That gentleman up on the VDC—my colleague—in a functionally led navy has issues of recruitment and retention in his brain, but I manage, of course, retention and the forces that keep people in, just as he does, because I generate sailors and generate combat capabilities.
Our job in this equation is to make sure that the navy is a rewarding career, make sure that sailors are valued, make sure that they can work and live in an harassment-free environment, make sure that their contributions are valued, and that their mobility upward through rank and challenge is assured by fair processes. That comes down to naval readiness, because readiness is assured by motivated people who are inspired and want to own their service.
We take a beating sometimes in public perception, in the recapitalization debates. There is a negative piece that comes from that. We're not fighting, like Craig Blake, on the front lines of Afghanistan, when the credibility of the army was shown in such a positive light despite the loss of lives and the injury and all the long-term consequences of conflict of that nature. We were not at the forefront of the story of Afghanistan. However, with a modernized fleet, with our submarines operating forward, with our alliances and foreign commanders speaking of the value of our forces, I think our message and our communication is better. We are taking a number of steps to make sure that a career is manageable, that tempo isn't too high, that training occurs at the right time for a person, that people aren't posted too much, and that benefits are available to them for their deployments. We're working very hard on the retention piece.
On the recruiting side, a whole number of social and Canadian phenomena would work against us, but with reservists we have ample opportunity for speed, to make it more agile, to make the recruiting process more timely and more agile.
This subject was already started on by one of the other members of Parliament, and this is where I'll ask Art McDonald to pick up, on the recruiting piece.