Mr. Chair, as I mentioned, we have been extremely successful in our recruiting over the last number of years.
Now, with the slowing of the operational tempo, the close out of the combat mission, it will not impact, as I said, significantly in any way. In fact, the Internet has really become the go-to option when it comes to the civilian population searching for information about recruiting and about how one becomes a member of the Canadian Forces.
With respect to the Canadian Forces being an employer of choice, we have reached those expansion targets way ahead of schedule. We have the highest retention rate that we have seen in years. This again impacts on our need to intake new members into the Canadian Forces.
I mentioned the reserve strength and the regular force strength staying stable now at 68,000 regular forces and 27,000 reserve force. On recruiting, just by point of reference, we saw 4,000 regular force personnel enter the Canadian Forces in the year 2011-12. The regular force recruiting targets planned for next year will go up by about 400.