Day: April 11, 2024

Canada’s military is in a “death spiral.” This is how Minister of National Defense Bill Blair described the state of Canada’s armed forces at last month’s Ottawa Conference on Security and Defense. Blair’s comments referenced the military’s dire recruitment and retention crisis. The Canadian Armed Forces are short 16,000 people — about 15 percent of their authorized strength of 71,500 regular forces and 30,000 primary reserve forces. Despite efforts such as opening the military to permanent residents, there’s no indication that the situation will improve. Less than 1 percent of applications from permanent residents to join the regular force were

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Every military leader emphasizes the importance of cyber operations, but there is a perennial shortage of qualified personnel in the military cyber community, across all the services. As calls for a “Cyber Force” grow louder, the armed services will only become more pressed to improve the three interrelated processes of recruiting, training, and retaining talent to lead the execution of cyber missions. Talent management debates often fixate on the private sector’s advantage over the military in offering higher salaries and better benefits. In the context of officer talent management, such a focus overlooks what attracts young people toward military service

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