After Afghanistan - What Will Canada Do With Its Army?

[Pil]

I know you said that tongue-in-cheek, but I am all for the country using the Army for mundane tasks when there is no fighting required for national security.

Things like peacekeeping, snow removal, etc are all in the realm of "Things a soldier can not do when at war or training for war".

Pretty much exactly like a firefighter responding to a motor vehicle collision or a cat stuck in a tree...it's not their primary job and rest-assured if there was a fire they would be there, but they can still be of use if they have tools and skills that others don't.

Same with the Army...there's no reason Canada can't say "We see the value in you, but we don't have any urgent use for you right now so you can do _________ for us because we'd like it and you're getting paid anyway".

Cats stuck in trees and responding to MVC's is a fire fighter related duty. Garbage sweeps and routine snow removal in Canadian cities isn't something the army is mandated to do. We've already established we're going to have a reduced training budget after we pull the pin in Afghanistan. Now you're advocating that we eat up a larger portion of the budget by transporting our troops and equipment to help with snow removal? Our vehicle pool is already dying, what are we going to do when there is a new war to fight and all are vehicles are grounded because we used them to plow roads? I suppose you could argue that the Government would expand our budget, but I would see that being cut in fairly short order. "We need a hundred million? Just take it out of the army, they're just plowing roads."



What do you propose when Calgary starts bitching that Edmonton is getting federal help for snow removal? Or when Victoria complains that Winnipeg gets free garabe pickers? All three levels of Government would come to expect the army to help with routine things and when we weren't there, they'd have a fit.

Have you ever been involved in a union? Have you ever seen what happens when you try and convince a union to let non-union people do their job? I would bet that almost every municipal and Provincial employee is unionized and that's exactly who'd we would be supplementing wether we plow snow, pick garabage, patrol parks, build dams or almost any other job I can think of.

At least we'd have a cool new recruiting add "Fight...Litter"

 

[SeanNewman]

You guys are funny.

It's actually humourous to watch some of you pick obscure points out of an argument and then go off on a tangent like unions, etc.

Pil, the point is not peacekeeping or garbage or snow.  The point is that we belong to Canada and our primary job is the defence of Canada (still on the same page), but if we are trained up to do that but not getting used the country can tell us to do whatever the hell it wants.

I'm not saying that I want it to happen or that it will happen.  But guess what, if the Canadian public demands we fill sandbags or demands we fill balloons, you might not like it but that's what we're doing.  A candidate on a course may not like it that you make him sew his name tags in all his clothes, and a trained warrior may not like it that he's shoveling snow, but we belong to Canada and are duty bound to do what we're told to do.

 

[aesop081]

You guys are funny.

As are you. Dont think for a second that you are above the noise.

 

[Loachman]

But then again, you may be "relatively new at this too".

 

[SeanNewman]

As are you. Dont think for a second that you are above the noise.

Absolutely!  Never claimed to be anything but a silly pongo.

 

[Pil]

You guys are funny.

It's actually humourous to watch some of you pick obscure points out of an argument and then go off on a tangent like unions, etc.

Pil, the point is not peacekeeping or garbage or snow.  The point is that we belong to Canada and our primary job is the defence of Canada (still on the same page), but if we are trained up to do that but not getting used the country can tell us to do whatever the hell it wants.

I'm not saying that I want it to happen or that it will happen.  But guess what, if the Canadian public demands we fill sandbags or demands we fill balloons, you might not like it but that's what we're doing.  A candidate on a course may not like it that you make him sew his name tags in all his clothes, and a trained warrior may not like it that he's shoveling snow, but we belong to Canada and are duty bound to do what we're told to do.

Well thought out reply.

As indicated, I'm not talking about emergency operations or peacekeeping, it's our realm. I'm talking about being GD for the Country, as you said we should be if we're not doing soldier stuff. I'm asking how you would like us to go about it. Your lack of any logical reply to anyones rebuttals other than "You so crazy." leads me to beleive you haven't thought about it, or wouldn't mind if your troops had to wear orange vests on the side of the road so long as you don't.

I think most of the members on here are well aware of what our duties are and understand that we will be called on to do what the Government requests of us. Thanks though, tips.

Anyways, have a good night.

 

[SeanNewman]

I have nothing else to add at this time 

 

[Franko]

Wow...just wow.

From petty insults and bitch slapping to one liners.      :

Never thought I'd see this level of BS go on. You really have no idea who you're talking to Petamocto, nor his experience. Perhaps get a wee bit of background before you hit the "fire" button.



Locking this waste of bandwidth up.

The Army.ca Staff

 

[Arcset]

Ignorant civy here.  My question is, given that the combat mission is over, what is expected of the members in Combat Arms trades?  Do they just sit around in garrison and continue training while waiting for the next conflict?  Are there no more opportunities for deployment?

The reason why I'm asking is because I've applied to become an infanteer, and while I want to be a member of the Canadian Forces and contribute, I can't help but feel that if I were to be accepted I wouldn't be able to contribute much given how things are currently progressing.  The very thought of potentially not getting deployed while being in the Forces is making me reconsider my application (which sucks given that I applied over a year ago), so I suppose I'm looking for an excuse to stay the course and continue with my application.  I'm not saying that I'm eager to get into combat and hurt people, but the idea that I might not be able to ever put my training to use is heartbreaking.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to this.  It means a great deal to me.

 

[LightFighter]

Yes, until deployed we continue training, etc in garrison and in the field. Combat Arms are deployed on more than just combat missions(the last few years of Afghanistan weren't combat). In addition to international deployments, there are also domestic ops; examples being the 2010 Olympics, G8, and Manitoba floods.

Right now, there is no large scale ground deployment, but that doesn't mean another mission won't come along. There is a possibility that you could never deploy, but there is also a chance you will. All dependent on how long you stay in, what's going on internationally, and what the Government of Canada wants.

 

[OldSolduer]

Yes, until deployed we continue training, etc in garrison and in the field. Combat Arms are not deployed on more than just combat missions(the last few years of Afghanistan weren't combat). In addition to international deployments, there are also domestic ops, examples being the 2010 Olympics, G8, Manitoba flooding, etc.

Right now, there is no current large scale deployment, but that doesn't mean another mission won't come along. There is a possibility that you could never deploy, but there is also a chance you will. All dependent on how long you stay in, what's going on internationally, and what the Government of Canada wants.

As a reservist, we train our soldiers to work alongside our Reg Force counterparts. We may not be as advanced as the Reg Force, but our troops do have a baseline of experience to draw from. Several of our NCOs and officers have deployed on missions with the CAF.