National Defence Committee on April 27th, 2022

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I understand that. I just want to know.... I think what you're saying is that, whether or not federal vaccine mandates are lifted, anybody who wants to be a member of the armed forces has to be vaccinated against the COVID virus. Is that correct? That will be a permanent requirement going forward.

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

That is the requirement at this time, unless they are unable to be vaccinated.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you.

I'd like to talk about average retirement age. When does an armed forces member typically retire, at what age?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

Canadian Forces members enter on different lengths of contracts. They maybe first have an initial contract for three or five years. Then they can extend to a longer contract. From a maximum age perspective, normally at the age of 55 you make an election as to whether or not you would like to serve until 60. We allow that to take place. There are even some instances on a case-by-case basis where people can serve past the age of 60.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

It seems to me that we have this resource, people who are over 55 years of age, who have all these skill sets, acquired knowledge and experience who could be used beyond the age of 55, because Canadians are living healthier and longer.

Do you have any plans to pursue a program that would allow members to serve longer, even if they don't comply with the fitness requirements?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Unfortunately, Mr. Fast hasn't left you any time to answer that question, but I'm hearing an application by Mr. Fast for consideration of that.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you. That would be great.

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

Do you want to join?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

He's a little light in the fitness requirements.

We'll have Mr. May for five minutes, please.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, thank you all for being here to contribute to and round out this study. Of course, thank you for your continued service.

My first question is about the universality of service. We've heard that this principle may no longer reflect the realities of a modern military force. What work is CAF doing to re-evaluate this principle?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

I'm going to turn this over to General Bourgon. It's her team that is responsible for universality of service and its review.

[MGen Lise Bourgon]

Thank you very much, Vice Chief.

It's an excellent question, Mr. Chair. There is a review ongoing right now, looking at modernizing how we apply the universality of service principle across the CAF. The new process that we're developing will be scientifically tested, based on approved generic tasks that are required from every member of the CAF, be it in the army, the air force or the navy. These tasks are things like erecting a temporary shelter, performing sentry duties, administering first aid and CPR, and maintaining and operating a personal service weapon. In total, we have about 22 of those tasks that have been deemed essential as a basic soldier task. These tasks have been broken down by their physical requirements, but also by their cognitive capacity. They will be informed, of course, by a GBA+ analysis.

These tasks are going to be the baseline that will form our new minimum operational standard, and they'll be clearly defined and measurable. At the end of the day, the reality is that there is a unique requirement for all of our CAF members to be deployable and to perform, as I said, a wide range of tasks as soldiers first, regardless of their occupation.

These minimum operational standards will guarantee our operational effectiveness and ensure that we have a force that can quickly provide support in emergencies across Canada and in international operations.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you.

We've heard through testimony at this committee that most Canadians, unfortunately, have a very limited understanding of what a career in the armed forces looks like and what the requirements are to be that soldier. What is the CAF doing to change that?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

That leads to the heart of the question around incentivizing and recruiting: making sure that people are aware of the opportunity that is available for them.

I would ask General Brodie to talk about some of the approaches that they're taking to make Canadians writ large, but also applicants, aware of the types of opportunities that could be available to them, should they be interested.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Are there specific challenges that you're looking at and trying to find solutions for, to focus specifically on young people, but also diverse Canadians? How do we make them aware of careers in the armed forces?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

I'll turn that over to General Brodie.

[BGen Krista Brodie]

As part of our recruiting modernization implementation team approach, we're looking very specifically at targeted advertising, marketing and attractions and how we partner across communities at all levels of Canadian society to build awareness.

We have a particular focus on general awareness, on women's recruiting programs, paid education programs and our priority occupations. Those occupations are typically STEM occupations that we have a difficult time recruiting sufficient numbers to. There's indigenous awareness and our reserve force awareness.

We are looking at programs where we partner with the various professional associations. We're leveraging our platform at forces.ca to provide that one-stop shop with respect to information around the Canadian Forces and all of the over 100 occupations that are active and that we're recruiting to on any given day. We're using those focused advertising programs in partnership with the ADM of public affairs.

We're prioritizing the processing of women's files and employment equity files. We're including more diversity in our frontline recruiting teams. We're partnering with programs like our CAF sports programs.

We're entering into contracts with organizations like Skills Canada, Build a Dream, the federal safety, security and intelligence career fairs, and organizations that focus on attraction activities, particularly for women in diverse communities.

We're about to embark on a very exciting—

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We're going to have to leave it there, Mr. May.

Thank you, General Brodie.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Go ahead, Ms. Chabot. You have two and a half minutes.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

What importance is given to the French language both at the recruitment stage and during a career, within the armed forces?

Many people have told us, rightly or wrongly, but probably with good reason, that the French language is a second‑class language, particularly in the context of training. Furthermore, when someone is transferred, they are often sent to a more anglophone area, where the services you were talking about are difficult to receive in French, both for the military member and for their family.

Are you willing to give the French language a greater place in the forces?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

The member is absolutely correct. Bilingualism is a cornerstone. It is a foundational part of who we are as Canadians and the Canadian Armed Forces. Promoting and the use of both official languages is certainly something that is important to us.

We do have a little over 400 of what I would call bilingual Canadian Armed Forces units. That's about 180 bilingual units in unilingual regions. That really speaks to what the daily language of work is. As it pertains to being able to receive services in your linguistic preference of English or French, that is something we need to make available to people regardless of where they are, so they can receive the internal services and support, particularly when it is about their personal services. We are, of course, challenged to make sure that our distribution of people can do that all times and in all places.

I would say that we're not successful all of the time in being able to have that first person you contact be somebody who can provide service in your preferred language. Our approach is to make sure that can happen. It just may not be your first contact.

As it pertains to training—

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I'm sorry for interrupting you, but the time is up.

Thank you, Ms. Chabot.

Madam Mathyssen, you have two and a half minutes.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On one of the occasions that General Wayne Eyre was at this committee, he spoke about the need for more education in addressing sexual misconduct in the CAF and making that education far more frequent.

Can you update the committee on the progress being made on that in terms of the frequency of anti-harassment training? Is it at the point where you think you're going to be making that much-needed progress?

[LGen Frances J. Allen]

There certainly are initiatives and programs ahead. I'll turn the floor to General Carignan, who is responsible for both the harassment prevention program and our professional conduct and culture within the CAF. She can speak to the initiatives that are currently being looked at.