National Defence Committee on April 15th, 2026

[Lori Idlout, Liberal, Nunavut, NU]

That's excellent. Thank you so much for that. I too was in the army cadets when I was young, and I had so much fun participating in competitions. It is so important.

I recall, though, when I met with the Canadian Rangers, that they were sharing challenges in Iqaluit, for example, maintaining junior rangers. The air cadet program in Iqaluit has no problems keeping their cadets, but they struggle to keep their junior rangers because there are no facilities for them. They'll get a high rate of interest, but then they fall out of interest right away because there are no facilities for them to learn what the Canadian Rangers do. It sounds as though it's a lot more work to try to keep junior rangers in the program. That's what I was hoping to understand from this perspective.

That's it for my questions, but I really want to share one more quick appreciation about Operation Lentus, when Canadian Rangers were deployed to Gjoa Haven to help with the crisis that was going on with the community-wide power outage, as well as the water issue. I hope you can send my acknowledgement and appreciation for that too.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Thank you, Ms. Idlout.

We're wrapping it up.

Mr. Bezan, do you want to take us home?

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I guess so, if that's what we're doing. I'm going home. It's been a long day.

To follow up on previous questions about the rangers, we have talked about increasing the number of rangers. In relation to Operation Lentus and, of course, the restructuring of the Canadian Army and having a homeland force to deal with things like natural disasters, should we be expanding the rangers to include the southern regions of Canada so that they can help with Operation Lentus?

As well, we often talk about the rangers being our eyes and ears of the north. We have a large border that we want to be increasing security on. Why not use the rangers to be our eyes and ears of the 49th parallel, through the Great Lakes? Of course, let's not forget about the Maritimes, which have no ranger units at all. We could utilize a lot of indigenous people in those regions to provide expertise.

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

Of course, Mr. Chair, I would not opine on the employment of the rangers, because that's squarely with General Boivin at CJOC to be mindful of.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I'm sure you guys talk.

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

That said, we value the contribution of the rangers, so if they can be so employed, we need more of them. Again, there is no plan to limit their size or location.

As for the previous member's point that the junior rangers don't have the necessary infrastructure, therefore we lose them, I'm really hanging my hat on the fact that we're going to grow the north. We're going to own the north. We're expanding and investing in the north. I hope that it's going to provide the necessary infrastructure. This is not necessarily CAF infrastructure; it could be dual use. It could be other departments. We're going to come up north as a whole of government, and this will provide opportunities for the junior rangers and the rangers wherever they are then employed by CJOC.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

We talked about the percentage of francophones who are GOFOs—general officers and flag officers. What's the percentage of indigenous members as GOFOs?

[Anne Rahming]

I don't have the current year's statistics. My understanding is that we have a single senior GOFO who was self-identifying, but self-identification is voluntary, so we're unable to confirm.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

We talked about the navy. We have the HMCS Ville de Québec, which is a francophone frigate. Do we have any other vessels that are operationally francophone and/or fully bilingual?

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

Do you mean for the navy or writ large?

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

I mean for the navy.

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

Okay, for the navy.

I'm tracking the VDQ, Ville de Québec. By the way, I was on board for a day sail three weeks ago in rough seas. I can attest to the fact that they have francophones on that ship.

The HMCS Montréal has typically been more bilingual than the VDQ, but there is still a good share of francophone company on board that ship. Those are the two that I'm tracking aside from the naval reserves, for example, in Quebec and Montreal at the HQ.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

One thing that Admiral Topshee has started through the Royal Canadian Navy is the naval experience program around basic training, because not everybody in the navy needs to be trained as an army infantry officer, and people need different skill sets.

Are we seeing the naval experience recruiting program used by the naval reserves in Quebec and Montreal?

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

The answer is yes. The naval experience program is rendering good dividends.

We are observing a good trend of transition between this program and going to the reg force, as well as remaining in the reserve force. I see this as very positive.

We've been going at this.... By “we”, I mean the navy. it's Mr. Angus Topshee who runs this. I'm not at the point that I'm going to share a portion of the strategic intake or I'm going to contract it out to the navy. Whatever they're doing—the excellent work they're doing with this—allows us to close the gap towards the 71,500 faster.

At some point we may need to wrap our hands around this. It's still a pilot program, but once we declare that it's permanent, I think it's going to lend great dividends for the Canadian Armed Forces.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

The Canadian Coast Guard is now part of National Defence. Do we have the same types of criteria and targets for the francophone and indigenous numbers within the Canadian Coast Guard?

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

Mr. Chair, I cannot talk about the Coast Guard because, as you mentioned, they're under National Defence, they're not under the CAF—

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

You're not under National Defence.

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

—so we're not doing their recruiting; they're doing their own recruiting. They have their own systems, but we are looking and seeking efficiencies and opportunities on both ends.

They have the Canadian Coast Guard Academy, which we're in conversation with in our Canadian Defence Academy to see how we could partner up and have synergies between the two organizations.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

We know that history and heritage play a big part of the pride and the morale within the Canadian Armed Forces. We know this represents every region of the country, especially when you look at our army units, the different brigades that we have and the history they have. In Quebec, we have the Van Doos, and we have a number of different regiments in armouries across the country.

In Quebec, there are francophone units with strong identities, such as Les Voltigeurs de Québec. How are we maintaining this history and preserving it from the standpoint of keeping it embedded within the Canadian Armed Forces, having that pride and improved morale? How do the upcoming changes to the CAF dress manual potentially impact this, especially from an army reserve basis and this historical standpoint?

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

I think—

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Is this reunification all over again, as we witnessed back in the eighties?

[MGen Martin Gros-Jean]

To the last question, I think that no, it's not that.

One thing I can say is that, from a reserve perspective, from a footprint perspective, it's key that our reserves are strong and well supported with what they need, including from an infrastructure perspective, equipment perspective and all of that. A lot of those reserves are under the army, and they are part of the discussion from an army modernization perspective.

[LGen Erick Simoneau]

Mr. Chair, to supplement what was just said, we value diversity. Therefore, we're not trying to go back to unification. We're really trying to allow the dress manual to be flexible enough to account for all those cultural items and the transition to the reserves in order to onboard new cultures—with indigenous cultures front and centre—and so people can thrive within the Canadian Armed Forces.

The dress manual is meant to be more and more flexible, by nature.

[The Chair, Liberal, Charles Sousa]

Mr. Bezan, thank you.

Thank you to the witnesses. I appreciate your thorough discussions and responses as we recognize this increased desire among the public. People are paying greater attention to defence and to the attraction of becoming a member of the armed forces. Congratulations on all you do.

Thank you to the committee. Before I adjourn, I remind you that the deadline for recommendations for the critical minerals study is April 20. Please make sure you have them in on time.

Now, given that time is up, I ask the committee for agreement to adjourn this meeting.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.