National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, and committee members, good afternoon. lt is my pleasure to be here today in my capacity as the defence team champion for indigenous peoples. My role is to encourage the promotion of the history, heritage and contributions of our first nations, Inuit and Métis peoples as part of our activities at home and abroad and to cultivate a shared understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous members of the defence team.

National Defence committee  We're talking about diversity and official languages, but there are other languages and cultures. For example, during the last week of January, I was with 32 Canadian Brigade Group. The group is part of the reserve force, in Toronto. Over one hundred languages are spoken by members of the brigade.

National Defence committee  I can start.

National Defence committee  I've spent over 18 months in Afghanistan, working directly with the Afghan National Security Forces. In late 2000, the concept of female engagement teams came forward. It was deployed initially mostly by our allies. The understanding, despite what appears to be initially a very patriarchal society, is that the role of women in society in Afghanistan is critically important.

National Defence committee  I'll use the number as the champion for indigenous people. For example, on the number of recruits, if you take the percentage of recruits who were indigenous, self-declared indigenous, 3.2% of recruits were indigenous last year in the numbers, so it shows that trend. I run six different programs in the summer to encourage indigenous people.

National Defence committee  One of the great successes of the reserve in attracting diversity is the attachment to the community. With the regular force, you join in St. John's, Newfoundland, but you end up in Shilo, far away from your community. The reserve, because it's local employment, is actually an incentive, because you can join and remain in your community, remain attached to it.

National Defence committee  No, I'm the champion. He's responsible for recruitment.

National Defence committee  I can share later the exact numbers, but I give you, for example, in Raven last year, 27 started the course. Sorry. I'll go a year back because the data is now old. Forty joined the course, 37 finished the course and five went into the reserves. The numbers varied from year to year.

National Defence committee  I'm not responsible for the cadet program, but since I represent 50% of the Canadian Armed Forces, I have a very strong interest in cadet corps. The organization currently has approximately 52,000 cadets. One of the explicit goals of the cadet program is to encourage young people to be good citizens and develop their leadership skills, but also to stimulate their interest in service.

National Defence committee  I don't know if I have the figures here.