It's time for National Service in Canada
A voluntary national service plan could solve six key problems facing the nation
I’ve written about this before, but it’s time to write about it again. Canada is facing a number of key problems that plague our nation. Six of those problems could be addressed, in part, by a voluntary national service plan. Here’s the problems it would address and how it would work.
Canada’s current military staffing model is based on the idea we maintain a small, professional CAF where everyone is a career soldier, ideally serving for 20+ years until pensionable retirement. That model is not working. It’s also not the model of many NATO peer nations who typically have a military population where the bulk of the lower ranks are short-term soldiers who join up, serve for 2-3 years then move on with the rest of their lives. Canada could benefit from a similar model.
What national problems does this address?
Difficulty recruiting, training and fielding a military capable of meeting our international defence commitments.
No plan to defend Canada from foreign aggressors.
Lack of leadership in Canadian business and politics.
Lack of a national identity that unites Canadians rather than divides us.
Lack of “belonging” in Canadian society that makes young men, in particular, vulnerable to destructive radicalization.
Unaffordability of higher education.
How would it work?
Canada’s National Service Plan would not be mandatory. Instead, it would seek to enrol young Canadians leaving high school by rewarding them with an opportunity for adventure and a permanent leg up on their peers as they begin their adult lives.
The program would target graduating high school students who often are not yet certain which direction they want to go in their new lives as independent adults. I know I wasn’t. Many of these young Canadians will enrol in university or college studies which may or may not turn out to be aligned with the careers they later choose to pursue. Others will take a “gap year” in an effort to figure out what they want to do with their lives.
At that age, typically 18 years old, students are not comfortable making long term commitments. A standard military enlistment in Canada is for three years for members joining after high school. That’s 17% of their lives to date. It’s hard to sign such a huge part of your life away. When I joined the regular army as a young officer (already commissioned in the reserve force) I pored over the fine print in the contract to be sure that, even though the agreement was for nine years (half of my life at that point!) I could voluntarily leave the military after three years service. Even then, that three years seemed like a life time. In the end, I loved the army so much I stayed for 14 years.
The National Service Plan would involve a two-year full-time commitment to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, followed by a commitment to remain active in the part-time “Class A” reserve military component for a period of time afterwards.
Two years is an easier commitment to understand and gamble on as a young person. It’s just one year longer than the typical “gap year.”
Here’s what that two-year full-time service would like
Most of those enrolled on the NSP would begin their military service in the Army combat arms: in the infantry, armoured branch, artillery or combat engineers. A smaller portion would be enrolled in the Navy as basic ratings.
0 to 6 months: The initial six months of service would be devoted to Basic Training and Initial Qualification Training. In the infantry, this takes about 26 weeks and produces a soldier with enough training to be employed in an operational unit.
6 to 18 months: On arrival in their operational unit, the NSP soldiers can expect to deploy for a year of operational duty: in a ship or as part of a unit deployed on operations – to Latvia, for example. Young soldiers join the military to serve. They want to be in the game: not perpetually improving their theoretical skills during endless training in their home barracks. The lack of operational employment is one of the key drivers of attrition during peacetime. Professional football players want to play football and go to the SuperBowl. They don’t want to spend their entire careers on the practice field. When you’re young and full of piss and vinegar, you want to prove yourself. A one-year operational tour is exactly what young soldiers and sailors want. If it’s not, they’re not the people we should be recruiting.
18 to 24 months: The last six months of their full-time service would be spent demobilizing from their operational units. The military has learned a lot about how to bring troops back from operations and better reintegrate them into daily peacetime life. Depending on the nature of their operational service, that will be part of the final phase of full-time NSP service. The balance of these six months would be devoted to Junior Leader Training that would qualify NSP “graduates” for promotion to the rank of Master Corporal. During my army career, it was pretty standard for strong infantry soldiers to go directly from Private to Master Corporal within 18 months. It worked well. So this is entirely feasible.
After Two years transfer to the Reserve Force
When their full-time service is completed, most NSP soldiers will be qualified for appointment to the rank of Master Corporal and employment as a junior leader – as second-in-command of a section of (5 to 10) soldiers and to fill-in as a section commander when required. They’ll also be qualified to teach other soldiers military skills.
Some NSP grads may be interested in a full-time career in the military. If they’re high-performers, they may be offered a position in the full-time Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) cadre. They will form the nucleus of Canada’s ongoing permanent, professional military which will not need to be as big because the bulk of its junior ranks will, over time, be on NSP short-service contracts. Some will remain in the combat arms trades they have already been trained in. Others will transfer to specialized trades in the military such as intelligence, military police, cooks, supply technicians, mechanics, armourers, naval specialists, air crew, etc.
The majority of NSP soldiers, however, will leave their two year full-time service and return to civilian life with an obligation to serve as “Class A” reservists. They will be assigned to a local Army, Navy or Air Force reserve unit and be expected to train and work with them, typically one evening a week, one weekend a month and as many weeks during the summer as desired. They will be paid for this service too.
One of the most difficult challenges for part-time reserve units is qualifying enough soldiers to junior leadership level to instruct and lead the other part-time solders. That can typically take three to five years or more on a purely part-time basis. But NSP soldiers will arrive at their primary reserve units already qualified to the junior leadership standard and ready to lead and train others. This will be a boon for reserve units who struggle to get enough people trained to lead before they lose interest in part-time service.
Tuition Included. NSP soldiers will be funded for up to four years undergraduate tuition at any Canadian college or university after completing their full-time service as long as they remain actively engaged in part-time reserve service. Reserve service is designed to complement life as a university student. The average undergraduate tuition cost in Canada is $6,463 per year or $25,852 over four years. A purely part-time army reservist at the Master Corporal rank can earn upwards of $12,302.08 per year. If the soldier wants to do full-time training or employment during the summer that could add another $25,000.
An annual income of up to $37,000 while attending university, plus free tuition to boot, is a pretty sweet deal. Many young Canadians may sign up for the NSP just for this reason.
Long-term Benefits for Canada. Even after NSP soldiers leave the military, Canada will benefit immensely from their training and experience in a number of ways:
There will be a growing population of Canadians with basic military skills available in the event of wartime or emergency mobilization. It takes far less time to bring an experienced but “retired” soldier up to speed in an emergency than to train a civilian from scratch.
Canada has no better leadership training program than the CAF. Every soldier is trained to lead. Some are naturals who need training to hone their skills. Others learn the techniques of effective team work, team building and team leadership whether they’re naturals or not. There is no segment of Canadian society, private or public sector, that is not presently lacking for capable and experienced leaders. Every business. Every government. Every non-profit who employs a former soldier will be better for it. Canada’s productivity will vastly improve as a result.
Military service bonds soldiers together and to Canada as a nation. NSP alumni will carry with them the experience of having lived and worked abroad and across the country. They will develop a strong sense of pride in who they are as individuals, and what Canada is and can be as a nation. We can sorely use more of that today.
What will this cost?
Full-time soldiers in the CAF typically earn about $56,000 per year in their first two years of service. NSP soldiers should be paid less and provided with free food, accommodation and uniforms for their two year full-time service period. If, for example, they were paid an average of $43,000 per year (or less) the amount saved would fully fund four years of free tuition. Or, pay them even less and provide a cash bonus for those who complete their two year full-time service and, later provide a bonus for remaining in the reserve force after their commitment expires.
All this to say, the cost per soldier will be no more, and likely less, than what we spend to train soldiers now.
It’s expensive to train military specialists and technicians. By requiring future members of the CAF to begin through NSP, the attrition on those expensive advance training courses will be reduced. Soldiers will have two years to learn if they like the military. If they don’t, they leave. If they do, and they’re judged to be worth keeping, they may proceed to learn an advanced (and expensive) trade. Less attrition during training means lower costs.
How do we make this happen?
70,000 Canadians applied to join the CAF last year. There is lots of interest. The reason our military is so understaffed is a brutal combination of ridiculous regulation, risk aversion and administrative incompetence. Leadership at the top – meaning the government – is required to change this. Order the military to do this and it will be done.
A big part of the comically lengthy hiring process is due to the slowness of security screening for new recruits. The answer to this is simple: Hire soldiers provisionally under the NSP and get them training before their security clearances are complete. None of these soldiers will have access to state secrets in the first 12 to 24 months of their service. So, the risk of hiring a Kim Philby or Jeffrey Delisle is low. It’s an acceptable risk. If they fail their clearance, then they can be released at any time.
We should strive to be more like the US Marine Corps recruiting process. Walk in the front door of the local recruiting office. Watch a few videos. Complete an aptitude test. Do a basic physical. Fill out the security clearance forms. Walk out the back door onto a bus to basic training. The process should take a few days or weeks. Not years, as it does now.
Who’s going to train these soldiers? Canada’s military is terribly short of many things, most of all trained soldiers able to lead and train new soldiers. So, the NSP won’t ramp up quickly. But, it will produce trained instructors and junior leaders with operational experience in 24 months. High performers who choose to stay on with the permanent regular force can be immediately employed as instructors for the next cohort of trainees. It works for pilots. It can work for soldiers.
What will we achieve?
Because the NSP is a voluntary program there will be hundreds, but not thousands, of recruits in its first year. After two years, when the first cohort begin walking around Canadian universities on full-ride scholarships, public awareness and recruitment will grow dramatically.
Within four years, the CAF could have as many soldiers as it needs, with a constant and growing throughput of new regular force recruits who serve two years – then stay on the reserve force for years onward. It will generate a high performance cadre of permanent regular force members to lead the regular force going forward – and will relieve the need for every soldier to remain in uniform for an entire 20+ year career.
We will quickly find the “manpower” targets for both regular and reserve forces are met and need to be increased. There is currently no better plan on offer to quickly grow the CAF to meet our existing paltry targets.
More on why we want a bigger military – and why a bigger, stronger, more effective reserve force is essential to protect Canada’s territory and sovereignty – in another column.
This is actually a version of national service that could work in Canada, today. All voluntary, and GI bill equivalent (with Cl A time) are both what set it apart from other arguments. Well-done, let's get this platformed!
Great piece and bang on plan to revive Canada’s moribund national morale. There was a great article in the National Post today making the same argument for a National Service program.