Recent natural and health disasters force us to question the role that the Canadian Armed Forces must play in the years to come.
As stated in an article by Mylène Crête on December 2, regarding recruitment difficulties, the Canadian Armed Forces received 80 requests for support from the federal and provincial governments over the past year and a half, 70 being related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The climate changes we are facing will lead to an increasing number of natural disasters like those currently plaguing British Columbia and Newfoundland. The risk of floods, landslides, forest fires, tornadoes, heat waves, ice storms, etc. will increase over the next few years and the military will be in greater demand.
However, are our soldiers well trained and equipped to meet these needs?
Having been a soldier myself in the reserve force for almost 12 years, I allow myself to doubt it. Indeed, the training I received at the time mainly served to make me a good soldier. We were taught to handle weapons of all kinds, to assemble and disassemble them as quickly as possible. We were also taught to dig trenches and master basic combat tactics inherited from the two great world wars.
I was able to see the limits of our response capacity during the 2011 floods in the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu region.
At the time, we were invited to lend a hand to the victims. I remember being sorry to see the limits of the staff’s response capacity. Members’ willingness and motivation were quickly limited by political and operational issues. The contribution was therefore almost limited to filling sandbags in order to build dikes and to help some residents evacuate their homes. The digging of trenches will have had this utility.
Think about the future
Thus, I believe that it is high time to reflect on the future we want for the Department of National Defense, which benefits from an annual budget of more than $ 20 billion.
Armed conflicts are increasingly rare and the consequences of Canadian involvement increasingly costly for society. Not to mention the loss of human life, the suffering linked to post-traumatic shock syndrome, which is a real scourge in the army.
The recruitment problem is a symptom of the current mission of the Canadian Armed Forces. The next generations will no longer be inclined to fight other humans, perhaps they will be more inclined to fight the effects of climate change? They will probably find a greater source of fulfillment there.
Should the Department of National Defense begin a serious restructuring in order to move from a military role to a role more focused on humanitarian aid? The question needs to be asked.