Some observations.
The Class B thing shouldn't really be a surprise. The good general was making very loud, and very clear, noises about cutting "unnecessary" Class B positions while he was still CLS. I would say that the bow wave of this concern started about two years ago. The problem was (and is...) that it is hard to define what positions are actually not needed, since theoretically all of them were contracted to fill positions that the RegF couldn't. This trend started before Afghanistan, due to serious shortages in the RegF in filling less high-profile (read "less desireable") jobs like RSS and CFRC. It was aggravated by Afghanistan, but this is pretty understandable: stuff like that happens when you fight wars. Since IIRC the great majority of Class B and C Res are at the Capt/Snr NCO level,and not at the Pte/Cpl level, the RegF will not be able to "grow" the replacements overnight, if it is determined that they are needed to make the machine work. Making the decision will require some degree of objective analysis ( I hope), as opposed to blindly swinging the axe as IMHO we have done all too often with pers reduction efforts in the history of the CF. Hopefully we will not cut off our nose just to spite our face.
That said, I don't see any real indication that the Gen is after the Res soldiers on the armoury floor: I doubt even he, zealous reformer that he has always been, would do an utterly counterproductive thing like that. He is an intelligent man, and I am pretty sure that as a wartime CLS and a past LFA Comd, he knows the value of Res.
With Afgh winding down and the country struggling with financial issues, we are going to take cuts, which are SOP after any major conflict ends. The Res can't be immune to cuts: they just need to be applied intelligently.
Unfortunately, the general also made it clear during his tenure that he didn't like the LFA structure (recently "disguised" as JTFs) and floated at least one proposal to get rid of it. No doubt he is thinking about that again. For asome reason, LFAs have become the organization that everybody loves to hate. I think that deleting LFAs would be an extremely backward step. The LFAs were formed to do several very important and necessary things. IIRC, these included:
-to bring all of the diverse tasks and functions of Army units, bases ranges and training centres in each major region of the country under one regionally responsive structure belonging to the Army, not farming support and management responsibilities out to other Commands. I would single out force generation tasks as a key example. LFAs have consistently pulled off miracles of force generatuion (not without ragged edges or hurt feelings) far out of proportion to a small Army like ours, with a Res that essentially can't be mobilized without the Gov in Council getting involved;
-to put an "adult" in place to oversee the Bdes both Reg and Res. I single out the RegF Bdes: in my experience they were always the least cooperative, most "prima-donna"-ish and loudest in their pouting and foot-stamping about why the mean old LFA wouldn't let them do whatever they wanted, which usually meant spend money and resources in a manner opposite to what they'd been told to do. I've lived through a number of examples of this in various capacities over the years. This suggests to me that if not under direct control, but rather under a more vague and distant control from the LS or "The Div", they would get out of hand;
-to better integrate the "two armies" of Reg and Res; which, if you think back to the days that this was done, was a much bigger concern than it is now that we've lived it for well over a decade. I lived the old "two armies" system, and I worked at both LFA and Bde under the current system and IMHO the LFA system is much better, for everything from training support to fiscal and resource management to having a RegF GO who is ready to go to battle for his Res, not against them;
-to streamline the whole DomOps process which, let's face it, is mostly an Army job except for what the RCSCC's do. Each of the LFAs has very close and well-maintained relationships with its host Provincial Govts and their EMOs/LEAs, and has developed response plans based on regional realities. This capability has been proven in spades over the last decade and more, and has been instrumental in getting the Res closely involved in DomOps response which IMHO they should be; and
-to rationalize and reduce the span of control of the CLS. Prior to the introduction of LFAs, the CLS was required to deal directly with almost the entire Bde/Base tier that now exists. Regardless of the usual Canadian normalization whinge that "we made it work", I suggest that the current structure of four LFA Comds and a single Comd LFDTS is much better, if only from the point of efficiency. (But I bet it's more effective, too).
If we bin the LFAs in a rush of blood to the collective institutional head, we will IMHO live to regret it. All of the boring, nasty, irritating tasks will still have to be done. Either they will fall on Bdes (who are not manned or organized in either the RegF or the Res to do them), or they will be grafted onto the "to-do" list of already undermanned ASUs, or they will drift upwards to a level of command quite detached from the reality of the situations it is dealing with. To wishfully think that these tasks will just "go away" is very unrealistic. Most Western Armies (and I single out the US and the UK) have some kind of regional, geographic command structure that does the things, moire or less, that our LFAs do for us. That should give us cause to think before acting.
Cheers
