Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC

[PrairieFella]

His statements on reservists are interesting too.

I think the restructuring as part of the modernization work is going to help us define how they should be employed. Should they be a domestic operations [force] only? Should they be an augmentation of 20 percent of the Regular force? Could one section out of three in an infantry battalion, let’s say, be reservists? Should they be deploying overseas? We learned that mission tasks are probably not appropriate, or at least not across the board for certain organizations. We came to realize that it’s very hard to force-generate them.

Geography is also an issue. In some parts of the country, it can take some reservists a full day just to reach a training area. If they only have a weekend to train, that means they’re travelling for two days. We want our reservists to be everywhere, but then we don’t have opportunities for them to train properly.

The one thing that we know for sure is that the Army Reserve is critical to the One Army team. We need them. We are too understrength not to have a Reserve component. That restructure is going to be important.

I want to know how the dumbass who suggested the bolded thinks we'll meet our overseas commitments without reservists haha.

 

[Furniture]

"When I'm speaking to people, I remind them why they joined the Canadian Armed Forces and why they chose the Army in particular. I think people quickly forget. It can become, what's in it for me. But that's not why we joined initially. We joined because we want to serve Canadians. I remind people that we have a lot of soldiers on the frontlines, even if it is in support roles, on expeditionary and domestic operations. We're there when things are not beautiful; that's when we step up ... My message when it gomes to retention is mostly reminding them why they joined.


It's not always going to be roses."

Classic "institutional leadership" right there...

"What's in it for me" has, and always will be, a major component of why people join and then continue to stay in. Pretending it isn't that way is just obvious and laughable Kool-aid drinking.

 

[FSTO]

The Saskatoon Slowpoke had Total, or Thermal, output of 20 kW and the first Chalk River Slowpoke was 5 kW.

Not MW but kW. Enough for 5 houses or a small business.

I don't think the technology is a problem. The cost and commercial feasibility is likely to be the issue.

But it needs to be measured against the alternatives - fuel deliveries or powerlines.

In the 50s Saskatchewan electrified as a matter of government policy at a cost the farmers didn't want.

It appealed to the women and kids and kept them down on the farm instead of running off to the bright lights.

NFB Film (when NFB was useful)
Farm Electrification
A farming community organizes to obtain hydro power under Manitoba's rural electrification plan. Energetic canvassing wins over those hesitant to share, for the good of all, the initial expense. The abundant return in comfort, convenience, efficiency and financial advantage is described in concluding sequences.

Farm Electrification

 

[GK .Dundas]

I have met very few folks who have served in an operational theatre who have been ready to badmouth the reserve force.
It would probably help if NDHQ would stop viewing them as an near endless supply of cheap clerks.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Classic "institutional leadership" right there...

"What's in it for me" has, and always will be, a major component of why people join and then continue to stay in. Pretending it isn't that way is just obvious and laughable Kool-aid drinking.

And good for your career path

 

[KevinB]

I have met very few folks who have served in an operational theatre who have been ready to badmouth the reserve force.

I’d caveat that as individual reservists.
The system is terrible, the individuals are not.

It would probably help if NDHQ would stop viewing them as a near endless supply of cheap clerks.

That’s really just the NCR.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Classic "institutional leadership" right there...

"What's in it for me" has, and always will be, a major component of why people join and then continue to stay in. Pretending it isn't that way is just obvious and laughable Kool-aid drinking.

The problem is that most institutional leaders are taught this pyramid and think the two base layers are a given:



The problem I see with CWO Robin's position is that the answer to "What's in it for me?" is based on his own needs being met and being blind to others not being met. One can serve on patriotism alone... if your mortgage is paid and there's food in the fridge every week.

For some of our soldiers, that isn't the case; and its not greed or a lack of institutional commitment that sees them walking.

I do hope he gets taken to task for his comments, as it was a stupid thing to say. Especially when the Reddit and Social Media pulse is very much stating "20% Immediately" is a rallying cry for unionizing/ mass releasing.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Classic "institutional leadership" right there...

"What's in it for me" has, and always will be, a major component of why people join and then continue to stay in. Pretending it isn't that way is just obvious and laughable Kool-aid drinking.

Agreed.

I don't think it's unfair to expect something in return for providing unlimited liability.

 

[Remius]

That’s really just the NCR.

Kingston, St Jean, Gagetown…

 

[MilEME09]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.

The reason I joined is not why I'm still in 20 years later, as I accomplished everything I joined for almost a decade ago.

Stockholm syndrome?

 

[Kirkhill]

NFB Film (when NFB was useful)
Farm Electrification
A farming community organizes to obtain hydro power under Manitoba's rural electrification plan. Energetic canvassing wins over those hesitant to share, for the good of all, the initial expense. The abundant return in comfort, convenience, efficiency and financial advantage is described in concluding sequences.

Farm Electrification

Thanks for that. The Co-Op movement has very deep roots on the prairies. It is how the working classes got things done. They beat the company store.

Strike Rochdale from the record books. The Co-op began in Scotland

Amateur historians uncover record of weavers who were discount store pioneers.

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kirkhill]

Classic "institutional leadership" right there...

"What's in it for me" has, and always will be, a major component of why people join and then continue to stay in. Pretending it isn't that way is just obvious and laughable Kool-aid drinking.

Adam Smith would not be surprised.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Oh sorry

Hot take with the Army Sergeant Major | Canadian Army Today

canadianarmytoday.com

On one hand, I would agree that anytime you get to do your core job it's pretty satisfying, so that's pretty reasonable, but I think overselling 'serving Canadians' and underplaying the CoL and dissatisfaction with the system is a big one.

I spent a lot of my career on the 'provide parts and repairs' side, and it's incredibly frustrating fighting the system to do things, and delivering an imperfect solution because that was the best you could do because you have to work within the system, which actively fights you. There is a multiyear lead time for a lot of it, and we have decades of running at full pin that have lead to the issues he mentions in Latvia with things not being ready, and the lag to get it sorted is because there is no surge left.

I think for anyone there is an expected level of bureaucracy to jump hoops through as a necessary evil, but we're pretty far beyond that and all the delays impact both our ability to spend and operational capability (when parts, equipment, infra etc aren't in place as a result).

At the moment, waiting on funding to do some testing, which I can't get until I say again how much will spend this FY, but the continuing delays in getting funding mean I can't get contracts in place to spend money this FY. Telling them that delays getting funding, which delays getting a contract in place..... it's a pretty ridiculous Catch 22. All this to try and avoid a maintenance garage full of heavy duty EV vehicles because we didn't have a plan in place ahead of time of what to do if one of the batteries catches on fire, and the commercial risk acceptance of losing a third of the fleet doesn't work for operations. Would be particularly embarrassing if it is an EV fire truck and we lose a firehall.

Worth doing for me as it's a weird niche, that literally no one else would do if I wasn't, but just wish getting it done wasn't 90% non-value added financial/contractual admin and 10% core SME work (especially when I know how much we'd get charged to do the work I'm doing).

Sure most people past their basic OFP rank has similar frustrations with the bureaucracy impeding their work, and I guess he's at least acknowledging it, but I think he's underestimating how much that takes away from people's sense of job satisfaction. Kind of like retail service, think every operator should do a lap on the support side so they understand what it takes for bullets and parts to show up when needed. At least he didn't say 'if you don't like it quit', I guess.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Stockholm syndrome?

I regularly update my CV and look at applying externally so I'm not sticking around by default, but honestly at 20.5 years the financial arguements for holding out until the annuity are pretty hard to argue, and I've eaten enough shit at this point that it's just part of the routine.

Like my current role, and if I am left alone to actually do my job happy to keep doing it, but overall am not keeping a long term CAF career goal anymore, and just focusing on finding rewarding work in the short term. I am pretty sure I'm the only one in the CAF with my SME/quals, with some critical projects to support to maintain basic operational capabilities related to that, so should be a no brainer, but I'm sure the system will want me to do something else, and keep trying to promote me to jobs where I don't use any of that SME.

As far as I can tell, there are a lot of people in that bow wave between 20 and 25 years transition, but 'serving Canada' is a pretty hard sell at this point as reasons to carry on. It's too abstract and not concrete. I think serving CAF members is probably the real motivator, but getting worn down by the system, and seeing subordinates getting ground down by CoL while things like PLD are cut and PMQ costs get raised (if you can get into one with the multiyear waiting lists) all makes it harder to continue to do that.

 

[Stoker]

nytimeI regularly update my CV and look at applying externally so I'm not sticking around by default, but honestly at 20.5 years the financial arguements for holding out until the annuity are pretty hard to argue, and I've eaten enough shit at this point that it's just part of the routine.

Like my current role, and if I am left alone to actually do my job happy to keep doing it, but overall am not keeping a long term CAF career goal anymore, and just focusing on finding rewarding work in the short term. I am pretty sure I'm the only one in the CAF with my SME/quals, with some critical projects to support to maintain basic operational capabilities related to that, so should be a no brainer, but I'm sure the system will want me to do something else, and keep trying to promote me to jobs where I don't use any of that SME.

As far as I can tell, there are a lot of people in that bow wave between 20 and 25 years transition, but 'serving Canada' is a pretty hard sell at this point as reasons to carry on. It's too abstract and not concrete. I think serving CAF members is probably the real motivator, but getting worn down by the system, and seeing subordinates getting ground down by CoL while things like PLD are cut and PMQ costs get raised (if you can get into one with the multiyear waiting lists) all makes it harder to continue to do that.

Have 36 years in and been on the operational and collective training and mentoring side of things for most if not all of my career. I can obviously go anytime and get a job with Thales or equivalent. I like what I do and like yourself see our benefits get reduced, PLD and the transitional PLD and possibly SDA. Makes it harder and harder to stay around.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Have 36 years in and been on the operational and collective training and mentoring side of things for most if not all of my career. I can obviously go anytime and get a job with Thales or equivalent. I like what I do and like yourself see our benefits get reduced, PLD and the transitional PLD and possibly SDA. Makes it harder and harder to stay around.

I suspect a large number of people are in the same boat; they'd be happy to stick around and just do their job if the system got out of their way and we stopped getting jerked around. The SDA thing is pretty hilarious, I can't see it having the impact they think it will (especially with how much sailing and time deployed doesn't count as sea days). It also will create a lot of extra admin, and is exceptionally punitive when you look at the LOE the engineering and log departments put in non-sailing days, especially during EDWP2 for reactivation and trials, and doing critical support during DWPs.

CoL is hard to watch as well, when people are struggling to find a shitty apartment and paying $2400 a month, and trying to get it done during a 5 day HHT because you get a lot of pushback going to 10 days. I got lucky with some geographic stability (with IR etc for the family to stay in place) but at this point an arbitrary posting would probably be part of the tipping point as it really undercuts the math on staying in.

 

[Stoker]

I suspect a large number of people are in the same boat; they'd be happy to stick around and just do their job if the system got out of their way and we stopped getting jerked around. The SDA thing is pretty hilarious, I can't see it having the impact they think it will (especially with how much sailing and time deployed doesn't count as sea days). It also will create a lot of extra admin, and is exceptionally punitive when you look at the LOE the engineering and log departments put in non-sailing days, especially during EDWP2 for reactivation and trials, and doing critical support during DWPs.

CoL is hard to watch as well, when people are struggling to find a shitty apartment and paying $2400 a month, and trying to get it done during a 5 day HHT because you get a lot of pushback going to 10 days. I got lucky with some geographic stability (with IR etc for the family to stay in place) but at this point an arbitrary posting would probably be part of the tipping point as it really undercuts the math on staying in.

For sure, I'm in a "sea going billet" and spend quite a bit of time ashore but still manage to get over a hundred sea days a year, I'm up over 2700 now LOL. If sea pay is changed I probably will lose thousands of dollars. Probably close to a 10K hit between PLD and SDA, that's significant.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Apparently the Army Sergeant Major figured out the answer to retention.

Remind people why they joined.

Yeah, but for a lot of guys the charges were eventually dropped. Oh wait, that was Vietnam.

 

[GK .Dundas]

I’d caveat that as individual reservists.
The system is terrible, the individuals are not.

That’s really just the NCR.

Actually it's not.

 

[PrairieFella]

I think it was this thread someone was asking about the Armoured Sqn ech system. This video has a dated but excellent breakdown of the structure. Bonus if you spot a (then) future CDS in this video lol. Anecdotally, a bunch of my unit's dudes have been working with the Tank Sqn Ech in Latvia. Apparently our allies really like our system of combat administration since structurally their armour sqns dont have nearly the same depth logistically. Interesting stuff.