One of the great successes of the reserve in attracting diversity is the attachment to the community. With the regular force, you join in St. John's, Newfoundland, but you end up in Shilo, far away from your community. The reserve, because it's local employment, is actually an incentive, because you can join and remain in your community, remain attached to it. For indigenous recruits, three of the largest obstacles to joining the forces are leaving their ancestral lands, leaving their communities, and being afraid that their tradition, culture and customs will not be entertained.
That's why we're now much more efficient. Every time we do an exercise in a northern area or near indigenous people, we do outreach activities to attract them. I think that's the great strength of a reserve—that local footprint, that permanent presence.