Canada.ca
On February 19, Major-General Scott Malcolm, Canada's Surgeon General, held a press conference outlining changes which have been made to the Canadian Armed Forces medical screening process for new recruits.
Previously, civilian applicants who had been diagnosed with ADHD, asthma and anxiety were turned away at the recruiting centres. That will no longer be the case.
"With all medical conditions there's a spectrum," Maj-Gen Malcolm told the media. "So those [recruits] that are on the lower end to medium spectrum are unlikely to have any challenges getting in."
The rationale used by Malcolm was that the previous medical enrolment standards had been too strict. In the past recruits were deemed to be either 'fit' or 'unfit'. There was no bell curve or grey area.
Now Malcolm and the CAF have created a category to be known as 'fit to the task'. On the surface this seems logical enough.
Not all positions within the CAF require the reflexes of a fighter pilot or the physical fortitude of a special forces operative. Some service members, by virtue of their trade, will rarely if ever spend an overnight living rough in the field during their entire career.
What is not clear is why the CAF would want to be enlisting people who are already categorized as merely being 'fit to the task' rather than simply 'fit'?
It is no secret that the CAF are woefully understrength at present with nearly 16,500 vacancies in an authorized combined regular and reserve force strength of 105,000.
Canada's Defence Minister Bill Blair has referred to the current personnel crisis as that of a 'death spiral' for the CAF.
While often described as a 'recruiting and retention' failure, that term is somewhat mis-leading. It is true that more CAF personnel are taking their release each year than can be fed into the training system. However, according to DND's own statistics, this is not due to the fact that Canadians are not applying to join.
In fiscal year 2022-2023, some 43,934 civilians applied to join the CAF. Of that number only 3,930 were enrolled and entered Basic Training.
The next year DND pulled out all the stops by removing previous restrictions on hairstyles, facial hair, tattoos and piercings. They also opened up recruiting to those with Permanent Resident status instead of full citizenship. As a result, in fiscal year 2023-2024, exactly 70,080 applications were received.
Despite this volume, the CAF could only process 4,301 recruits into the training system. Of the over 20,000 Permanent Residents who applied only some four dozen were admitted to the CAF as a result of complex security checks being required.
Back in 2019-2020 only 36,662 Canadians applied and the CAF managed to get 5,167 of them into uniforms. Thus it would seem that the problem is not stemming from a lack of recruits but rather a backlog within the training system. As more and more trained personnel opt to retire or release without the requisite number of replacements in the pipeline, that backlog will be further exacerbated.
Hence the term 'death spiral'.
Which brings us back to the policy decisions being made to cast a wider net when seeking recruits. One has to believe that prior to this, those would-be recruits with ADHD, asthma or anxiety would have realized that they need not apply.
It is also true that the element of society that express their individualism through expressive hairstyles, piercings and face tattoos are not generally drawn to the previously strict conformism of a military lifestyle.
There is an argument to be made that some of the relaxing of dress and deportment standards was aimed at retaining personnel and improving morale. However I fear that this particular policy backfired spectacularly.
I do fully support the idea of recruiting Permanent Residents, but surely someone in the CAF brain trust foresaw the absence of necessary personnel to conduct background checks on these applicants.
Which brings us back to the question of why the CAF is trying to fix a problem that does not exist (attracting more recruits) and not addressing the problem that clearly exists (the lack of trainers in the system).
They should begin by offering lucrative short term contracts to re-sign recently retired qualified veterans to staff basic and trade training depots, and similar contracts to retired RCMP and CSIS personnel to fast track security checks.
