National Defence committee  Yes, you posed a question that keeps me awake at night, because those threats are real and our ability to respond to them is challenged by the challenges to our readiness: challenges to our equipment readiness and challenges to our numbers. The reconstitution of the Canadian Armed Forces that I've previously talked about is going to be fundamental to achieving that readiness into the future: rebuilding our personnel strength with the right occupations and the right culture, focusing on operations and operational concepts that need to be put in place, and working with allies.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, that was a military decision based on the uncertainties in the spring of 2020, not knowing what trajectory the pandemic would take. The machine restarted again in June, with the personnel production pipeline, the recruiting, the training, etc. We've learned and we've continued to evolve over the course of this pandemic, adjusting our measures and adjusting our practices to take into account the safety of our people, while at the same time delivering training and readiness and performing on operations.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I don't know.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, let me just clarify that we have not been in a no-train situation for some time now. We paused operations for three to four months in the spring of 2020, but now we are in an operational mode where we're training, doing exercises and recruiting. As I mentioned earlier, the plan is to reinforce the recruiting system, to make changes to the recruiting system to streamline it and to make the personnel production pipeline more efficient.

National Defence committee  In the armed forces, we don't have a cyber regiment. Several years ago, we stood up a cyber operator occupation. That occupation continues to grow, and it has to continue to grow because so much of our future is going to be based on what those very talented individuals do.

National Defence committee  We are working on trying to prolong the posting duration in various locations so we don't have to move as frequently. We're asking the hard questions. Is it absolutely necessary that this individual and their family have to move this summer? If not, let's leave them in location.

National Defence committee  I would just add the cost of not doing this. As the threat increases, we see potential adversaries making significant investments in military technology, hypersonic weapons and the like, which increasingly put our continent at risk. If we take a look, we see that potential adversaries consider the United States and Canada as one integrated target set, so given the capabilities that are out there, including for the use of conventional cruise missiles and hypersonics, it is not inconceivable that we could easily be under threat.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, this is a question that consumes me, and I'm very focused on it. I'm not going to get into the exact figures here, but what is important is that we focus on both ends of this problem: recruiting and retention. In terms of recruiting initiatives, what we're doing for this year is staffing our recruiting system to 100%.

National Defence committee  It's interesting. We were on a growth path immediately prior to the pandemic, and our numbers were increasing. At the same time, our ceiling has increased as well, because of the additional positions that came as part of the defence policy. Given the gap that we have right now, which is, on the regular force side, about 6,000 people, it's going to take a number of years.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. That tour in Korea gave me invaluable experience, a front-row seat to what was happening in the security environment in the Asia-Pacific. What we see are countries, authoritarian states, achieving their national objectives, changing the rules-based international order to their benefit, the order that has served world security for so long and so well.

National Defence committee  The 85% target is aspirational. I'm not sure if there's any air force in the world that is able to achieve that rate of serviceability with their aircraft. That being said, my understanding is that there are multiple factors for this 55% rate, including the impact of COVID: the physical distancing and the restrictions that were in place, where you can't get all the technicians huddled around one aircraft at the same time.

National Defence committee  I will go back to my comments on Canadian Forces health services and our capacity. We can be viewed almost as the 14th health jurisdiction in Canada, much like the provinces and territories, so when the ask comes in for medical support, we have to take it away from our own clinics, our own care and our own training.

National Defence committee  I think that once-a-year training was one of the reasons we did not make the progress we should have. It's kind of like going to the gym once a year and saying that you're fit. It doesn't work. The approach we need to take is that it has to be continuous. It has to be in all of our leadership training.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. It is a concern that we have as well. It was one of the driving reasons why, several years ago, we established the Canadian Armed Forces transition group to assist our members as they transitioned back to civilian life so they could reintegrate into Canadian society.

National Defence committee  That's a government decision, and I'll leave it at that.