Divining the right role, capabilities, structure, and Regimental System for Canada's Army Reserves

[McG]

No radios is not a PRes problem. It is an Army problem.  Pretending that only PRes are lacking radios is both a misrepresentation and an understatement of the problem.

Let's get back to discussing what is actually unique to the PRes.  CNR(E) already has its own thread.

 

[daftandbarmy]

No radios is not a PRes problem. It is an Army problem.  Pretending that only PRes are lacking radios is both a misrepresentation and an understatement of the problem.

Let's get back to discussing what is actually unique to the PRes.  CNR(E) already has its own thread.

Roger, out

 

[blacktriangle]

Generally speaking, how are PRes units doing in terms of leadership at the MCpl/Sgt level? Lt/Capt?

It's been close to a decade since I last paraded with a PRes unit. Are training/experience levels higher, lower, or on par with where they were 8-9 years ago? I didn't want to start a new topic, just curious. Thanks.

 

[MilEME09]

Generally speaking, how are PRes units doing in terms of leadership at the MCpl/Sgt level? Lt/Capt?

It's been close to a decade since I last paraded with a PRes unit. Are training/experience levels higher, lower, or on par with where they were 8-9 years ago? I didn't want to start a new topic, just curious. Thanks.

My own unit we only have 1 MCpl (two others are tasked out long term), and two sgts, no WO, one MWO, 0 LT's, and 2 Capt. That is just the FSG, our HQ is well.... your standard CF HQ I would guess, and I dont mean that in the good way. Lot's of guys just went on PLQ so should see more promotions soon to flesh things out.

 

[dapaterson]

It varies dramatically between units, brigades and divisions.  Units vary in size from a rump platoon to over two hundred soldiers, so there's no one-size fits all answer.  That said, if you do a little browsing on the HRMS DWAN site, you can look at current and historical strengths by rank for the various elements of the Primary Reserve.  It is imperfect (as some orgs are not broken out - for example, the Health Services Reserve does not appear as a distinct entity, but rather as a part of the Militia), and reports on people on the books, not people who parade.  That said, it will give you some indications of where strength number have gone.

My quick review suggests minor reductions in the number of MCpl+ in the past 8 years (probably about 2-3 per unit, overall), and about the same number reduced in junior officers.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Generally speaking, how are PRes units doing in terms of leadership at the MCpl/Sgt level? Lt/Capt?

It's been close to a decade since I last paraded with a PRes unit. Are training/experience levels higher, lower, or on par with where they were 8-9 years ago? I didn't want to start a new topic, just curious. Thanks.

It's like watching the tide go in and out.

For a few years we'll be flush with people, then they move on and we're sucking wind. In general, though, I think the courses are excellent and better than ever in many ways. It's just a challenge making sure that they are run when people are available, and vice versa. We have also had disasters happen where alot of people are lined up for a course and it's cancelled at the last minute. We have people who hang around for years trying to get qualified, in some cases.

More pertinent to the theme of this thread: driver/comms courses. I have no idea where they went or if they're still offered, but every Cpl should do this as soon as they get their 2nd strip IMHO.

 

[MilEME09]

It's like watching the tide go in and out.

For a few years we'll be flush with people, then they move on and we're sucking wind. In general, though, I think the courses are excellent and better than ever in many ways. It's just a challenge making sure that they are run when people are available, and vice versa. We have also had disasters happen where alot of people are lined up for a course and it's cancelled at the last minute. We have people who hang around for years trying to get qualified, in some cases.

More pertinent to the theme of this thread: driver/comms courses. I have no idea where they went or if they're still offered, but every Cpl should do this as soon as they get their 2nd strip IMHO.

Driver Wheeled is now required before a tech can go on RCEME Common, has been for about 4 years now, dont know about other trades.

 

[blackberet17]

To set the record straight, it is true that radio equipment across the Canadian Army have commenced a life extension phase, but mitigation measures are in place to ensure that Units have access to what they need to conduct their mandated training and tasks. For example, when the Canadian Army identified there was an issue with vehicles, 80 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) were purchased to enhance the mobility of the Territorial Battalion Groups. We also centralized fleets of Military Patterned Vehicles and other essential equipment to Training Centres with views to facilitate their access, use and management. As for rations and ammunitions, I can assure you that there are rigorous management systems in place to ensure all Army Reserve Units have the necessary resources to conduct their mandated training.

Apologies to the BGen, but...

The 80 SUVs are used by the TBG leadership to drive themselves around. All those fancy Ford Escapes aren't being used by troops to complete their assigned patrol tasks, AFAIK.

"Centralizing" green fleet at the TC's does d**k all for units not located within 100+k of a Gee-Dee TC...specially if they don't have vehs to get there, or their vehs never returned in the first place.

Rather difficult to annually qualify gnrs on a box and a half of 7.62, or - if you're lucky to have any at all - 15 rnds for the C9...

 

[Eye In The Sky]

That's not qualifying, that is 'famil shoot' ammo levels.

Fund, or fold, the reserves.  The more I read, the more I see a shell of what it was when I left.  Fund it so it is functional, or fold it and put the money towards Reg frce positions/units/equip/trg.

 

[RedcapCrusader]

It's like watching the tide go in and out.

For a few years we'll be flush with people, then they move on and we're sucking wind. In general, though, I think the courses are excellent and better than ever in many ways. It's just a challenge making sure that they are run when people are available, and vice versa. We have also had disasters happen where alot of people are lined up for a course and it's cancelled at the last minute. We have people who hang around for years trying to get qualified, in some cases.

More pertinent to the theme of this thread: driver/comms courses. I have no idea where they went or if they're still offered, but every Cpl should do this as soon as they get their 2nd strip IMHO.

Driver courses beyond Driver Wheeled? None, unless you're lucky to get on an Evasive Driving/Tactical Drivers Course (hard to get though; CSOR, and CF PSU,  among other high speed groups get priority).

Comms? ATCIS is available, but optional, and infrequently hosted and only if you're lucky to have qualified instructors. Generally you'll find ATCIS course nearby Artillery Regiments as its required for their career progression.

 

[blacktriangle]

Thanks for the info guys. I might be a "free agent" sooner than I thought. Interested units can apply via PM.  ;D

That's not qualifying, that is 'famil shoot' ammo levels.

Fund, or fold, the reserves.  The more I read, the more I see a shell of what it was when I left.  Fund it so it is functional, or fold it and put the money towards Reg frce positions/units/equip/trg.

Unfortunately I feel that statement could apply to parts of the RegF as well. Sad times.

 

[Haggis]

It varies dramatically between units, brigades and divisions.

For a non-DWAN snapshot, review the Appendix to the Auditor General's Report 5 - Canadian Army Reserve.

 

[MilEME09]

42% for my unit sounds very correct but also notice the percentages are higher for combat arms units across the board. I know they are more visable and such but I hope more resources are put towards CSS and purple trade recruiting

Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk

 

[McG]

The AG spoke to the Senate committee on the topic of his spring report.  Generally, this articl summarizes a nice set of recommendations in its closing paragraph.  However, having seen the pre deployment training that all components are pumped through before a mission, I am less concerned about the pre-deployment training (which is not to say that I did not se room for improvement).  And though anecdotally I have seen more extreme examples of obesity arrive on tour from the PRes, fitness is really a problem for all components.

Units not being given instruction on what to train is a problem.  The answer to that drives all the equipment and infrastructure requirements too.  Do units not have this direction because of leadership incompetences, or do we have units for which there is no justifiable role to train toward?

Poorly-trained reservists may endanger peacekeeping missions, Auditor-General warns

STEVEN CHASE
The Globe and Mail
20 Sep 2016

The Auditor-General of Canada says there is a risk that inadequately trained reservists may endanger soldiers’ health and safety on a deployment such as a peacekeeping mission to Africa.

The government is preparing to announce what it bills as a major return to Canadian peacekeeping and there is widespread expectation that this could include a sizable contingent of soldiers to a particular dangerous and deadly United Nations mission in the West African country of Mali. More than 105 peacekeepers have died there since 2013, including 69 from “malicious acts.”

Reservists, or part-time soldiers, serve alongside regular troops in deployments. For instance, army reserve soldiers completed 4,642 deployments to Afghanistan, where 16 of them died and 75 were wounded in action.

Auditor-General Michael Ferguson appeared before a Senate committee on Tuesday morning to follow up on a spring, 2016, report that revealed the weak state of Canada’s army reserve – with major shortfalls in training, equipment and preparedness. His report, released in April, said the military budgets for about 21,000 full-time and part-time reservists but can count on only an average of 13,944 trained and attending soldiers.

Asked about whether unfit reservists could jeopardize themselves or others in a deployment such as African peacekeeping, Mr. Ferguson said, “We identified that there is such a risk.”

The military tries to mitigate this by providing reservists extra training before deployment.

But the Auditor-General said his office has found that there can still be cases where reservists do not receive sufficient training. “It might have been physical fitness or it might have been training on individual weapons – so that can create a risk and that risk is then a risk to the safety of the individual and, in fact, could be a risk to the safety of the whole unit.”

In the course of the study, auditors asked to see the Department of National Defence system that tracks the training and readiness of soldiers. “According to the system, it was 7 per cent of them were up to date on their handling of their own personal weapons; 55 per cent of them were up to date on their physical fitness,” Mr. Ferguson told the senators.

He said that when auditors asked DND why the reservists appeared to be so unprepared, “the response we got from National Defence was, ‘The information in that system is not reliable.’ ”

He said this means that the military is relying on individual unit commanders to decide if their reservists are ready to be deployed “and they’re not really tracking in enough detail” whether these troops are prepared.

His spring report also noted significant shortfalls in equipment and instruction for reservists.

Mr. Ferguson said his office found many reserve units were not given clear instructions “on what they were supposed to be training for.”

He said the Canadian Armed Forces should establish a minimum level of skill and training for all soldiers, regardless of whether they are in the reserve or the regular force, “before they would be allowed into that sort of dangerous theatre.”

The Army Reserve has more than 120 units across Canada.

A spokesman for the Department of National Defence said no ill-equipped reservists will be sent abroad. “The bottom line is that we would never deploy members who aren’t trained, ready and equipped to meet their mission in service of Canada,” Daniel LeBouthillier said.

He said the DND is taking steps to improve the training and readiness of reservists, including doing a better job of ensuring units get the funds they need, boosting recruitment and retention strategies, fixing gaps in training and trying to provide more equipment for this part-time force. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/poorly-trained-reservists-may-endanger-peacekeeping-missions-auditor-general-warns/article31969386/

 

[mariomike]

How many Reservists can take the necessary time off school or work? I got a two-week Leave with Pay ( LWP ) for military training every summer. That was it. Anything longer would take a Declaration of War.
Fortunately, I did my GMT/BMQ and Trade training while still in High School. No way I could have done it after I started on the job.

 

[MilEME09]

How many Reservists can take the necessary time off school or work? I got a two-week Leave with Pay ( LWP ) for military training every summer. That was it. Anything longer would take a Declaration of War.
Fortunately, I did my GMT/BMQ and Trade training while still in High School. No way I could have done it after I started on the job.

One of the things that has been beaten to death in this thread is the requirement for better job protection for reservists to allow us to take time. We can't be a well trained force when many trades need months off to train but legally we only get a couple weeks. If out legeslation was similar to what protects US National Guard members, making a legal requirement to give us time off for training, I firmly believe we as a Reserve Force would be much better off, members would regularly be showing up, get proper training, and attendance wouldn't be an issue. Instead of wondering how many might show up for an EX, you would always have a hard number, with room for exclusion due to excusable reasons (illness, death in family, etc..)

 

[Halifax Tar]

One of the things that has been beaten to death in this thread is the requirement for better job protection for reservists to allow us to take time. We can't be a well trained force when many trades need months off to train but legally we only get a couple weeks. If out legeslation was similar to what protects US National Guard members, making a legal requirement to give us time off for training, I firmly believe we as a Reserve Force would be much better off, members would regularly be showing up, get proper training, and attendance wouldn't be an issue. Instead of wondering how many might show up for an EX, you would always have a hard number, with room for exclusion due to excusable reasons (illness, death in family, etc..)

I fully agree with you here and I think this type of legislation is what we need.  I wonder though if civilian employers would shy away from hiring reservists if they knew they had to provide time off for them to go play "silly buggers"  for X number of days every year.  Canada isn't the most supportive of its military and I could see this being a detriment to hiring a reservist for civilian jobs.

But again I think it is what is needed.

 

[runormal]

I fully agree with you here and I think this type of legislation is what we need.  I wonder though if civilian employers would shy away from hiring reservists if they knew they had to provide time off for them to go play "silly buggers"  for X number of days every year.  Canada isn't the most supportive of its military and I could see this being a detriment to hiring a reservist for civilian jobs.

But again I think it is what is needed.

This is why I don't think it would work or very well. Where I work, there is 2 other people who  manage the pay/benefits for the entire organization. I'm being trained to replace one of them when they retire.

I think that there are lots of unanswered questions. Legislation is all fine and dandy in theory, but let's look at my current situation.

I need 6 weeks off or 2 3 weeks mod for PLQ as this is my next career course.

Could I get 6 weeks off for PLQ? Possibly, but consider the following:
What happens if I fail or get injured? Whats in it for my employer?
Should I have to use my vacation time? Should my employer have to top up my salary? Why or why not?
What happens to my bills if I take a temporary pay cut? 
How much notice does my employer need  >?
Should this notice be a longer period for a 2 month course than a 2 week excercise?
Is getting the time off as important for say PLQ as would be getting the time off for BASIC PARA? What about other none career courses?
What happens when the course is cancelled or my unit loses the spots? Who pays for my replacement employee? If the Army gives the reservist employer a tax credit/money for a temp hire is the reservist obligated to stay in the reserves?
What if due to operational requirements for the civilian employer it isn't possible to give the time off? I.e the employee has a specific skill set, or other members of the reservists team already have booked off vacation time.
Who defines "operational requirements"?
Why should my organization promote me if they know that I could be gone for x amount of time? You might be able to protect my job, but can you protect my career?
What penalities does my organization face if they don't grant me the time off?
Is a reservist obligated to disclose that they are a reservist throughout the hiring process? What if this reservist has no intention of taking any additional time off for courses?

I personally think the reserves should do a better job of selling what they do and  highlight the skills that reservists recieve. I.e leadership, technical knowledge, attention to detail, problem solving. Things like the liaison council need to be expanded, more spots for "executreks". I mean why can't we bus up a load of bosses/supervisors for every TBG Excercises? I think we should be offering incentives to employers in the terms of Tax Credits to hire reseverists and additional credits if they get time off for courses / excercises. Telling an employer that they have to give Cpl Bloggins time off for an excercise/course isn't the best way to create a positive relationship with not only the  reserves but the reservists career.


In closing, let assume that legislation was passed yesterday that protects my job. Do you really think that I'm going to go after my employer if they don't give me the time off for PLQ? Fuck, no. I'm still on probation for crying out loud. Even I wasn't my civilian career is a alot more important and pays a lot more money than the reserves.

 

[Haggis]

In closing, let assume that legislation was passed yesterday that protects my job. Do you really think that I'm going to go after my employer if they don't give me the time off for PLQ? frig, no. I'm still on probation for crying out loud. Even I wasn't my civilian career is a alot more important and pays a lot more money than the reserves.

This is covered in excruciating detail somewhere else on this site, but such legislation already exists at the federal level for public servants and, to varying degrees, at the provincial level for everyone else.

 

[mariomike]

This is covered in excruciating detail somewhere else on this site, but such legislation already exists at the federal level for public servants and, to varying degrees, at the provincial level for everyone else.

Ref: Reservists Job Protection Superthread 

This is Leave Without Pay ( LWOP ).
The employee should calculate if they will have a + / - change in income on LWOP, to keep their personal finances in order.

In those cases where the employee requests leave without pay for the purpose of taking part in Reserve Forces activities as described in the CLC, which are:
a.an operation in Canada or abroad –including preparation, training, rest or travel from or to the employee's residence – that is designated by the Minister of National Defence;
b.an activity set out in the regulations;
c.annual training for the prescribed period or, if no period is prescribed, for a period of up to 15 days;
d.training that they are ordered to take under paragraph 33(2)(a) of the National Defence Act;
e.duties that they are called out on service to perform under paragraph 33(2)(b) of the National Defence Act;
f.service in aid of a civil power for which they are called out under section 275 of the National Defence Act;

the employee is to be granted leave without pay and cannot be replaced on an indeterminate basis even if the absence is for a period exceeding one year. In accordance with the Public Service Employment Act, all employees on a leave of absence for this purpose are to be reinstated in the position that they occupied on the day before the leave began.
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/psm-fpfm/pay-remuneration/notices-avis/2008/0516-eng.asp

Section C highlighted  is Leave With Pay ( LWP ) at the municipal level, where I worked.