National Defence committee  That's a great question. It's obviously one of the highest priorities of the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole to reflect Canadian society, and certainly we want Canadians to be able to see themselves in the naval reserve. I am pleased to report that while the Canadian Armed Forces' target for the overall percentage of women is 25%, right now in the naval reserve the percentage of women is approximately 30%.

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what those two—I believe it's two—who are participating in Operation Impact right now are doing. However, if they're not deployed-at-sea types of employment, it may be as intelligence officers working with the intelligence teams.

National Defence committee  It's approximately 20% right now, and I think that's been a fairly steady state for the last few years as well. It's some of the class B services and shorter-term class B services. It's not necessarily all long-term service, which is perhaps the distinction that I think you're seeking.

National Defence committee  Yes, and that is as directed by the chief of the defence staff. In the initiative from 2015 on strengthening the reserve, the directive is that the strength of the primary reserve is to grow to 28,500 by 2019. Part of the activities that we are working on within the naval reserve in the establishment review is a growth strategy to meet the naval reserves component of that directive.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. It is something that we have looked at extensively. I think the two specific challenges that we have observed in the past have been that we were unable to generate enough applicants into the reserve and that the file processing times in the past have discouraged folks.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. This is exactly why the navy has re-oriented how the reserve will be employed. For the 20 years that the reserve was focused upon the Kingston-class mission, that was what we force-generated toward. It was a great mission, and thanks to that mission, the operational capability of the naval reserve today is at an extraordinarily high level.

National Defence committee  Yes, that's an excellent question. It speaks exactly to how we force-generate sailors. To be very precise, in the naval reserve the job is to force-generate individual sailors trained to a certain level of readiness, while an army reserve will often train individuals for deployment and also small subunits, small teams.

National Defence committee  In general, in the full-time service, some of it is operational deployment, some of which is at sea. Some of it is the staff function that's required to operate the naval reserve as well. We also have naval reservists who are working throughout the naval staff and throughout the staffs of the broader Canadian Armed Forces.

National Defence committee  That is absolutely fair. Part of our analysis right now is to look historically across what the trends were and to understand future ones. We might even be able to implement.... We have exit surveys, for example, when reservists depart the institution, to understand what made them decide to leave.

National Defence committee  Thank you for that. Certainly there are challenges for the retention for reservists. First and foremost, do they see exciting employment? Are they going to be challenged by it? Is it worth their staying in? Are they motivated? I feel very much right now, with the transformation that the new reserve is undergoing and its changed role within the broader navy, that we certainly are offering that, and along with the new skills we are offering the opportunity to see the world.

National Defence committee  The different classes of service effectively represent the different level of service that the reservist is giving at any given point in time, from part-time service in the class A world to deployed operations or employment at sea, which is the class C, which is essentially equivalent to their regular force colleagues, with the same compensation, benefits, and the like.

National Defence committee  In fact, as part of the establishment review that I mentioned in my opening comments, we're examining exactly that right now. At this juncture, the mission and roles that we foresee we're going to deliver to the navy and the broader Canadian Armed Forces are being taken into account in that structural review.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. It is something we have been studying very closely over the last little while in the naval reserve as well as across the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole. With regard to the net decline in our strength that I'm referring to, over the last 10 years the trend has been, almost year to year, that there's been a different rationale or different reason triggering the net decline.

National Defence committee  Retention is the bookend to the recruiting piece, obviously, and we're very interested in improving our retention as well. In fact, within the reserve in the last two years we've initiated both improvements to recruitment strategies, which are starting to bear fruit, and a working group to understand retention.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of Parliament. We appreciate the opportunity to share with you some of the challenges and opportunities within your naval reserve, a highly dedicated and active component of the Royal Canadian Navy. I echo the previous testimony from some of my colleagues and superiors by saying it is an immense honour for the three of us before you to serve the diverse and talented team of sailors and officers of the naval reserve.