Defence chief set to pitch ‘options’ for massive troop surge as military strains under its own limits

The progressive authorities testament presently be asked to weigh options to drastically increase the size of the Canadian military, says the country’s top military commander. 

A proposal that could see as many as 300,000 lightly trained citizen soldiers given the opportunity to serve alongside as many as 100,000 primary reservists and 85,500 regular force members has been under discussion for almost a year.

There is increasing pressure on Canada to finalize its expansion plans as a number of key allies such as Germany are already moving ahead with their programs. But the issue is made more urgent by the Carney government’s accelerated plans to buy new equipment including submarines and surveillance planes. 

In some cases, the Canadian military doesn’t have enough personnel to keep existing equipment functioning, let alone take on new kit.

"In the next month or so we will be able to present various options, and the discussion is going very well in that way," Carignan said. "There is a lot of interest in doing this."

Canada scrambling to staff its huge military buildup

Last year, Carignan took the unusual step of appointing a military officer to be in charge of the Department of National Defence’s (DND) mobilization plans. 

"This is of course contributing to how we are going to build our own solution in Canada," Carignan said.

The experience of allies, notably Ukraine, is being taken into consideration as the plan is developed, the defence chief said.

Immediately following the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine saw an unprecedented spike in highly motivated volunteers and reservists signing up, exceeding the capacity of the country’s military to equip and train them.

In 2021, Ukraine’s military numbered between 196,000 and 250,000 active duty members, but has since grown to roughly 900,000 full-time service personnel. When reserves and paramilitary forces are included, the total strength reportedly exceeds 2.2 million.

The Canadian military’s current authorized strength of 71,500 full-time and 30,000 part-time members was set in 2017. The defence department is still struggling to meet that goal.

It is now a political priority, however.

"We need to continue to grow. We are going to continue to grow the military and grow the military reserves," Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday in response to questions about the mobilization plan.

"This is a multi-year plan we’re dedicated to executing. I’m encouraged by what’s happened over the course of the last year."

Carney said he’s encouraged by the response to last year’s military pay raise and how that has led to a modest turnaround in the size of the Armed Forces after several years of decline.

There are significant problems in the military's ability to expand enrolment and training to meet the demands of a larger force, however.

In a recent technical briefing, defence officials said Canada lacks capacity in terms of the number of buildings, training centres and instructors. There are also backlogs in specific trades training, which Carignan says the department is trying to address through partnerships with community colleges.

In addition, relaxed recruiting standards have led to a higher failure rate among new members, according to a leaked internal report from the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.

The number of recruits completing basic training fell to 77 per cent last year from 85 per cent in 2024, after the introduction of new measures intended to make it easier and more attractive for Canadians and permanent residents to join.

The leaked evaluation was first reported by Juno News.

The graduation statistic "directly reflects that more candidates are struggling to meet the performance or conduct standards required to pass basic training," said the report, which is circulating online in military chat groups. 

The Conservative Opposition said it wonders about the federal government’s level of commitment once the bills for mobilization start to come in.  

"I hope that the plan that is coming from chief defence staff will be taken seriously by this Liberal government, and that they'll actually put the resources behind it and not just another shell game moving around departmental spending,” said Conservative defence critic James Bezan.

The government’s fiscal update, released earlier this week, tried to make joining the reserves more attractive by offering paid skills training.

It’s a $275-million dollar program, which most experts agree is a drop in the bucket compared to the kind of fiscal backing the full mobilization plan will need.

Retired major-general Dean Milner, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, said the federal government has not treated the issue of mobilization with a sense of urgency.

He said other allied nations such as Germany have been able to rewrite their defence policies and reset their personnel targets quickly, while Canada still can’t hit goals established almost a decade ago.

"We're getting all these new capabilities. We're struggling to get to 70,000," said Milner, who’s now president of the Royal Kingston United Services Institute in Kingston, Ont.

"We need to have a strategy. We need to mobilize. We need to be urgent."

The defence department has said it likely won’t hit the 2017 authorized strength targets until 2029, and won't have bottlenecks in the training system sorted out before 2032.

Senior reporter, defence and security

---

---