National Defence Committee on March 23rd, 2015

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

The only variation is that reserve units can be at a source of information or a point of contact, as opposed to the regular force who must initiate the process at a recruiting centre. The army and the navy use their local units as an attraction centre, to assist with the initial processing, although all files, regular and reserve, primary reserve, and our cadet instructors, must go through the recruiting processing that is centralized across the Canadian Forces recruiting group. There are different standards and different testing for those on the cadet side of the house and Canadian Rangers. The primary reserve recruiting process is exactly the same as the regular force, with the exception, as I say, of being able to do part of the processing at a local unit.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

What about transition? If you're a regular force member, could you transfer out for a while and go back? How does that work?

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Yes, in fact that's one of the things we'd like to facilitate. Right now we have two human resource management and pay systems: one for the regular force, one for the reserves. That doesn't allow for the transferability or ease of transfer that we would like to see. We'd like to aim for, and we are in fact going to, an amalgamated system that will allow for a continuum of career, with electronic records. At this point in time, you can transfer. It is a bit cumbersome and a bit time consuming, in that, as we discussed earlier, it does depend on whether your trade, your occupation, and your rank fit with the local unit. But you can transfer both into and out of regular and reserve force.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Okay.

Finally, Admiral Bennett, I want to congratulate you on your appointment as the defence champion of women. Could you maybe elaborate as to what this posting involves? I'm curious. My wife is in the navy and I'd like to know all about it, so I can go home and tell her about it. She might already know, but I don't.

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Our champions are part of our employment equity and diversity program. In fact each of the government departments does have designated groups. There are four of the designated groups, and in our case, each of those has a champion: visible minorities, aboriginals, persons with disability, and women. In our case, a champion is a senior member of the organization who works to champion the cause, as the word implies. In my case, because I am a member of that group, I can also represent our constituents outside of the department and the Canadian Armed Forces. It's to help identify systemic issues, occupational barriers, and other items. In my job it goes beyond that, in fact, in engaging and informing women about opportunities within the Canadian Armed Forces, about our evolution, and internationally as well, because of our role on the world stage with the use of women in combat and the integration of women. It's an interesting combination that originally stems out of that employment equity and diversity portfolio.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you.

The time is up, Mr. Williamson.

We'll go to Ms. Murray, please, for seven minutes.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Well, thank you for being here to help us understand this important portfolio. In British Columbia, of course, the reserves are the face of the Canadian Armed Forces, so they're very important to us British Columbians. We were very proud of the contribution the reservists made in Afghanistan, with so many deployed.

There's been commentary from the ombudsman and from previous committees about the challenge of reservists coming back from deployment who may have been injured, have mental injuries, and may be at risk for PTSD. If they drop out of their work place, or they drop out of active connection with their reserve unit, they fall into the cracks. So there were suggestions in a 2009 committee report as to how to prevent that. Could you tell me what's been implemented that's changed that situation, if anything?

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

I can speak generally about the reserve force, and then I'll turn to General Bury about what the army has done, because the majority of those deployed in Afghanistan did come from the army reserve.

First, we have always made the point that access to care has to be geographically dispersed, and in the case of the Canadian Armed Forces in particular we are using civilian providers for mental well-being. That's important in areas where you don't co-locate with a base, and as you mentioned, in British Columbia with the diversity there.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Excuse me. I'm particularly interested in the gap where you don't actually follow them to know that they're in trouble.

Could we have a really short answer to that? I have a few other questions. Thanks.

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Okay. I'll let General Bury speak to what the army has done.

[BGen P.J. Bury]

Thank you, ma'am.

One of the items that the chain of command is very conscious about is the health and welfare of the soldiers, sailors, and aviators who are returning to Canada. There is a process whereby the commanding officer of the unit will track and is mandated to track the appointments and almost the demobilization, if I could use that term, of the individual. That includes ensuring that the individual does attend the appointments with the health services, mental health providers—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay. I understand that there is a check—

[BGen P.J. Bury]

There is.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

—upon their return, but what if they drop out of their unit? What kind of framework for systematic follow-up is there over the coming years? I ask because it's not just immediate: sometimes these problems are present five or more years later.

[BGen P.J. Bury]

They do. If the individual goes on what we call “non-effective strength”, if he drops off parading, it becomes very problematic. In order to—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay. So we haven't really solved that yet.

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Well, it remains the responsibility of the chain of command and we do what we can to follow them, but as well, if the individual is no longer in that local area, it's hard to track. We work very hard to have a system of support and stay in contact with them, both formally and informally.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Who is responsible for that?

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

The commanding officer—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

There's that, so.... I'm very interested in this. Is there actually a framework and an accountability for following...? I mean, we work very hard and it can be a difficult....

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Not an accountability—once the person has released, the commanding officer isn't accountable—but we are working to ensure that contact is maintained. It's much easier now through social media and through networking, and—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay. I think that if it's the “try hard” but there's not actually a system of accountability, we have more work to do on that.

I also was interested in the retention of reservists. I understand that the present retention rate has been a problem. Can you tell me what that rate is and what steps are being taken to improve retention?

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

Retention has always been a bit of a challenge in the reserves, in that we lose about 50% of our people in the first five years after they have joined. It varies by service for retention levels, and it also depends on the amount of training and the deployment. We've recently noticed a surge in the post-Afghanistan period as people returned to units and find that they're certainly not getting the same level of excitement from exercises and unit-level training that they did in Afghanistan.

We've worked very hard on a number of programs, some of which are an attraction and retention combination. We have an education reimbursement program that pays reservists $2,000 a year over a period of four years. It's based on successful attendance at the reserve unit. It's paid a year in arrears.

We're also looking at trying to keep people engaged and interested at the unit level with career progression and leadership opportunities and those types of things—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you for that.

[RAdm J.J. Bennett]

—but there is a standard five-year pattern of attrition as students graduate and then start their first job.