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

[markppcli]

Two and one half months to the end of the FT. Are we gonna make 2%?

Certainly hope so

 

[McG]

It might help getting to 2% if there were more urgency updating DoAs to give the full authorities of the updated matrix

 

[PuckChaser]

Or less LCMMs denying units trying to use standing offers to buy equipment, especially when the purchase is already funded and approved by their L1.

 

[Ostrozac]

The most valuable part of the Reserve Force is the bricks & mortar.

It’s almost certainly the most expensive part, in terms of replacement cost. The recent Quebec City Armoury project cost was $104 million. There are 185 Army Reserve units. I haven’t been able to find an exact number of how many armouries we have — some units have multiple armouries and some armouries host multiple units — but replacement costs would likely be somewhere in the $20 billion range.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

I think @Humphrey Bogart is suggesting you might be able to use them to run recruiting offices.

For training - Back to Valcartier and Salisbury Plain - The good news is you can get an ATCO camp instead of canvas these days.

It's literally a gigantic recruiting office. It's a place where, should mobilization need to occur, medicals could be conducted, administration could be handled, troops could be mustered, etc.

It’s almost certainly the most expensive part, in terms of replacement cost. The recent Quebec City Armoury project cost was $104 million. There are 185 Army Reserve units. I haven’t been able to find an exact number of how many armouries we have — some units have multiple armouries and some armouries host multiple units — but replacement costs would likely be somewhere in the $20 billion range.

Yes, Militaries are expensive... I know this is shocking to most Canadians.

 

[GK .Dundas]

It's literally a gigantic recruiting office. It's a place where, should mobilization need to occur, medicals could be conducted, administration could be handled, troops could be mustered, etc.


Yes, Militaries are expensive... I know this is shocking to most Canadians.

It's especially expensive if you try to do it on the cheap. You can actually manage to do it cheaply if you're careful....we're not careful.

 

[PrairieFella]

My friend (we are both infantry) calls the reserves a "failed experiment." The reason why my friend (and many others) think that PRes is a "failed experiment" is not for one reason, but rather a combination of a lot of bad factors. When you have Sgt's that have only been in for 4 years, they have no experience, and it looks bad. When you have 4 or 5 guys working in the QM, getting paid on class B (so 7 days a week full days), who just sit around and do nothing all day and get the INF Pte's to do their work, it looks bad. When I'm 5'4, and get a 70 size parka and a large ruck with no waist belt, and I have to duct tape a pants belt because nobody wants to give me 3 cent made in China belt buckle, it looks bad. When I'm on training and my (PPCLI) instructor, smartest guy I ever met, is telling me that a lot of the things I learnt on the job are wrong (the PPCLI guy was right), and that there's a "reservist way" and a "right way," it looks bad. This one makes me feel really bad because if I went on deployment, or if a war is called, because I'm Infantry, the consequence is that I could die and make other people die because of my mistake, so it's important to know how to do a section attack properly (my section was the only one who could do a flanking, and the only one who did the final mission properly). One section walked on the point we were supposed to recce, along the airstrip, where the terrorists were supposed to be (the Sgt was there, this is not a Pte's fault). Another section had 20kg sandbags in their rucks the entirety of the three weeks field ex. It felt like my section was the only one who learnt anything.
I think time in reserve is summed up in one experience: another section Sgt told us on our one week field ex not to bring an extra set of CADPAT, and then we went swimming in a 50cm deep by 10m long mud puddle, and then they didn't have any clothes to change, and had to wear that soaking wet set of clothes, except I didn't have that problem because my section disobeyed the Sgt. Now, what I've learnt from that experience is not to trust your Sgt, because if you do, you'll have to run around and do stand too in muddy crusty clothes.

I find that I should be doing PT and section attacks instead of helping the QM and screwing around in the mess. One time I had the same exact class, same powerpoint three LHQ's in a row.

One of my Sgt's told someone to use a knife to cut the rust off the gun. Now there's no more blueing on that gun. I think that sums it up. I think that it's okay to make a mistake, but as a Sgt those are not the type of mistakes you're supposed to make. Sometimes I don't even know why there is a reserves.

Sounds like you have an exceptionally bad unit. Are there other options in your area? Quality of units can vary wildly between regiments and battalions unfortunately.

 

[brihard]

Sounds like you have an exceptionally bad unit. Are there other options in your area? Quality of units can vary wildly between regiments and battalions unfortunately.

Indeed. That sounds like failure in basic competence at a unit level. I was reserve infantry for about 14 years. This level of ineptitude doesn’t at all match my experience. Yes, promotions come fast - an unfortunate inevitability of a system that generallly has a four to five year window to get someone as qualified as possible - but so did training, courses, and operational deployments, and knowledge, skills, and experience came back from that.

It’s unfortunate that his unit sounds to be so far behind the curve.

 

[PrairieFella]

Indeed. That sounds like failure in basic competence at a unit level. I was reserve infantry for about 14 years. This level of ineptitude doesn’t at all match my experience. Yes, promotions come fast - an unfortunate inevitability of a system that generallly has a four to five year window to get someone as qualified as possible - but so did training, courses, and operational deployments, and knowledge, skills, and experience came back from that.

It’s unfortunate that his unit sounds to be so far behind the curve.

Id even hazard to say that it sounds like a bad section. Not to insult the intelligence of the original poster but from what theyve said they sound quite green and perhaps arent quite seeing forest for trees. Everything is Sgt/MCpl and DP1, not necessarily higher level stuff. That said it certainly could be unit wide.

 

[CadNav]

Id even hazard to say that it sounds like a bad section. Not to insult the intelligence of the original poster but from what theyve said they sound quite green and perhaps arent quite seeing forest for trees. Everything is Sgt/MCpl and DP1, not necessarily higher level stuff. That said it certainly could be unit wide.

I'm green enough; my CO, the couple times I talked to him, seemed alright; my only experience with my CSM is sending him a memo a year ago and never getting a response back — yes, I ask for it back regularly.

We don't have sections/platoons in garison because we have 8 pte's/cpls that actually show up.

The other coy in my regiment seems fine, but there is another coy where only one guy shows up for excercises, which is really weird

I wouldn't say it's a unit issue, I've been in for around two years, I just find it's ludicrous sometimes when thing upon thing happens... I know it's a lower level problem and I assume (and hope) the whole PRes isn't like it, but I don't think anything that is "military" should be operating at such a low level
And the things I've said are just the tip of the iceberg lol

One of my sgts told us that women shouldn't be in the military, and that their periods are bad, and that they should just stay at the house, and so on (with a bit of sexist language and rhetoric); sometimes I just find it's a bit bébé that this stuff happens...

 

[Furniture]

One of my sgts told us that women shouldn't be in the military, and that their periods are bad, and that they should just stay at the house, and so on (with a bit of sexist language and rhetoric); sometimes I just find it's a bit bébé that this stuff happens...

That Sgt needs to be reported up the chain until someone takes action. That is the kind of toxic BS that kills morale and drives people away.

That sort of behaviour wasn't acceptable 25 years ago when I joined.

 

[CadNav]

That Sgt needs to be reported up the chain until someone takes action. That is the kind of toxic BS that kills morale and drives people away.

That sort of behaviour wasn't acceptable 25 years ago when I joined.

Reprisal is a real thing... but yes, I agree.

 

[brihard]

I'm green enough; my CO, the couple times I talked to him, seemed alright; my only experience with my CSM is sending him a memo a year ago and never getting a response back — yes, I ask for it back regularly.

We don't have sections/platoons in garison because we have 8 pte's/cpls that actually show up.

The other coy in my regiment seems fine, but there is another coy where only one guy shows up for excercises, which is really weird

I wouldn't say it's a unit issue, I've been in for around two years, I just find it's ludicrous sometimes when thing upon thing happens... I know it's a lower level problem and I assume (and hope) the whole PRes isn't like it, but I don't think anything that is "military" should be operating at such a low level
And the things I've said are just the tip of the iceberg lol

Oh OK, so you in one of those small town ‘placompanies’ that struggles to parade a section. That’s a related but distinct issue and this site has years of good discourse on it.

One of my sgts told us that women shouldn't be in the military, and that their periods are bad, and that they should just stay at the house, and so on (with a bit of sexist language and rhetoric); sometimes I just find it's a bit bébé that this stuff happens...

That guy needs to be gripped onto and potentially tossed out on his ear. That won’t happen if the chain of command doesn’t know.

 

[FJAG]

The military is a mirror of the society that it comes from. It's virtually impossible to weed out the morons and the incompetents that come through the door. It's the same way in every business and institution in the country.

Just like every other organization the military needs to pull out the weeds when they become obvious. Just like every other organization the military tends to hesitate in doing so because it doesn't have enough workers or doesn't see the weed for what it is and often a weed still serves the purpose of making the garden look green.

 

[CadNav]

Oh OK, so you in one of those small town ‘placompanies’ that struggles to parade a section. That’s a related but distinct issue and this site has years of good discourse on it.



That guy needs to be gripped onto and potentially tossed out on his ear. That won’t happen if the chain of command doesn’t know.

"That guy" is one of the better ones...
i think that guy, and like 2 pte's passed pwt3 last time we did it, and everyone else failed... obviously they doctored the scores and made everyone pass but sometimes I find it's hard to say that we're infantry when we can't even pass basic infantry test

Is "placompany" the formal word for that? Never heard that before

 

[brihard]

"That guy" is one of the better ones...
i think that guy, and like 2 pte's passed pwt3 last time we did it, and everyone else failed... obviously they doctored the scores and made everyone pass but sometimes I find it's hard to say that we're infantry when we can't even pass basic infantry test

Yeah so your experience is really, really far down the bell curve. Not sure what your unit is and I ain’t asking, but what you describe is utter garbage. And no, that Sgt may be able to shoot, but with those attitudes he is not ‘one of the better ones’.

Is "placompany" the formal word for that? Never heard that before

It is not. It’s a phenomenon where a reserve unit will pretend organizationally to be a battalion, has one or more different ‘companies’ that on a good night will really muster a platoon and can get a section out on exercise.

 

[CadNav]

Yeah so your experience is really, really far down the bell curve. Not sure what your unit is and I ain’t asking, but what you describe is utter garbage. And no, that Sgt may be able to shoot, but with those attitudes he is not ‘one of the better ones’.


It is not. It’s a phenomenon where a reserve unit will pretend organizationally to be a battalion, has one or more different ‘companies’ that on a good night will really muster a platoon and can get a section out on exercise.

That's good to hear... I thought the whole military was like that
I hope when i'm regs it'll be better for me

I am very sorry for whatever LT has to deal with them when they go on deployment

 

[quadrapiper]

Yeah so your experience is really, really far down the bell curve. Not sure what your unit is and I ain’t asking, but what you describe is utter garbage. And no, that Sgt may be able to shoot, but with those attitudes he is not ‘one of the better ones’.

Yeah, even if he doesn't have even nastier views that he's not being so open about, someone who hasn't figured out gender equality in the CAF is probably less than closed up on all sorts of other things.

One of my sgts told us that women shouldn't be in the military, and that their periods are bad, and that they should just stay at the house, and so on (with a bit of sexist language and rhetoric); sometimes I just find it's a bit bébé that this stuff happens...

This sort of guy needs to disappear. Nasty, weak, trash human being. No idea how to get rid of them societally, but would be lovely if we could!

 

[CadNav]

Yeah, even if he doesn't have even nastier views that he's not being so open about, someone who hasn't figured out gender equality in the CAF is probably less than closed up on all sorts of other things.

This sort of guy needs to disappear. Nasty, weak, trash human being. No idea how to get rid of them societally, but would be lovely if we could!

Yup... I had a demoted RCR guy on my course, he was like a charicature out of south park f***ot this, sexism this, racism that... and he said this on the range with live ammo, can't waste a time to jack people up!!!

It should be a priviledge to teach, and I think that if you can't be GBA+ complient, you should go work somewhere else

 

[Jarnhamar]

Reprisal is a real thing... but yes, I agree.

You're on your way out of the unit in April, there isn't much they can do.

Sending a size XS soldier to the arctic in a size XXXL parka sounds like abuse, and potentially very dangerous. Disparaging comments about females checks off a number of boxes someone can face disciplinary action for.