OTTAWA — Canada’s high army commander says his troops are feeling the sharp chew of skyrocketing housing costs and different prices of residing on account of their distinctive existence, and extra housing on Canadian Armed Forces bases is required.
Gen. Wayne Eyre mentioned Thursday {that a} lack of reasonably priced housing and rising difficulties making ends meet have emerged as high complaints from Armed Forces personnel to senior leaders.
“The number one difficulty that comes up as I journey across the nation is price of residing and the challenges our individuals are dealing with by way of discovering reasonably priced lodging,” Eyre mentioned throughout a breakfast occasion hosted by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.
The chief of defence workers mentioned whereas many Canadians are dealing with the identical challenges, the impacts are significantly acute on members of the Canadian army, who’re continuously required to maneuver to completely different bases and places throughout the nation.
An inner report by the army’s morale and welfare unit in 2018 discovered one in 4 Armed Forces members are required to relocate yearly on account of coaching or operational wants.
Eyre took particular purpose at what he described as a scarcity of housing on army bases.
“Now we’re someplace within the neighbourhood of 4,000 to six,000 models quick on our bases, which can also be accentuating the housing drawback,” he mentioned.
An inner Defence Division report on army housing printed in December mentioned there have been round 12,000 models throughout the nation, which offered lodging to about 20 per cent of Armed Forces members.
Whereas occupancy charges elsewhere range, the report discovered housing was close to capability, significantly as between 10 to fifteen per cent of all models are unavailable at any given time on account of upkeep or different causes.
The report additionally discovered {that a} particular allowance known as the post-living differential (PLD) established to offset the added prices service members face in dearer communities is falling quick as the present fee has been frozen since 2009.
“The lack of the PLD to maintain tempo with market fluctuations is limiting its assist to housing affordability,” the report mentioned.
Eyre recognized the price of residing issues and lack of reasonably priced lodging as difficult the army’s potential to retain skilled and skilled personnel, which has emerged previously few years as a key difficulty.
The Canadian Armed Forces is at present quick hundreds of members, a truth Eyre highlighted throughout his breakfast tackle, during which he warned the army has been “stretched fairly skinny.”
Many Armed Forces members are exhausted from the unrelenting tempo of the previous two years, Eyre mentioned, which has included supporting Canadians all through the COVID-19 pandemic whereas responding to pure disasters and occasions abroad.
These embrace Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Defence Minister Anita Anand asserting the deployment of as much as 150 Armed Forces members to Poland on Thursday to assist with the refugee disaster there. It’s the newest addition to a rising checklist of deployments to Europe.
Eyre additionally famous that whereas Russia is at present high of thoughts, issues about Chinese language aggression within the Indo-Pacific area haven’t gone away, whereas extremist teams and even local weather change stay ever current.
The rising variety of threats and calls for at house and overseas have come similtaneously pandemic restrictions have restricted recruitment and coaching, and allegations of sexual misconduct towards senior officers have shaken the army’s picture.
All of this has underscored the significance of adjusting the army’s tradition to make it a extra enticing office, Eyre mentioned, but in addition the pressing must maintain or retain these already in uniform.
“We’ve set to work tougher and we’ve set to work quicker as a result of the worldwide safety surroundings is demanding it,” he mentioned. “A harmful, unsure future looms and it’s not going to attend for us to be prepared. So we now have to be prepared now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 14, 2022.
Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press
