The audit found the military didn’t bring in enough new people to replace those who left.COLE BURSTON/AFP/Getty Images
The Canadian Armed Forces has fallen short of recruitment targets and is housing some soldiers in facilities that lack running water or functioning toilets, the Auditor-General said in a pair of reports released Tuesday.
The separate probes into military recruitment and housing land as the Liberal government rolls out $9-billion in new defence spending, including pay raises for soldiers that are explicitly designed to encourage more people to join.
A separate $2-billion plan to refresh housing over the next two decades is also under way.
But Auditor-General Karen Hogan questioned whether the data used to determine how the money will be spent are up-to-date and, in turn, whether the military’s goals can be achieved.
Her office’s review of recruitment between 2022 and 2025 found that only 54 per cent of people followed through on applications to join the Canadian Armed Forces, but the military didn’t know why so many of them ultimately walked away.
Over all, the military fell short of its recruitment target by 4,700 people over that time period, though it did meet the target for the final year – but it still didn’t replace all the people who had left.
Had the targets been met, the Forces wouldn’t have been prepared to offer basic training to all the new members, the audit also found.
The CAF has long struggled with attracting new recruits.
Currently, it wants 71,500 regular-force members by 2030. As of April 30, there were 65,154, the audit said.
There are signs of improvement: More permanent residents, soldiers who are Indigenous or members of a visible minority group are joining.
Auditor-General Karen Hogan reviewed recruitment between the spring of 2022 and 2025, before the new pay package was announced.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
But the audit into housing raises questions about where they might live, as the military doesn’t have enough space now.
At the end of March, the report said, there were more than 3,700 CAF members waiting for housing and only 205 units available.
The audit also found that the Forces’ planning for housing units is based on requirements set in 2019, uses local housing market data from 2011, and targets the number of soldiers as of 2024 – not what the military is planning for over the next few years.
“While National Defence has lots of plans, a lot of it is based on outdated information,” Ms. Hogan said in a news conference after the reports were tabled in Parliament.
“And so if you need an accurate idea of how much you need to spend, whether it be to build or renovate buildings, or how much you need to spend to recruit more members, you should be using up-to-date information, and you should be updating that on a regular basis.”
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The report into military housing included an in-depth look at three bases: Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in British Columbia, 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown in New Brunswick, and Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario.
The average age of the 45 quarters examined was 60 years, and most buildings needed at least one high-priority repair. That might mean a building didn’t have safe drinking water, or toilets weren’t working, Ms. Hogan said.
She described them as “the kind of conditions that you and I wouldn’t want to live in, and the kind of conditions I don’t think we should expect members of our Canadian Armed Forces to live in.”
Defence Minister David McGuinty agreed, and said that in his own tour of bases he has also observed unsuitable conditions. He said the plan to refresh housing is “long overdue.”
Mr. McGuinty said the observations by Ms. Hogan that the Forces were using outdated information were being addressed. He also pointed to new housing under construction and the recent purchase of an entire apartment building in Esquimalt, B.C., as examples of improvements.
In a statement, Conservative defence critic James Bezan blamed the Liberal government for what he said was more than just math problems, noting the Auditor-General said the shortcomings could affect the CAF’s ability to respond to threats.
“As Canada faces new threats from our adversaries around the globe, we need a military that is ready to stand on guard.”