Mr. Chair, the Canadian Reserve force is composed of dedicated men and women who are enrolled for service other than continuing full time military service. The reserve force is divided into four subcomponents: the primary reserve, the supplementary reserve, the cadet instructor cadre and the Canadian rangers.
The role of the primary reserve is to augment, sustain and support deployed forces and in some cases, perform tasks that are not performed by regular force members. The Canadian Forces are continuing to explore ways to enhance the role of reserves in civil preparedness to respond to natural disasters and local emergencies. In fact, I would be remiss at this juncture not to mention the Brockville Rifles located in Brockville in my riding of Leeds—Grenville.
This is an outstanding reserve unit with a long, proud history and tremendous connection to its community. It proved its worth to the community during the now famous ice storm of 1998. At the height of that storm, 825 people were housed at the Brockville armouries, 75 of whom were regular forces members while the rest were from reserves across Ontario. It should also be noted that there was another similar contingent housed in Cornwall during the same crisis.
The reservists did a number of jobs during this storm including, but not limited to, assisting with police traffic control, patrolling vulnerable cottage areas, assisting older folks out of isolated rural homes and into care centres and hand delivering water to cattle. They put in thousands of hours of work clearing fallen trees with the city, individuals and hydro crews.
There are currently 125 reserve members in Brockville and the Rifles are looking forward to further expansion. Because many of its members are of high school age, the Brockville Rifles has received funding for the past two years as part of the local school board's cooperative education program. It is an important part of the community of Brockville and all of Leeds and Grenville.
The Canadian Forces reserves are also an integral part of the Canadian Forces. They are playing a key role in our current operation in Afghanistan. As the report of the Department of National Defence on plans and priorities states:
Currently, reservists make up 13% of DND’s deployed strength abroad, including one in seven soldiers in Afghanistan. make up 13% of the Department of National Defence's deployed strength abroad, including one in seven soldiers in Afghanistan. The CF Transformation and anticipated commitments in international operations suggest that this rate of reservists’ participation in operations will be maintained, if not increased, under the new Integrated Managed Readiness System.
Could the Minister of National Defence provide an update on what the Canadian Forces is doing with regard to the primary reserves?