overseas tours

[Mystix]

Few questions about doing tours overseas, maybe some people with experience or with just more knowledge them me could answer.

  First, how much can one expect to make on an 6 month tour, assuming there a private and in the infantry. Do you get extra pay when on tour or is it the normal daily rate. Also, if it's a UN operation, does the UN pay you additional money/ if it's a dangerous area (combat zone) do you get extra pay for that as well?

  second, Is it difficult to get on overseas missions, assuming you have you training up to BIQ, would there be a long list of people who want to go over or are most people who volunteer assured a position on the next tour.

          These questions might be kind of stupid, but thanks if you can give a quick answer. 

 

[Inch]

I can't answer the money question, but as a reg force member, when your unit goes, you go. Unless you're a support trade then maybe you could jump on a tour, but for the most part you've got to wait for your unit to go.

Cheers

 

[Jarnhamar]

Not 100% about the numbers for a private. As a corporal my net pay, per month was $3837 with an aditional $1378 (tax free) from Hardship allowence, danger pay and all the other little bonus's. (the latter number depends on how many times you have been overseas and a few other things)

You get paid the same thing overseas as you do in Canada but you also get extra money as mentioned for being away from home/being in a danger area.

I'm sure if your a trained private in the reg force and your regiment deploys to overseas, your going to go too.  
If your in the reserves the chance of a new private being sent overseas are very slim. Theres often only a few positions open per regiment (say 4) and a big list of people interested right up to sgt's (who have been trying to go overseas for years).   A few times I think reserve regiments have sent brand new prvates and they ended up making asses of themselves and gave their regiment a bit of a bad name.  Not to knock new reserve privates but i think they need more confidence and training than they get exposed to on a 6 week course.

 

[AmmoTech90]

As far as the money goes there are three basic allowances you get over and above your normal pay:

Foreign Service Pay- Increases with every six months you accumulate.  I believe you have to be in-country for 10 days for that month to count.
Hardship Pay- Depends on the mission and can vary from camp to camp in the mission.
Risk Allowance- Usually applies to the theatre as a whole.

On top of this you get a Hardship Bonus if you have received over six months of Hardship Pay and Foreign Service Pay concurrently.  This means on your first mission you get no Bonus.  If the next time you get Foreign Service Pay you also receive Hardship Pay you will get a bonus.  This bonus goes up every six months as well as long as you draw Hardship and Foreign Service Pay.  I believe it ranges from a 20% to 200% premium on your Hardship Allowance.  However if you draw Foreign Service without a Hardship Allowance your bonus drops to zero.  So if you do four tours, get a nice bonus, and then get a nice posting to say England and draw Foreign Service Pay but don't draw Hardship, the next time you draw Hardship you would get no Bonus and would have to start over.  I think this how it works.

A lot of tours are tax free now, which means your tax payment will either cease or you will be re-imbursed your taxes (income only).  They are still trying to figure out exactly to work this out.

There are some other benefits too.  Your R&R is subsidised up to $60.00/month I belive.  If you deploy on a tour where there no R&R expected and you had to buy civvies for some reason (unexpected R&R), it may be re-imbursed to a certain amount.  Plus you get free flight back home or money if that is not possible for operational reasons once per six months.

 

[MJP]

A lot of tours are tax free now, which means your tax payment will either cease or you will be re-imbursed your taxes (income only).  They are still trying to figure out exactly to work this out.

It'll be paid out on your pay guide.  It's suppose to be implemented some time in the Aug/Sep time frame.

 

[AmmoTech90]

Yeah, thats what we had hoped for (just a lump sum on our pay sometime).  However out pay for August is totally tax free.  Now we are all leaving before the end of August (hopefully) so we will still have to pay tax on some of it.  Apparently we will get a lump sum for our time up until August some time in the future with taxes we had to pay for August taken off.  I pray to the god of finance that it doesn't get c**ked up.

 

[MJP]

I was talking about the ability for the pay system to implement it..didn't know you were on tour.

 

[AmmoTech90]

Ah well, I have faith in our pay system.  17 years and no screw-ups on my pay yet.

 

[greydak]

It isn't too hard to get on a tour if you are in the reservist, I had only been in 2 years and got on Roto-13, so it's not that hard.
Also if you don't want to go home on your leave, you can buy a flight some place else and DND will pay for some of it around what it would cost to dend you home. It cost me $160.00 CDN for a round trip to Thiland.