Again, that's a great question.
Given the ongoing recruitment issues the CAF is experiencing, I do see that. I would argue, though, that if you look what's going on in emergency management in the country right now, it is an increasingly diverse group of people who are going through these professional education programs, which Mr. Bowen talked about when he was in front of your committee and that are in schools across this country.
If you look at the makeup of emergency managers, we are seeing a transition into a much more diverse work body. I think that, historically, emergency managers were often retired CAF or Coast Guard or police. They're still there and they still do great work, but we also see a lot of other people moving into this field in Canada and abroad. I think a civilian response force would appeal to a broader base of individuals than are interested in joining the CAF. Motivations might be different and the experience would certainly be different. I think there would be a body of recruits that CAF can't draw upon.
All that said, I'm not saying there might not be struggles with this, given the competitive job market that exists. It would be interesting in that light to see how British Columbia does, because it has recently decided to expand its civilian wildfire-fighting force to 1,000 permanent full-time year-round employees, who will be doing disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness work. It will be interesting to see how that model comes through and if they do struggle with recruitment. I think that's something to keep an eye on for sure