As Canada’s military responds to more disasters like Hurricane Fiona, recruitment struggles to keep up

OTTAWA — With Hurricane Fiona forcing Canadian soldiers to put down their rifles and pick up chainsaws, senior military officers told MPs climate change has them responding to more disasters while they’re struggling to recruit more soldiers.

Nearly 500 military members have been deployed to clear debris and cut trees around fallen power lines in Atlantic Canada after last weekend’s devastation. Huge swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are without power, and it could be several more days before power is restored.

Maj-Gen. Paul Prévost, a senior officer who works on long-term plans, addressed the House of Commons committee on National Defence, which has been studying the increasing demands placed on the military to respond to natural disasters.

He told MPs on the committee Tuesday that the Canadian Forces has deployed to seven disasters in the last year, not including the pandemic or Hurricane Fiona.

The military was called in after flooding in Yukon, British Columbia and Newfoundland, the wildfires in British Columbia, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario and the tainted water emergency in Iqaluit.

Prévost said this is part of a trend that has been accelerating for more than a decade.

“The Canadian Armed Forces’ involvement in response to natural disasters has roughly doubled every five years since 2010,” he said.

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He said local authorities handle 90 per cent of Canadian natural disasters, but there are some challenges, like Hurricane Fiona, where the military is needed.

“While the Armed Forces is always prepared to support civil authorities and partners, its capabilities and trained personnel are finite and should only be involved when no other organization has the capacity to respond,” he said. “It is best to think of the Canadian Armed Forces as a force of last resort.”

Prévost told MPs the Forces has 63,781 regular members, another 29,477 reservists and 5,241 Canadian Rangers, which is cumulatively about 10,000 members short of where they want to be.

The increased domestic deployments come at the same time as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is changing the international landscape. Canada has made major commitments to NATO missions in Latvia and training efforts for Ukrainian troops.

The committee has heard from some witnesses who suggest it is time Canada has a civilian emergency management response agency, something similar to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States, which could respond to disasters instead of the Canadians Forces.

Prévost said the military has unique assets that make it well positioned to respond to disasters, noting it is self-sustaining, bringing its own food and fuel when soldiers deploy on missions.

He said it was not for him to decide on whether such an agency is the right choice, but any collaboration could be helpful.

“What I’ll say is I can only see advantages at this point. The more we can get to work together at all levels of government on those issues, the better we’ll be,” he said.

When the Forces were called up for the B.C. floods last year, Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre said the disasters were putting a strain on the military.

“I will admit that the pandemic has been tough on the Canadian Armed Forces, the number of times we’ve been called out,” Eyre said. “We are under-strength, and our recruiting and training system has suffered accordingly because of the challenges we faced. So we do need to reconstitute.”

Defence Minister Anita Anand was asked about the increased challenges at a news conference on Monday, and she said it was something the Forces are working on.

“We need to continue to build resources, especially in the area of personnel so that in the long term, as we see these climate-related disasters hitting our country, the resources are there in the Canadian Armed Forces to continue to assist as we want to do,” she said.

She said working with other organizations is something they can do, but they also need to ensure the military is well supported and well funded.

“We will continue to partner with local organizations, with provincial governments, to ensure that the all-hands-on-deck effort that you’re witnessing now and that will continue regardless of the time and place that these disasters occur, will continue to be sustainable.”

Anand’s department is set to release a new defence strategy this fall, which will include information about the Force’s response to disasters.

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