Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me.
I am Grace Scoppio, Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, dean of continuing studies, and I teach with the department of defence studies. Among other courses, one is a course on diversity, which is actually a very well-attended course.
Over the past several years, I've been conducting research in Canada and elsewhere on diversity in the military, including in the Canadian Armed Forces. Therefore, I was invited here based on my research and expertise. I will speak on my own behalf and not on behalf of RMC or the Department of National Defence.
Research conducted over the years shows that there have been efforts in the Canadian Armed Forces to comply with employment equity legislation and enhance diversity within the organization, through different recruiting strategies, accommodation policies and various training programs. Although many steps forward have been taken, there are still gaps and challenges that need to be addressed.
Although employment equity policies are important tools to level the playing field, compliance with legislation is only the first step toward attaining a more diverse workforce and a more diverse military. The next step is seeing diversity as a strength and as value added for the organization, and ultimately changing the organizational culture.
In Canada, all military occupations are open to women. It's been so since the eighties, including combat-related occupations, so in that respect we were leaders, and we still are. Having said that, Canada does not fare better, say, in comparison with the U.S., where the combat occupations were only recently opened to women. When we look at female representation, for example, in 2016 women represented 14.4% of the regular force in the Canadian Armed Forces. In 2017, this has increased to 15.5% of the regular force. In the U.S. military, women are 17%, so despite the fact that we opened occupations well ahead of the U.S., we're not faring better in terms of female representation in the regular force.
These findings suggest that other possible barriers to women exist that go beyond legal barriers, such as requirement for mobility in the military profession—the fact that many occupations are non-traditional for women—and an organizational culture that, in fact, is not open enough toward women and other minority groups.
That brings me to visible minorities. I've spoken about this at a presentation to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, at the House of Commons, regarding Bill C-425, an act to amend the Citizenship Act. That was in March 2013.
One of the barriers to increasing the visible minority population within the military is citizenship. Again, in the U.S., many occupations are open to non-citizens, and in fact, their citizenship is expedited once they join. The Canadian Armed Forces has talked about this, but today if you look at the website for recruiting, you'll see the priority is Canadian citizens.
The CAF has established ambitious 10-year employment equity goals. Again, progress has been made, but the goals are still far from being reached. Most recently, the chief of defence staff directed an increase in the representation of women by 1% per year for the next 10 years, to achieve 25%.
I'll talk to you briefly about my research. My largest study was in 2007. I compared the Canadian Armed Forces with the U.S. as well as the U.K. and the Australian defence forces. That study made several recommendations. I'm happy to say that in 2016, the number one recommendation pointed out that the CAF did not have a strategic vision for diversity, a strategic document for diversity, and my colleague Dr. Okros mentioned that we now do have that document. I was happy to contribute to it.
The essence of the document is that it goes beyond employment equity and it is a value-based diversity strategy. I'm happy, almost 10 years after my study, to see that come to light.
I've also looked at the integration of indigenous members within the military. A well-known best practice comes to us from New Zealand. I was very fortunate to actually see it with my own eyes in a trip to New Zealand, where they have succeeded in successfully integrating Maori members, and not just as a token number. In fact, they have a significant representation, in particular in the New Zealand army, and they've integrated cultural practices within their military. Again, I've written about this.
There are differences, clearly. We have a much more diverse indigenous population. The Maori population is a lot more cohesive, as well as their language, but nonetheless it is a best practice that would be important for Canada to look at.
My recent research concerns diversity in the Canadian military colleges. Currently, I'm leading a three-year project with a four-member research team investigating possible gender bias in the recruiting for the military colleges, as well as the overall experience of officer cadets at the colleges.
I am happy to answer any questions. I will stop here. Thank you.