National Defence Committee on March 20th, 2018

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Great. Thanks very much.

I want to ask about recruitment and retention, which I always ask about.

In the presentation by the minister it was lumped together with other things into a $417-million amount, but I suspect the amount of that for recruitment and retention is actually quite a bit smaller. I was wondering if you could let me know how much of that new allocation goes to recruitment and retention. If we're going to achieve the goal of increasing by even 1% the number of women in the military every year, which is quite slow—it would take 35 years to get to equity—we're going to have to do probably triple our traditional increases in the number of women coming into the Canadian Forces. There's a big job there, and I just wonder how much has been allocated to recruitment and retention programs.

[Jody Thomas]

I'll ask the CFO is he has the specific number. If not, we can get it to you from the chief military personnel.

When we announced the defence policy, the percentage of women in the Canadian Armed Forces was 15%. It is now 17%. That's a combination of recruitment and better retention. Retention is as critical, as you note, as recruitment. We've invested a lot of money in training the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, and everyone we lose represents a huge loss, both to operational capability and to gender equity across the forces. The women who are in the forces now have chosen to be there. Women who've served throughout time in the Canadian Armed Forces want to be there. They've chosen to be there. Programs as well as conditions of service and opportunities are now being modernized to allow for better retention. It's something the chief military personnel, the chief of the defence staff, the vice chief of the defence staff, and the entire military infrastructure are focused on to ensure that not only do we recruit more but also that the retention numbers go up.

[Claude Rochette]

With reference to the specific amount, I don't have it with me, but I have a report on my desk and I know that I have that answer, so we can provide it very quickly.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you. I would appreciate that.

If I can have a minute here, in the last Parliament we lost some of the recruiting that was being done in remote and rural areas. These are often places where employment opportunities and educational opportunities are more limited. I'm just wondering whether we've been able with the budgetary allocations to restore some of those programs that, in particular, visited first nations reserves and some of the more rural and remote communities in terms of making people aware of the opportunities in the Canadian Forces.

[Jody Thomas]

The recruiting budget has been increased overall, and we will get you the number. Focusing on rural communities has always been a priority. I think hand in hand with that goes the increased funding for the reserves. For reservists, many of whom come from remote communities, there's full-time summer employment. It is their summer job, their employment, and it actually then becomes an opportunity to join the regular force. A number of programs are going on hand in glove to change both the recruitment and the retention view of the world.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Great. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Thank you all for appearing.

Before I dismiss us, as a committee, I will just review some of the things the committee has asked for.

Clarification on the relocation allowance would be appreciated. It came up a couple of times today.

There was a request for documents with regard to an interim fighter and to shipbuilding. I appreciate that some of that will rest with PSPC, so it's not in your hands, and I also appreciate that some of that is in active negotiations, but if you could share with the committee what you're able to, we would appreciate that.

I would like to say thank you for coming today and thank you all for your service to Canada.

The meeting is adjourned.