Western Army needs 1,500 recruits
1,500 reservist troops needed to bolster the ranks of Canada’s Western Army
An “ambitious” countrywide army reservist recruitment drive will begin next year in order to bring 1,500 fresh faces into the military family, the vast majority of whom are required to bolster numbers in the 3rd Canadian Division.
Be it from the urban drift of youngsters from remote small communities to larger centres, reservists deciding to join the regular force or leaving altogether, the ranks of Canada’s Western Army have taken a hit, division commander Brig.-Gen. Trevor Cadieu said in a year-end interview.
Cadieu admits that encouraging 1,000 new reservists to sign up for service between Thunder Bay, Ont., and Victoria, B.C., is a “pretty ambitious objective” especially considering competing interests from outside the military.
In total, the Canadian Forces wants to bring reservist numbers up to 30,000 and, under its new defence policy, “Strong, Secure, Engaged,” wants to grow its regular troop ranks by 3,000 to bring its total strength to 101,500 troops.
But it may not be that simple.
INCENTIVES FOR RESERVISTS
“We are competing with economies that are getting better in some of the provinces and other employers,” he said.
As part of its recruitment drive, for the first time, the military is offering new recruits full-time summer employment for the first four years of their military career, as well as creating training opportunities to get them ready for overseas or domestic operations quicker.
Reservists could earn anywhere between $11,000 and $17,000 to help pay for their tuition.
This is seen as the perfect time to begin rebuilding undermanned units, with 3rd Canadian Division no longer in high readiness and away from active overseas deployment until at least July 2019.
“If I could get 1,500 reservists here I would, but we’re trying to be realistic and pragmatic in our goals for this year,” Cadieu said.
FROM WESTERN CANADA TO EASTERN EUROPE
Three missions focusing on Europe dominated 3rd Canadian Division’s overseas activities in 2017 — Operation Unifier in Ukraine and Operation Reassurance in Poland, which later morphed into a leadership and command role of the multinational Enhanced Forward Battlegroup in Latvia.
While the mission briefs differed, each theatre had the common denominator of trying to counter an increasingly unstable Eastern Europe.
The defend, deter and de-escalation mission of Operation Reassurance originally began in 2014, and came at a time when austerity measures were rippling across Europe’s post-global economic meltdown, and as the warm afterglow of the Winter Olympics in Russia was wearing off.
Euromaidan protests in Ukraine in late 2013 spilled into 2014, bringing with it street clashes and simmering unrest between pro-Russian forces and Ukrainians seeking freedom from an oppressive government largely seen as corrupt.
Russia then annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine fought for control in the Donbass region.
UKRAINE MISSION ‘A CATEGORICAL SUCCESS’
Cadieu calls Canada’s involvement in Ukraine, dubbed Operation Unifier, a “categorial success” story, having trained about 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers in an attempt to bring them up to NATO standards.
Those troops are now training more Ukrainian troops, allowing Canadians to develop institutional mentorship programs in a bid to augment the senior non-commissioned officer cadre and to establish training centres and leadership schools in Ukraine.
“When we first got there, it was about helping them deliver training to their troops,” Cadieu said.
“The Ukrainians have increasingly taken that over ... so Canada’s role is to step back a little bit and to help with training design on the backside.”
Being that the current mission wraps up in March 2019, four months before 3rd Canadian Division returns to deployment mode, western Canadian troops may not return to western Ukraine.
After 35 exercises in eight Eastern European countries since 2014, Operation Reassurance was halted this past August to allow NATO troops to reposition in the region and rebrand.
Canadian troops moved north to Latvia, where they established their first permanent base in Europe since the end of the Cold War and took control of one of four multinational battalion battle groups alongside members from Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Czech Republic.
Battalions are also posted in Estonia, Want to have your say on the news? Send us a letter at letters@ edmonton journal.com. Lithuania and Poland. All told there are more than 4,500 NATO troops based in the region.
“This isn’t a short term, episodic commitment,” Cadieu said of the Latvia deployment. “We’re invested in the long run.”
ROAD TO HIGH READINESS
When the final 3rd Canadian Division troops return to Canada in January, it will mark an end to overseas deployment to enter the next phase of its military preparedness — the road to high readiness.
That entails making sure armoured vehicles are maintained, inspections are completed and new equipment is introduced.
That includes 14 new armoured engineer vehicles and about 100 tactical armoured vehicles that can be used for reconnaissance and surveillance and armoured transport of personnel and equipment.
“We don’t want to be integrating new kit and equipment when we have already started training for operation,” Cadieu said.
“We want it before that, so that our troops are qualified for training when they’re downrange. This is an opportunity to reload and to reconstitute.”