Government hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Booter]

You apply for each promotion by the job and location.

I realized you’re talking about the system that was around 2000. We got rid of it around there- your recollection isn’t inaccurate for then.

 

[PrairieFella]

Rumours are aplenty on the CAF reddit that briefings are being passed around that LDA is getting cut to only being paid when in the field...anyone have any SA on if that's true? I can see some extremely unhappy field troops in the Army. Anyone know why they would cut it?

 

[Underway]

Rumours are aplenty on the CAF reddit that briefings are being passed around that LDA is getting cut to only being paid when in the field...anyone have any SA on if that's true? I can see some extremely unhappy field troops in the Army. Anyone know why they would cut it?

Because it stupid to pay it out to people who go home and sleep in their own beds every night. Its an environmental allowance. If you are not doing work out in the environment then you shouldn't be getting it.

Ships are a bit harder as you're often doing duty watch and such, and day to day need to be available for fire fighting and damage control. Honestly if you're in a shore office though, not something that you should be paid (though people are).

 

[CBH99]

.

 

[MilEME09]

Rumours are aplenty on the CAF reddit that briefings are being passed around that LDA is getting cut to only being paid when in the field...anyone have any SA on if that's true? I can see some extremely unhappy field troops in the Army. Anyone know why they would cut it?

As a reservists i only get field pay when I the field, why should reg force be an different? Sounds like sensible poilcy to me

 

[Halifax Tar]

Well, the key question here is how many of those positions do we really need? For example, to house nine Colonels with umpteen staff each (Class A, B, C and RegF) in ARes CBG HQs (a.k.a. glorified post offices) might not be the best investment of scarce resources.

From Google search land...

• 31 Canadian Brigade Group (31 CBG): Headquartered in London, Ontario, with units in Southwestern Ontario.
  
  
• 32 Canadian Brigade Group (32 CBG): Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, serving the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding regions.
  
  
• 33 Canadian Brigade Group (33 CBG): Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, with units spread throughout the National Capital Region and Eastern Ontario.
  
  
• 34 Canadian Brigade Group (34 CBG): Headquartered in Saint-Hubert, Quebec.
  
  
• 35 Canadian Brigade Group (35 CBG): Headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec.
  
  
• 36 Canadian Brigade Group (36 CBG): Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  
  
• 38 Canadian Brigade Group (38 CBG): Headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  
  
• 39 Canadian Brigade Group (39 CBG): Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.
  
  
• 41 Canadian Brigade Group (41 CBG): Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.

I think we should combine the Maritimes into one CBG.

You apply for each promotion by the job and location.

I like this. I also like the idea of formal testing and board sitting as gate ways to merit listing.

Because it stupid to pay it out to people who go home and sleep in their own beds every night. Its an environmental allowance. If you are not doing work out in the environment then you shouldn't be getting it.

Ships are a bit harder as you're often doing duty watch and such, and day to day need to be available for fire fighting and damage control. Honestly if you're in a shore office though, not something that you should be paid (though people are).

You keep SDA for only 6 months in a shore office. And no you don't get it if you're posted into the shore office.

 

[McG]

I could see a two tiered career management system. Let's say you have a hybrid brigade in Toronto; the brigade would career manage personnel who are in the Toronto-restricted RegF class as well as the reservists there while a national career manager manages all personnel who are not in the unrestricted class as well as managing all requests to transfer from one class to the other.

No. If you want to entrench the current process where different full-time positions are permanently aligned with different classes of full-timers, then you do this. If you want to increase the bureaucracy with more staff jobs managing smaller inefficient clusters of people, then you do this.

If you do this, career managers will carve up the establishment to identify positions managed locally and positions managed nationally. People in the geo-locked category being posed will for the most part only have access to the locally managed positions, while geo-mobile pers will generally only have access to nationally managed positions. Yes, career managers can horse trade but that is not the default and it becomes substantially more cumbersome if they must negotiate with a dozen local CM offices sprinkled across the country. If you want a geo-locked MSE Op and a geo-mobile MSE Op to be practically (not just technically) interchangeable as fills to any MSE Op position, then you manage them in the same office.

Start with 31 in Southern Ontario, move more or less east with increments of one through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, but then flip Moncton and Halifax from logical progression, then 38 in Winnipeg, 39 in Calgary, and wind up with 41 in Vancouver.

You got 39 and 41 backwards.

 

[dapaterson]

You got 39 and 41 backwards.

Once again, Ottawa forgets about Alberta.

 

[CBH99]

You got 39 and 41 backwards.

I was gonna say...

But I'm getting to that age where I started to contemplate... "Well wait, was it 39 CBG? I always remembered it being 41 CBG, but...meh maybe it was 41 CBG..."

 

[captloadie]

If LDA goes the route where only days spent in the field get counted, I would implement it this way:
Figure out what the average time spent in the field is and divide that into the highest level of monthly LDA to give you a new daily rate. Every day that is spent where the mbr is in the field past 0001, they get paid for the day, to include the day they return to base.
But, before implementing the policy, a robust IT solution that isn't an excel sheet is implemented to easily track time in the field without a large manual input requirement.

 

[KevinB]

So basically rolling it back to when Field Operation Allowance existed.

 

[Underway]

You keep SDA for only 6 months in a shore office. And no you don't get it if you're posted into the shore office.

Great info. The one time I was shore office, it was for three weeks before I was PCC'd to a ship so never even noticed the pay. By the time SDA kicked in it was two months of back pay anyways.

 

[vonGarvin]

Forget LDA: What are the rumours on pay increases, if any? $$$

 

[foresterab]

To add to the Reserve/Regular Force retention options:
1) DAG green...regardless of Force....pay bonus. A fit CAF is a must.

2) SAR and Volunteer firefighters get the federal $6000 tax break. Locally it's one night a week training plus some weekend/specialty courses for the fire department...I roughly figure 20 days work equivalent a year not including call outs. So provide the same bonus to CAF Reserve members who attend at least 50% of training (if trained to X standard) and 75% if new. Heck...go one step further and allow travel costs to attend Reserve training as a tax relief. I know guys who travel 2.5 hours each way to train weekly.

3) Get serious about what ranks/roles are full time and part time. LT-> Captain?, Private to Sergeant?. Major (which is all Reserve Unit should have) and Warrant Officers should be full time. Provide fixed rate accommodations for each center to avoid posting pain from base to base and the huge differences in home economics for Reg. Force guys posted from Wainwright to Toronto for example....same rent regardless of posting location.

4) Get serious about planned training. Aware it's a scramble due to events...we bang our head on this issue every year with wildfire training and new recruits. But a clear, transparent training schedule ideally two years in advance for all courses is key. So you know that X course will be offered one of March 1 - Pettawa, July 2- Halifax, Sept. 2 Vancouver, and January 2 Winnipeg - which are you available for? Now a member can book to a guaranteed course.

5) Amalgamate or shatter the regimental mafias. Either Combine them all under the Canadian Army Battalions 1-9 + Companies #10-42 of battalions 10-20 OR split them all into unique units. The regimental politics need to go and are a barrier to reform. They may still be named but we shouldn't have the Patricia way vs. the RCR way vs. the Van Doo way going on regarding process. I believe the British Army did this well with their Army reorganization and 300 year histories were not an excuse for keeping a company sized force independent. Again my apologies to those in the RCAF and RCN as I don't know your structure as well.

6) Training...what can be accelerated/divested/independent? Firm believer in course work especially for new folks learning or critical trade training due to the interaction with peers. But at least in the wildland fire area much more training has been stripped from formal classroom course time and put into online module learning staff are expected to complete by X date. Some is a condition of hire (First Aid for example). When I see the role of Athabasca University, Royal Rhodes College, University of Waterloo online....these are full education programs online and I struggle to see why the CAF can not provide some training options to reduce training pressures of physical schools. Staff the online school with CAF retiree's who want supplemental income as teachers if you need subject matter experts and focus rare in person course time on CAF core missions.

7) related to training...have a clearly defined course list of military vs. civilian equivalents. If a member is able to attend night school and complete a key course identified as equivalent then re-imburse tuition costs tax free. No more waiting until end of contract post CAF education transition funding...make it live and dynamic for privates to Major/Captain (RCN) depending on rank/trade/barrier to higher rank.

 

[dapaterson]

No pay bonus for fitness. Remedial measures and release for failing to meet fitness.

 

[CountDC]

Not that I necessarily disagree as my unit has been heavily attrited by the Class B schtick, but I'm going to play Devil's Advocate.

A lot of Class Bs free up RegF personnel already in short supply to do their actual jobs. People go Cl B for a reason instead of Reg, as they can't get posted or forced on tour so who's to say people will actually make that transition? So let's say 50% of Cl B reservists don't make the jump, where is the RegF going to find the people to staff these hundreds of positions that now open up, usually at higher ranks such as Sgt+. That'll be a tough nut to crack for the institution.

Do away with the Class B and use Fixed Period of Service which is used to fill a specific role. Mbrs then get the Reg F benefits and Pay for period of employment.

Rumours are aplenty on the CAF reddit that briefings are being passed around that LDA is getting cut to only being paid when in the field...anyone have any SA on if that's true? I can see some extremely unhappy field troops in the Army. Anyone know why they would cut it?

It is true that LDA is being looked at again. Option I have heard is they want to go purely to the temp LDA same as the reservist on weekend ex gets. If they do change I would rather just go the old FOA way of paying it for everyday the member is in the field. No tracking time in, out, etc.

Forget LDA: What are the rumours on pay increases, if any? $$$

No pay bonus for fitness. Remedial measures and release for failing to meet fitness.

That is already kind of in place but not many enforce it. fail the force, C&P process. Continue the process and release.

 

[vonGarvin]

No pay bonus for fitness. Remedial measures and release for failing to meet fitness.

Can't even mention it on a PAR. Unlike Second language ability

 

[CBH99]

Can't even mention it on a PAR. Unlike Second language ability

Frig we need a facepalm emoji...

 

[markppcli]

As a reservists i only get field pay when I the field, why should reg force be an different? Sounds like sensible poilcy to me

If I don’t get this neither should you!

Because it stupid to pay it out to people who go home and sleep in their own beds every night. Its an environmental allowance. If you are not doing work out in the environment then you shouldn't be getting it.

Ships are a bit harder as you're often doing duty watch and such, and day to day need to be available for fire fighting and damage control. Honestly if you're in a shore office though, not something that you should be paid (though people are).

I’d argue that field units in the Army, especially now, are being made for nthe fact they’re essentially on call for Op Lentus for 6 months of year at least now. While that’s not the intent of LDA, that wa saving money in an era of 8 week long work up exercises, it what’s happening now. I can do 23 hour long field exercises and have the troops back to sleep in their beds for six hours on repeat and they all wouldn’t receive a dime. Awesome.

 

[dangerboy]

I’d argue that field units in the Army, especially now, are being made for nthe fact they’re essentially on call for Op Lentus for 6 months of year at least now. While that’s not the intent of LDA, that wa saving money in an era of 8 week long work up exercises, it what’s happening now. I can do 23 hour long field exercises and have the troops back to sleep in their beds for six hours on repeat and they all wouldn’t receive a dime. Awesome.

That is what happened when I was an instructor in Wainwright and we were receiving field pay.