Would Mandatory National Service make the CF stronger?

[a_majoor]

I'm in Ontario and not in a position to help right now, but best of luck.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I'm in Ontario and not in a position to help right now, but best of luck.

Thanks for the thought.

 

[Remius]

Which is why getting the word to them in an active manner rather than a passive one, is worth the effort.

 

[Blackadder1916]

So if we want diversity in recruitment to come way up in priority, here is an idea. If you are Canadian, healthy and 18 years old; get conscripted for a year. After a year of serving your country you can go on or stay around if it is the right fit.

:warstory: I am putting on my helmet as I wait for incoming. 

Let’s put aside the usual objection that short-term conscripts would degrade the quality of a professional standing military and follow on with “the conscripts would be exposed to military service and it would make better citizens of them” and the CF could then pick the cream of the crop to whom they make offers of career status.  How much do you think that would be worth?

Let’s make some assumptions.  I am, of course, pulling most of these figures out of my ass but they probably wouldn’t be far off.

All 18 year olds would have to serve.  The number of births in Canada is currently running around 380,000 annually.  For ease of calculations ignore immigrants and round it down to 340,000 to better reflect the number who would be turning 18 in the near future.

Let’s cut that by 10% to account for those who would be exempt due to religious or personal family reasons.  Now 306,000.

Let’s be generous (realistic?) and immediately eliminate 50% for being fat and/or unfit medically or unable to meet (low) academic/aptitude standards.  We’re now at 153,000.

Let’s now eliminate those who would not be able to pass background or criminal checks.  A lot of scumbags out there so let’s say 25% - now at 114,750.  So it is conceivable that a national service program would have to accommodate 114,750 individuals each year for a one year period.  They would have to be enrolled, moved, trained, fed, watered and bedded down.

I don’t think you could get around not paying them.  The lowest rate of pay for a private (as a reservist) would be greater than $32,000 a year if on full time service.  $3,672,000,000 . Got an extra three and a half billion dollars lying around.  That doesn’t even take into account the unseen pay, allowance and benefits cost.

While advertising for recruits would not be as necessary, there would still have to be processing and administration to eliminate the sick, lame and lazy.  My WAG places that at $250 per individual (all of the 340,000)  $85,000,000

Once the 114,740 lucky individuals are identified they would have to be moved to a training location and then possibly a work location and then back home once their service is completed.  Using cattle car class let’s peg that at $1000.  $114,740,000

They couldn’t be allowed to roam around naked and barefoot so uniforms and equipment would have to be provided.  They don’t have to attend any fancy parties so how about $600 worth of issued items.  $68,844,000

Of course little Johnny will probably get homesick and want to cry on someone’s shoulder or he’ll have a toothache so the CF will have to be prepared to provide some comfort.  Letting a few croak wouldn’t be a great loss but it would probably raise questions in the House.  Could probably get by cheap at $100 per for medical/dental (though triple that would be more likely).  $11,475,000

We’ve got them enrolled, moved and clothed and now they have to learn what they are doing wherever they are.  Since this is a significant increase in the overall strength of the CF (which is already at its limit for training pers) there would have to be an increase in cadre to account for those who would have to train, administer and lead those extra bodies.  Granted there is already an annual intake of new recruits (let’s be very generous and put that at 20% of full-time strength – 13,600) and there are already existing units that could (over their screaming) absorb these bodies.  There would, however, need to be an increase in the full-time “career” strength to manage this “conscript” strength.  Another WAG – 3 cadre for every 35 conscripts. 2890 cadre at a low end $60,000 a year - $173,400,000

There would also be significant infrastructure and other capital costs as well as other ongoing costs but we’ll ignore those for now.

What would the final tab be?

Conscript pay  -  $3,672,000,000
Enrolment expenses  -  $85,000,000
Travel -  $114,740,000
Pers cloth/eqpt -  $68,844,000
Med/dent -  $11,475,000
Cadre pay -  $173,400,000

Total - $4,125,459,000

So, a little over $4 billion.  There would be some savings . . . $14 million in recruiting advertising, probably a few other things.  Do you think the cost out-weighs the benefit?  Any more bright ideas?

 

[Jed]

What would the final tab be?

Conscript pay  -  $3,672,000,000
Enrolment expenses  -  $85,000,000
Travel -  $114,740,000
Pers cloth/eqpt -  $68,844,000
Med/dent -  $11,475,000
Cadre pay -  $173,400,000

Total - $4,125,459,000

Excellent, now we put all that cheap labour to work for the benefit of the country. A win-win all around. Far better than bailing out GM et al.

The vastly increased CF could take on expanded infrastructure projects and dom ops in a big way, probably in remote areas in a much more cost effective way.

 

[aesop081]

Excellent, now we put all that cheap labour to work for the benefit of the country. A win-win all around. Far better than bailing out GM et al.

More brilliance. What are we making them do ?

 

[Towards_the_gap]

More brilliance. What are we making them do ?

Infrastructure. Any civil engineering company bidding on a bridge/highway project gets a discount if they take 100 conscripts to fill gabion baskets/sweep roadways/bang in silt fence/etc etc.

 

[dimsum]

Infrastructure. Any civil engineering company bidding on a bridge/highway project gets a discount if they take 100 conscripts to fill gabion baskets/sweep roadways/bang in silt fence/etc etc.

Why bother with making them "military" conscripts then?  I'm all for the idea of National Service (not necessarily military, but including stuff like public works, emergency services, etc that benefit the country), but having these people do totally non-military things doesn't seem like a good use of money.

 

[Jed]

Further to my last; if you needed to limit the intake to a manageable number: Put it into a lotto draw with X number have their name come up. Then take away all the medically unfit and religious objectors. The recruiting door still remains open for those unlucky enough not to be drawn.

 

[Jed]

Why bother with making them "military" conscripts then?  I'm all for the idea of National Service (not necessarily military, but including stuff like public works, emergency services, etc that benefit the country), but having these people do totally non-military things doesn't seem like a good use of money.

I do not see this as totally non military. No one ever has enough labour for the various infra and dom ops projects that could be done. There is good room all around for OJT for anybody from worker bee to supervisor.

 

[dimsum]

I do not see this as totally non military. No one ever has enough labour for the various infra and dom ops projects that could be done. There is good room all around for OJT for anybody from worker bee to supervisor.

Fair enough, but my point is that stuff like that doesn't have to be military-based.  Something like the Civil Construction Corps in the US during the Depression would give the projects the needed manpower, without the expense of weapons training, etc. that is strictly military.  If you want to instill some discipline, add a Cadet (or similar) element to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

 

[The Bread Guy]

So if we want diversity in recruitment to come way up in priority, here is an idea. If you are Canadian, healthy and 18 years old; get conscripted for a year. After a year of serving your country you can go on or stay around if it is the right fit.

:warstory: I am putting on my helmet as I wait for incoming. 

Lots of discussion on that issue in a couple of places here - expect a few post moves into those threads while we keep this one on cultural diversity in the CF.

Milnet.ca Staff