New Military Chief Aims to Reach Full Troop Strength Within 5 Years

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan testifies before the House of Commons national defence committee on Sept. 26, 2024, in Ottawa. House of Commons/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Canada’s new military chief says she aims to fill all the vacancies in her organization within five years, as she prioritizes retention and changing recruitment methods to diversify the ranks.

“I’m committed to building on the work of my predecessors, that means focusing on the three Rs: recruitment, retention and readiness,” Gen. Jennie Carignan told the House of Commons national defence committee on Sept. 26.

Carignan, who succeeded Gen. Wayne Eyre as chief of the defence staff in July, was making her first appearance at committee to speak about her mandate and priorities.

The general was previously the chief professional conduct and culture, a role in which she worked on transforming the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) culture.

Carignan said her plan to boost recruiting involves improving processes without lowering standards, while also making a “big push” to recruit Canadians from all backgrounds. This includes “opening the door to more permanent residents,” she said.

The military’s opening of enlistment to permanent residents in 2022 serves the dual purpose of broadening the potential recruit pool while also fulfilling its objective of diversifying the ranks. Successful applicants can benefit from a faster pathway to citizenship.

“The CAF is committed to increasing the representation of historically underrepresented groups,” National Defence spokesperson Kened Sadiku told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “For example, permanent residents ... represent an important skilled and diverse population in Canada.”

Carignan told MPs a more diverse fighting force can improve its ability to respond to challenges.

“Readiness means having a stronger and more diverse foundation of personnel, with the required and relevant capabilities that meet the future of warfare,” she said. “Diversity makes us more operationally effective, and we know that what worked in the past will not [be] what will work in the future.”

Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant questioned Carignan about the existence of quotas in the CAF. Carignan said the current targets are that 25 percent of the forces be female, 11.8 percent visible minorities, and 3.5 percent indigenous people. She said the quotas do not apply to military trades.

National Defence data indicates women represented 16 percent of CAF enrolments in 2023/2024. As of May 2023, women accounted for 16.48 percent of CAF members across services, while indigenous representation was 2.9 percent.

Carignan told the committee the total current strength for the CAF sits at 63,622 regular force members and 29,176 reserve force members.

The CAF’s authorized force size is 71,500 for the regular force and 30,000 for the primary reserve.

The defence policy update released by Ottawa in April says the objective is to reach full strength by 2032, whereas Carignan is aiming to reach it by 2029.

Defence Minister Bill Blair had called the personnel issue in the CAF a “death spiral” in March and said the organization was short nearly 16,000 troops. He expressed optimism while talking to reporters on Sept. 26.

“Gen. Carignan and her team have done outstanding work, I believe, in making sure that we address the standards and how they are applied, our security background checks, the training capacity for our members,” he said.

The CAF stopped seeing a net loss of troops in fiscal 2023/2024, with a net growth of 210 regular force troops and 1,018 reserve troops. This is after a net loss of nearly 6,500 soldiers between April 2020 and March 2023.

National Defence and the CAF are currently working on various plans to increase the intake and training of new soldiers.

“I think we'll hear very shortly about new initiatives to increase our capacity, to bring people on board the Canadian Armed Forces. We need them desperately,” said Blair.

Some obstacles to recruitment have already been lifted, including around the security screening process, Carignan said. New recruits continue to be vetted as they undergo basic military training, she added.

Tens of thousands of permanent residents have applied to join the CAF but only a small fraction have been enrolled. Figures released by National Defence last year showed 21,472 applications with 77 successful enrolments.