Expanding the RCAF doesn't have to mean a split fighter fleet. Personally I'm in favour of more than the planned 88 x F-35's. In a counter-intuitive way I think that increasing the fleet size could actually help with the personnel issues on the pilot side.
There doesn't appear to be any lack of people interested in becoming fighter pilots and with improved training throughput you should be able to fill the positions required. So long as you don't increase the number of Squadons/Wings, etc. to take on those aircraft then the ratio of non-flying to flying positions would decrease. That could help retention of those wish to remain flying rather than moving on to staff positions.
Where I see the biggest problem is the technical support for a larger fleet. Misguided educational policies over the last decades have unfortunately directed young people away from the trades and toward more academic education. So it's not just difficult to to find AVN techs, it's hard to find plumbers, stone masons, welders and CNC operators.
On the positive side I think governments have recognized the problem and slowly (verrrrryyyy slowly) more effort is being put into directing young people into the trades. The CAF could play an active part in this in training new techs at an increased scale (working with educational institutes) to build up the trade.
