Military Readiness Fell 10 Percent in One Year, Says National Defence Report

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces march during the Calgary Stampede parade in Calgary on July 8, 2016. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Only 61 percent of the Canadian Armed Forces is considered ready for operations, a 10 percent dip since last year, according to recent military data.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) says it must fix the “foundation” of its decades-long readiness challenges so it can be ready to respond to an “increasingly challenging international security environment.”

The CAF is striving to reach 90 percent readiness by March 2025, it said in its 2024–2025 department plan released Feb. 27.

Equipment readiness is also an issue, according to the report. The number of operational land fleets has fallen from 65.8 percent in 2021–2022 to 56 percent in 2022–2023. Maritime fleets fell from 54 percent to 51.2 percent, and aerospace rose from 43 percent to 43.8 percent. The CAF said its readiness targets for those departments are 70 percent, 60 percent, and 85 percent, respectively.

The CAF’s decreased readiness comes at a time when the CAF faces increased demand in both responses to natural disasters at home and for international engagement abroad. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre said in October 2023 the CAF has increasingly been tasked to deal with disasters.

“The CAF will continue to be called on to operate across the globe,” the report noted. “Whether that is at home defending against forest fires, in North America through the commitment to NORAD, supporting NATO in Latvia, or increasing presence in the Indo-Pacific, the CAF will contribute to peace and stability internationally.”

The department plan said it was imperative that the Defence Team “fix the foundation of its readiness challenges that have been neglected for decades.” Those challenges include low serviceability rates, deteriorating infrastructure, weak supply chains, and outdated personnel management and administrative processes.

While the report maintains the CAF is “ready to conduct concurrent operations,” it says it may have difficulty maintaining its material capabilities to support operations and have the appropriate number of personnel with the “right competencies, in the right place and at the right time.”

The CAF has plans to encourage hybrid workplace arrangements, and improve in-house health care and health advice for CAF members to deal with recruiting and retention issues. It said it will also continue to develop its women’s health programming, and implement the first stage of the “CAF People Strategy” that seeks to “operationalize and institutionalize the CAF Journey and modernize the Military Personnel Management System” over the next 30 years.

The report says that having an “inclusive respectful workplace” is essential to the CAF, and it is undertaking action at both the strategic and grassroots levels to drive culture change in accordance with the Arbour Report’s recommendations. That 2022 document, written by former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, called for major changes to the CAF in response to a string of high-profile sexual misconduct cases.

Staffing Issues

The document notes that its Regular Force has shrunk by 4,100 members since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, while primary reserves fell by 950. The CAF said recruiting efforts, “which were challenged before the pandemic,” have been at roughly one-third of their normal intake due to pandemic-era restrictions.

Defence Minister Bill Blair told the House of Commons defence committee last September the CAF had reversed its trend of attrition outpacing recruitment. He backtracked on those comments in November, admitting recruitment and retention “continues to persist as a challenge for us.”

Department of National Defence data obtained by The Epoch Times showed that from January to September 2023, the CAF lost 380 personnel in the Regular Force and saw a cumulative net loss of 321.

The Liberal government also announced it was looking to cut around $1 billion from the Department of National Defence’s annual budget last September. This came after Treasury Board President Anita Anand told other federal cabinet ministers back in August they would need to reallocate $15.4 billion in government spending.

While Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Eyre acknowledged the spending reductions would “have an impact” on the forces, Deputy Minister of Defence Bill Matthews said the cuts would be aimed at “minimizing impact on military readiness.”

While CAF aims to provide a force that delivers “operational excellence,” that role is becoming increasingly difficult given geopolitical shifts, the departmental plan said. It described global security as “deteriorating,” adding that the ruled-based international order is “under their most significant threat” from adversaries that seek to establish one based on authoritarianism.

The report cites Russia’s war against Ukraine as the “front-line” for defending that rules-based international order. The document also mentions China becoming more brazen in its attempts to grow its global influence, and says Canada is countering the regime by increasing its involvement in the Indo-Pacific region and coordination with allies as part of its 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy.

The report said the defence team “must be very targeted in what, when, and who is deployed, to balance the capabilities of the Royal Canadian Navy between this region and the rest of the world.”