Divining the right role, capabilities, structure, and Regimental System for Canada's Army Reserves

[Brad Sallows]

Obviously a lot of variation among units. The policy I knew of was straightforward: your own full-time staff did their unit jobs under a set of conditions which applied irrespective of class of service; your people doing full-time jobs elsewhere didn't have unit jobs and were not expected to show up. Also, people sent to instruct two weekends on/one off courses were often directed to be exempt unit responsibilities. People in the latter two cases were permitted, if it didn't affect their primary responsibilities, to attend unit activities.

 

[GR66]

Ok I’ll counter. When was the last time Canada had to surge deeploy a bridge like you said?

Capability like this is massively expensive.

Point stands to your original question; the RCAF is daily doing the business and missions ISO of Government directed domestic and international operations.

SAR is part of the defence mandate. Pretty sure the RCN has a RDS that holds some kind of SAR function as well.

I’ve been on crews that have been retailed no duff SAR on peacetime TASW. It’s a real thing.

I think you're taking my criticism of the CAFs lack of preparation for war fighting as criticism of the day-to-day peacetime operations of the CAF.

Clearly each Element has a series of important ongoing and episodic tasks that it does on behalf of the Government and nobody is saying they aren't important. SAR, floor and fire response, ongoing patrolling of our territory, peacekeeping, deterrence ops, training missions, etc. All are important ongoing roles that the CAF undertakes on an ongoing basis for the GOC.

I'm simply saying that a 2nd, parallel responsibility of a military is to be prepared to fight a war if called upon to do so by the Government. There is a certain amount of preparation, planning, equipping and organizing that is required to do that. In my opinion the CAF and the GOC have to date failed in that task.

Again, I'm not saying that we should spend the money to have an Armoured Division sitting on 72hrs NTM with Ro-Ros loaded ready to go. But things like ensuring that our Army has the major weapon systems required for a peer fight. That our Air Force has enough aircraft to protect both our homeland and our deployed forces as well as keep them supplied. That our Navy's ships are in good enough physical condition to survive a fight with an enemy.

I don't think many people reading about the state of the Canadian military on this site would agree that the CAF (Army, Navy or Air Force) has adequately fulfilled that responsibility.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I think you're taking my criticism of the CAFs lack of preparation for war fighting as criticism of the day-to-day peacetime operations of the CAF.

Clearly each Element has a series of important ongoing and episodic tasks that it does on behalf of the Government and nobody is saying they aren't important. SAR, floor and fire response, ongoing patrolling of our territory, peacekeeping, deterrence ops, training missions, etc. All are important ongoing roles that the CAF undertakes on an ongoing basis for the GOC.

I'm simply saying that a 2nd, parallel responsibility of a military is to be prepared to fight a war if called upon to do so by the Government. There is a certain amount of preparation, planning, equipping and organizing that is required to do that. In my opinion the CAF and the GOC have to date failed in that task.

Again, I'm not saying that we should spend the money to have an Armoured Division sitting on 72hrs NTM with Ro-Ros loaded ready to go. But things like ensuring that our Army has the major weapon systems required for a peer fight. That our Air Force has enough aircraft to protect both our homeland and our deployed forces as well as keep them supplied. That our Navy's ships are in good enough physical condition to survive a fight with an enemy.

I don't think many people reading about the state of the Canadian military on this site would agree that the CAF (Army, Navy or Air Force) has adequately fulfilled that responsibility.

All good points. But, after the Cold War, most if not all of our Allies allowed their forces to shrink as well, we were just small to begin with.

The USN and USAF wasn’t alone is shipping everything to the the Middle East for GW1 as an example. I read an interesting and alarming article on the state of the sea lift capacity of the USN and how it basically would need to rely on commercial shipping to mobilize large (by their standard) scale.

The collective “we” in NATO have relied on the support and protection of “all” and used it as a safety net for our defence…but not meet our commitments to keeping it modern and healthy. But we’ve known this for some years…

 

[GR66]

But we’ve known this for some years…

And sadly done nothing about it.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

And sadly done nothing about it.

And are still actively looking for ways to look like we are doing something, while not spending much in actuality…

 

[MilEME09]

And are still actively looking for ways to look like we are doing something, while not spending much in actuality…

CAST Brigade enters the chat

 

[WLSC]

When I did Class B at my unit, I worked for the RSS staff, so we got Mondays off and Friday half day to compensate for the 1.5 days the unit was parading. Not sure that was the "official policy" but it worked and for weekend exercises, various arrangement were made for time off.

I was RSM at my Regiment as a Cl B. The other Cl B who were volunteering were asked to come in for big events and had (if they could) secondary duties (UDI, mess, etc). There was no strings attached, they were giving a hand and it was fully acknowledged by everyone and the system work pretty well. The only one that was 110% not following that (including the approximately 100 days a year) was me.

 

[markppcli]

Last funding model I saw assumed about 100 class A days annually for a CO - the equivalent of five months full time, on top of a full time job and family.

Not sustainable. Not sensible. Yet every effort to streamline the job is fought tooth and nail. The ability to half ass it across a wide spectrum of ignorance is apparently a key selection criteria.

100 Lt Col Class A days could probably guy a full time captain to get the admin done

 

[daftandbarmy]

100 Lt Col Class A days could probably guy a full time captain to get the admin done

Now you're trying to steal the rice bowls

 

[Remius]

100 Lt Col Class A days could probably guy a full time captain to get the admin done

You wouldn’t even get a full time Cpl.

 

[FJAG]

I was 7 years in Meaford as a Class B SGT/WO.

A lot of interesting comments about Class As and Bs. The one about Class Bs attending unit exercises etc has been going on since Class Bs were invented. There is no right or wrong answer; just a screwed up system that is highlighted by @ArmyRick's post above.

Being the LegO (retd) in the house I can't help but fall back on the NDA definition of reservists namely "officers and non-commissioned members who are enrolled for other than continuing, full-time military service when not on active service." No matter how you cut it 7 years of Class B does not equate to "other than continuing full-time service". 7 years clearly falls within the definition of Regular force.

The problem is that the CAF has created a large pool of continuing, full-time reservists who have had full careers in the military with very little Class A service. The vast majority of these jobs are administrative in nature and by their very existence undermine the practical functioning of reserve force units and, to an extent the resources, both financial and human that are available to them.

I don't for a second blame people who take Class B contracts, I do blame a system that so callously and blatantly abuses the statutory system under which it operates.

 

[MilEME09]

A lot of interesting comments about Class As and Bs. The one about Class Bs attending unit exercises etc has been going on since Class Bs were invented. There is no right or wrong answer; just a screwed up system that is highlighted by @ArmyRick's post above.

Being the LegO (retd) in the house I can't help but fall back on the NDA definition of reservists namely "officers and non-commissioned members who are enrolled for other than continuing, full-time military service when not on active service." No matter how you cut it 7 years of Class B does not equate to "other than continuing full-time service". 7 years clearly falls within the definition of Regular force.

The problem is that the CAF has created a large pool of continuing, full-time reservists who have had full careers in the military with very little Class A service. The vast majority of these jobs are administrative in nature and by their very existence undermine the practical functioning of reserve force units and, to an extent the resources, both financial and human that are available to them.

I don't for a second blame people who take Class B contracts, I do blame a system that so callously and blatantly abuses the statutory system under which it operates.

Wouldn't need class Bs more then say 180 days if reg force PYs were managed correctly, IE stop lying about what we need to run an army. Multi year class Bs are a symptoms of a broken system and aren't the fault of any individual

 

[markppcli]

You wouldn’t even get a full time Cpl.

But of hyperbole but at 346 dollars a day base that’s 34,600, how many of these administrators do we really need? How much of their admin is created by virtue of their own position existing ?

Wouldn't need class Bs more then say 180 days if reg force PYs were managed correctly, IE stop lying about what we need to run an army. Multi year class Bs are a symptoms of a broken system and aren't the fault of any individual

The Govt of Canada allows us X soldiers, we have decided to create Y, in this case Y = (1.*X), positions and play a shell game. Then we complain about. Or getting enough funding; we’re funded just fine, we self manage terribly.

 

[dapaterson]

A very rough description of that 100 days, off the top of my head, from one who has been there:

Year round, every third weekend will be unit, Bde, Div or Army. So 17 x 2.5 is 42.5 days

Nine months a year: one parade and one admin night weekly. 9 x 4 x 2 x 0.5 is 36 days

Three months a year: one admin night weekly. 3 x 4 x 0.5 is 6 days

So, taking no time to plan and work on advancing a vision to progress, not doing any of the annual online training, not doing any PD, and you are at 84.5 days.

Add in those, and 100 days is unfortunately common.

 

[ueo]

At my former unit the last RSSO I dealt with had been seriously injured in a parachuting accident so was 'exempt everything', pretty much. He was medically released. Regardless, he was deeply disrespctful and conniving, amongst other poor personality traits, and I would have fired him mainly for a really bad attitude and a lack of any kind of leadership control over the full time staff.

Before that: one of the most toxic people I've ever met and a perfect example of a Militia hater. He wasn't well liked by his Reg F counterparts either, which was fun to watch. He was kicked out of the CAF, thank Gawd.

Before that: PTSD. Like really bad PTSD I think. A good guy at heart, but it wasn't fair to put him in that job. Medically released.

Before that: we had a guy that never went into the field or worked weekends which, with a Reserve Unit, is pretty much a disability. He was posted here on a family compassionate thing where he had to look after a disabled family member, so was constantly 'unavailable''/ working the system. He seemd to be a bit disabled himself, and was a very slow 'thinker' if you get my drift. He never left the office much, and managed to hang on there for about 6 years (OMFG) until he hit CRA. One of the dullest people I've ever met, seriously.

Before that: a random assortment of 'awkward squad' types, as I recall, who were clearly sent here to get them out of the way and who did nothing to bring credit to their Regiment, sadly. One had been another parachute accident type (but also a dangerous idiot), another was clearly not interested in being in the Army any more and was sent here by the Reg F to avoid having to put up with his shit, and was subsequently released.

The overall effect was to provide a very bad impression of the quality of Reg F Officers at the Captain level, as well as the quality of the decision making by the higher levels of leadership who decided to inflict these people upon us.

Having said that the guy who is 'in the chair' now is, by all accounts, excellent so that would be the first time that's happened <checks cave wall paintings> since about 1993...

My point!

 

[ueo]

Recruiting and training to OFP should not be unit level activities. Formation level depot units should handle that.

That suggestion alone gets you kicked off Christmas card lists.

Tried in LMD about a million or so years ago. City units liked it, outliers not so much. Dropped!

 

[FJAG]

Tried in LMD about a million or so years ago. City units liked it, outliers not so much. Dropped!

There's enough flexibility to do both. In MMD the district ran combined courses for all Winnipeg units but outlying units ran their own courses. The system isn't perfect either. While its one thing to teach corps focused trade training at a rural unit, it does not work well for common leadership ones. There always need to be options so that courses are available locally and at brigades during the winter and at centralized locations in the summer.

 

[daftandbarmy]

A very rough description of that 100 days, off the top of my head, from one who has been there:

Year round, every third weekend will be unit, Bde, Div or Army. So 17 x 2.5 is 42.5 days

Nine months a year: one parade and one admin night weekly. 9 x 4 x 2 x 0.5 is 36 days

Three months a year: one admin night weekly. 3 x 4 x 0.5 is 6 days

So, taking no time to plan and work on advancing a vision to progress, not doing any of the annual online training, not doing any PD, and you are at 84.5 days.

Add in those, and 100 days is unfortunately common.

And then add in the, more or less, mandatory social activities...

 

[dapaterson]

And then add in the, more or less, mandatory social activities...

Some of those fall into the 17 or so weekends, where Div will fortuitously schedule a mess dinner on the Saturday night. Most "fun" are TD weekends that need three different uniforms... inevitably scheduled at times where your civilian employer has hard deadlines so you can't take a day off to prepare or recover.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Some of those fall into the 17 or so weekends, where Div will fortuitously schedule a mess dinner on the Saturday night. Most "fun" are TD weekends that need three different uniforms... inevitably scheduled at times where your civilian employer has hard deadlines so you can't take a day off to prepare or recover.

I estimated three to five events per month, of varying levels of complexity and involvement. Most unpaid, of course