Thanks, Minister.
With the reserves, we've reduced recruiting down to two parade nights. It takes less than a month. With the regular force, I've directed military personnel to bring it down to about 30 days, if at all possible.
Here is the problem, and it's not as simple a thing as just doing bureaucracy faster. We have to ensure that we do adequate screening for mental health to ensure that we don't hire someone into the armed forces who we are going to hurt further by their service in the armed forces because they have a latent condition. We have to make certain that we do the security clearances. We have to make certain that we don't run into a situation where people go into the forces too fast and are incapable of service. So it's a balance.
You are correct that it has been, in the past, too bureaucratic and slow, but we still have to stay faithful to the idea of security screening and health screening.
On the security side, we do not want to be in a position where we hire someone into the armed forces who bears any resemblance to someone who would, at some point, be disloyal to Canada and the armed forces and therefore cause problems.