The first concrete one, I would say, is looking at the JPSUs, where if we can transition.... Of course, only of their own free will, but for those soldiers who know they're not going to re-up and are going to be transitioning back, instead of having them, say, in Petawawa for up to two years, where there's no opportunity to network, to develop more skills.... In the army, one of the terms you never wanted to be referred to as is what we used to call a “MIR commando”. I can't believe the morale is very high for a lot of them, because they're not with their comrades in the battalion or in their unit or squadron.
For those soldiers who are looking for a new opportunity and a new transition, you already have the infrastructure. You're paying for it, right? With the local armouries and the some 50-odd local reserve units, you can absorb pretty much every one of those soldiers who would choose to make that transition and you can bring them back sooner. While they're there, they can then transition over from basically 100% of their day doing some type of administrative job at the local unit. Over time, it's almost like a reverse co-op like the one I run for the District School Board of Niagara, where they're transitioning out of the military and into a civilian career versus bringing young soldiers into the military.
It can be done. The opportunity is there. The infrastructure is already paid for. This is what I'm saying. You can get more value for the dollars you're already spending if we look at how they're being spent.
The other part of a bottom-up approach, again, is the mentorship. It's one thing for them to get new education or training, or to do almost like an adult co-op type of program, but there are the social networks, both with the local soldiers, in being able to integrate with these guys who will become their buddies, who will become their support network outside of their nuclear family.... But also, at the same time, they're getting a chance to be seen in the community, and that will help close the disconnect that I referred to in my comments.
The more opportunities where we see veterans out there.... If we can make the Helmets to Hardhats program more prominent or more successful.... There are a lot of opportunities whereby we can close the gap that currently exists, where we have this highly professional Canadian Armed Forces but it's small and it's out of the way. Unless it's on a news clip, for the most part the average Canadian does not see it.