Better pay, opportunities for reserve soldiers: MP
Government boosting reserve forces by 1,500 soldiers to 30,000
Reserve soldiers are going to get better pay and more meaningful roles in the military, Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr said on Monday.
Speaking at the Brigadier Angle Armoury, home to Kelowna’s Dragoon reserve unit, Fuhr explained how the Liberal government’s new defence policy, announced last week, will benefit reservists.
The government will boost the reserve forces by 1,500 soldiers to 30,000. Reserve soldiers will be given more meaningful roles, will earn the same pay as full-time soldiers when they do the same work and the government will make it easier and faster to enlist in the reserves, he said.
While it may take some time for policies to be put in place and trickle down to the local units like the Dragoons, Fuhr said the pay increases will take place right away.
“This policy includes a variety of initiatives to make the reserves more attractive for the long term. Reserves will be employed in new and important and meaningful roles,” said Fuhr in front of a small roomful of reserve and retired soldiers and local media.
The reserves “will be more closely aligned with the regular force,” he said.
The policy will also make it easier for soldiers to move between full- and part-time duty, he said. And starting in 2018, the government will offer full-time summer employment to reservists in their first four years.
Fuhr noted no social spending cuts will be required to pay for the military boost.
“We’re not sacrificing any of our other spending to do this.”