* this gets even stupider in Edmonton, Brandon, Quebec City, and Fredricton.
Driving two hours to train isn’t actually a big deal. He’ll I know guys in the IS National Guard that parade two states over.
You are once again regressing to a RegF position built around a RegF mind set. What it primarily ignores is the ties between a local community and its ResF units.
I would expect the potential recruits in Toronto would be most reluctant to make their way to Borden or Meaford every second weekend (assuming the army could reclaim Borden for their use). You might find the odd national guardsman making that slog to stay with a unit/branch of his choice, but the vast majority operate out of a hundreds if not thousands of small compnay-sized armouries - some old and decrepit many more utilitarian - in local communities and spread throughout major cities.
I fully agree that much of the major equipment should be kept at facilities that provide live fire training and maintenance opportunities but those do not need to be visited more than several times per year. But the unit itself - be it as small as a rifle company - needs an anchor, handy to the community (and which can often double as an emergency shelter for the community and as assembly areas for the unit itself and its local administration.) Personnel equipment, small arms and some vehicles should be handy to these local communities as much of the training can take place there. For specialist units, representative equipment or simulators can and should be made available in major urban centres. Lets just say that there is absolutely no reason why several LAVs or Archer howitzers couldn't be available and be properly maintained at Downsview for the units in Toronto to use for training.
The idea that we time share equipment, Mon to Fri RegF; Sat-Sun ResF is a good one and is the basic rational behind a 30/70 hybrid unit construct (at least until 100% equipment holdings are acquired). But why make reservists travel to a RegF base? Why not build infrastructure in urban centres that RegF personnel can be posted to? Numerous full-time pers want to live a stable life in a large city where spouses can have a profession, education opportunities for children exist and extended families are close at hand.
I couldn't think of a faster way to kill off the ResF than to have its facilities and operations get concentrated onto the handful of existing RegF bases. The reality of a country as vast as Canada is that you have to pay a premium because in order to have functioning voluntary military it needs to be distributed widely to where the people are. Much of the training and administration needs to be done there. . . And yes, even in Brandon (speaking as someone who had to drive from his PMQ in Shilo to the Brandon armouries every workday for two years) Edmonton is the only city that you cite that really makes sense, and even here it would be well served by a satellite facility in the south end of the city.
There are many things wrong with the army and its ResF that needs fixing but the general concept of being amongst the people that it draws its personnel from isn't one of those things.
My own view of making good use of that mystical 2% is to build urban bases in the major cities across the country. There's land available to build compact bases that can provide essential infrastructure for a unit as well as condominium-style quarters and PMQs. One would think that by this time an military structure that has problems maintaining its human capital would have figured out a practical way to revitalize local community infrastructure to maximize its potential.
www.journal.forces.gc.ca
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