ranger that would require additional assistance or help. I can tell you that from a ranger perspective, if there is an incident or a case where a ranger is injured and they're on duty, then they will get the appropriate care that's allocated to them as a function of being on duty at the time.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Are there any particular protocols that their leaders or commanders have to address the fact that they are isolated and they may be at a distance from military, family, or installations?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Part of that is as a result of the visits that the ranger instructors do. We try to do a minimum of two visits per patrol. As you can imagine, the AOR, the area of responsibility, is extremely large, especially in the north, so in order to get out there we try to mandate at least two visits a year. Then that ranger instructor has the ability to get a sense of where the issues and the problems are, and they will identify any particular issues or problems. If it's something that the local government agencies are unable to handle, and it's deemed to be something specifically as a result of their service, then we do have that ability to identify that as a problem, and then look at that to see what is available for the care of the Canadian ranger.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Is there a recruiting path from being a ranger to becoming a regular reservist or a full-time military member?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Absolutely, as long as the requirements for service are met. You have basic recruiting criteria that are deemed as physical fitness and educational requirements. All of the basic recruiting criteria that are required for the regular force and/or the primary reserves would have to be met.

When we talk about a ranger, I would like to clarify that the Rangers have a requirement of service that allows them to not be retired. There's no age restriction other than having to be a minimum 18 years of age when they join. There are no physical or hard medical requirements that prevent them from either joining or being released. That component of it means that, again, they bring unique skill sets. As long as they're contributing towards the ranger patrol, they can in fact stay in.

In order to transfer or go on to the primary reserves or regular forces, they would still have to meet those basic entry requirements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you. That is your time, Ms. Murray.

We'll move now to the second round of questioning in five-minute segments.

Ms. Gallant, please.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I will stick to the study we're doing: the defence of North America.

My first question refers to connectivity, to communications abilities in the far north among the Rangers. What type of connectivity do they have? Do they have to use satellite phones? Do they have some sort of Internet? Is it radio frequency? How do they communicate with one another?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

I'll clarify. When we're on patrol, when they're actually conducting a patrol, they have a satphone capability at the patrol level, which the ranger patrol instructor will bring. Internal to the patrol itself, they have a hand-held Motorola radio. Quite a few of the individuals will have their own satphones because of where they're operating, just existing on land and where they're located. Again, that depends on where they are located across the country, but typically they are self-equipped for the most part.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

When they're operating among themselves, not jointly with any of our national forces, in what language do they communicate with one another?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

That will depend on where they're from. We have French Canadian members; we have folks from Labrador and Newfoundland who speak different dialects, and we have Inuit. We have members from all over the country whose language will be local to that region. I'll just go back to my comment from before. They're representative of their local community, so they will speak that local language. We don't have any mandated language, although English is predominantly the language we use to communicate with them.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

There is a summer Rangers program that includes participation by first nation teenagers. What proportion—if you track such data—of those young people go on to be long-term members of the Rangers?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Since the program came into being in the early 2000s, we're now seeing that the junior Canadian ranger program has been extremely effective at being a catalyst within the community.

I'm not sure of how much you're aware of it, and I'm not the expert on the JCR program, but the Canadian Rangers provide the program on behalf of the chief of reserves and cadets and the junior Canadian Rangers program. We provide instructors, and the local elders and the community from that area sponsor it. It's like a parent-sponsored committee or a locally sponsored committee that does the majority of the cultural training, etc., for those junior Canadian ranger patrol groups.

We do a summer training camp where they do their initial summer camp. It's typically a two-week camp. Sometimes there will be a three-week leadership piece. That is done across all five ranger patrol groups across the country.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

What portion of the Rangers are female?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

I honestly don't know that number off the top of my head. I'll refer that and get it back to you.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Is there any difference in the attrition between males and females?

[BGen Kelly Woiden]

Typically we don't see a lot of attrition out of our Rangers. They could literally be in there for.... A ranger named Alex Van Bibber in British Columbia was 98 years old. He died and was buried just before Christmas. He was one of the original founding Rangers.

There is no age restriction. We don't release them just because they don't parade. Again, they're out there all the time. I don't see a large attrition with respect to women. I will tell you that there are a lot of women who are patrol commanders, and they're elected.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Excellent. Are the search and rescue responsibilities ever part of the duties, and if they are, is each person equipped with a personal transponder?