Defence to close recruiting centres

The Canadian Forces is looking at closing down 10 recruiting centres across the country as part of its efforts to meet the Conservative government’s budget reductions.

In addition, 68 professors, assistant professors and other teaching sta at the Royal Military College and the Canadian Forces College have been put on a list of “potentially affected employees” who could see their jobs disappear.

The moves come after the Department of National Defence was thrown into confusion Wednesday as news about job cuts trickled out. The Ottawa Citizen reported that more than 1,000 jobs would be chopped and while some DND employees received briefings about cuts, others were left in the dark and told it would be weeks before they are told whose jobs are in jeopardy.

On Wednesday, senior defence officials sent a message to all employees confirming that 900 jobs are on the line.

“At this point 900 positions have been identified as being subject to a Work Force Adjustment scenario,” the message stated. “The remaining reductions will be implemented principally through the aggressive use of attrition, retraining, and reallocation of employees to higher-priority positions.”

Those employees whose jobs will disappear will be told “as soon as possible,” according to the message.

Meanwhile, recruiting centres in Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Yellowknife, Sault Ste. Marie, Mississauga and North Bay are on the chopping block, along with offices in some smaller cities.

Under a new scheme, initial recruiting for many rural areas of Canada will be done on the Internet. There are concerns, however, that the process might run into trouble since those in rural locations will later have difficulty presenting themselves to military officers for an interview as well as for medical and aptitude tests.

The military’s recruiting group is looking at conducting what is known as remote processing, under which recruiting sta would go on the road to various areas to process new recruits.

Some in the Canadian Forces have questioned the wisdom of cutting the recruiting centres, noting that such a move will focus recruiting more in urban areas.