By J.L. Granatstein, August 19, 2026
The Carney government has yet to announce its detailed plans for the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves. The Chief of Defence Staff, General Jennie Carignan, has called for a Reserve of 100,000 —almost four times the present numbers — and a new 300,000 grouping of partially trained semi-civilians that will perhaps be useful in domestic emergencies but of very little use in a war that might someday be fought on Canadian soil.
The challenge for the planning staff at National Defence Headquarters is to transform Carignan’s vision into reality.
Personnel retiring from or otherwise leaving the Regular Force should certainly be top of mind when it comes to filling the Reserve ranks. For instance, each year, around 5,000 men and women retire with pension, or when their term of service ends (a small number leave for medical reasons, etc.). Every soldier, sailor, or airman/woman who leaves the CAF has been trained at substantial public expense whether they are infantry, navy cooks, or aircraft mechanics.
At present, departing servicemen/women simply disappear into the general population, their skills lost to the military. We simply can’t allow the CAF’s investment to go to waste.
Yes, departing CAF members are routinely offered a chance to join the Supplementary Reserve, a list of those who express willingness to serve again when called up in a crisis.
Most do not join, but why would they? There is no incentive to do so.
What if, instead of asking former CAF members to opt-in to the Supplementary Reserve, we instead enrolled all departing members, while giving them the choice to opt-out? Tell them they can keep their ranks, their uniforms, personal kit, and their military trade. Say their only responsibility is to have two to three days a year of paid briefings and updating aside from call-up in a crisis. Offer a small cash bonus.
Many, perhaps most, would likely join the Supplementary Reserve on such terms. Most CAF members are patriotic men and women who understand the importance of the military and the new threats we face.
Why not go even further, by making an even better offer to former CAF members by asking them to join the Primary Reserve — the army units in urban areas that train at local armouries, at naval divisions like HMCS Donnacona in Montreal, or at RCAF Airfield Engineering Flights across the country?
Currently, shifting from the Regulars to Reserves (or from Reserves to Regulars) is a bureaucratic nightmare that takes months to navigate. If the transition was seamless, quick, and carried a cash bonus, it would be attractive. If it guaranteed that those who wish could keep their specialty (for example, naval gunnery or signals), it would be even more so. Those joining the Reserve could retain their uniforms and personal kit. Indeed, for those going into infantry, all that would need to change is their shoulder flashes.
Moreover, the Primary Reserve offers its members a pension, and those who transfer from the Regular Forces are eligible. Most Regular CAF members are likely unaware of this and might be quite happy to supplement their pension income.
Canada currently faces a host of threats from Great Powers that no longer play by the old rules. They invade, spy, and threaten at will, and we can no longer pretend that we are protected by the oceans and our geography. The Carney government has recognized the nation’s perilous situation, and it is spending billions to bolster the Canadian Armed Forces with modern equipment. The plans to increase the CAF are absolutely necessary.
But trained personnel are the scarcest resource we have, and we must use them better than has been our practice. Training new recruits for the Regular forces must be done, of course, but the existing resources of those leaving the Regulars must not be squandered. Moreover, one glaring scarcity in the CAF Regular and Reserve are skilled trainers in every trade. Why not make use of those who are leaving the Regular force? If the process is made attractive and not a bureaucratic nightmare as at present, they will come.
These are simple changes that can help to build our Reserves both now and in the future, when we might need to mobilize a much larger force. There are costs, to be sure, but they are far less than doing nothing now and trying to create new, larger formations from next to nothing in the future.
J.L. Granatstein is a member of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Research Advisory Board. A bestselling author and historian, Granatstein is the former director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum.
