The current problems are revealing how wholly inadequate that military factor is.
An understandable perspective for somebody who isn't in and is part of one of the wealthiest cohorts in the country. But when we're recruiting and trying to retain from the other side of the spectrum this doesn't work.
The CAF has shortages in highly skilled occupations. But the CAF is also short across the board. That definitely speaks to a broader problem.
Part of the wider issue, of course, is that the mediocre pay, is compounded by poor family services and spousal support in a country with an increasingly aging population where the price/income ratio for housing has doubled over the decades. A young family of four that isn't making over $180k today would struggle maintaining a lifestyle most would consider middle class in most of the country. But every time the member moves that family loses $50k from the spouse starting their career over. How does the CAF compensation structure account for that? And that is all made worse by losing a daycare spot (my wife nearly quit her job when we couldn't find daycare....in Ottawa), not being able to find a family doctor, etc
The maxim that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, holds. Over the last two decades, CAF shortfalls have gotten worse and worse. And yet nobody wants to listen to members literally telling them in release surveys what the problems are. Expecting things to change because new kit is the definition of insanity. You might retain a few pilots with new F-35s. Good luck retaining the techs and engineers though. And that same challenge is true across other services.
Finally, like I said earlier, a lot of these conversations ignore demographics and needed family income today. A member is much more likely to be older and have dependents today than generations past. That also means they care about family income. If you screw the spouse, the member's pay has to make up for it. The CAF doesn't come close today. And so increasingly, every posting message is a family decision of do we take this or should we end here.
Throwing money at this, won't fix everything, but it will stem the losses and buy time till ab lot of the institutional changes can be made and the missing supports built. Or I guess we can just pray for a severe recession....