Auditor's report finds that some armed forces living accommodations lack drinkable running water

OTTAWA — Not only has the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) not recruited and trained the members it needs to meet its operational requirements, but the living accommodations of the existing CAF members have been found to lack basics like potable running water.

These are some of the latest findings in two alarming reports tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday by Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan. She based the conclusions of her audits on government data spanning the last two or three years.

“The Canadian Armed Forces continued to have challenges attracting and training enough highly skilled recruits to staff many occupations such as pilots and ammunition technicians,” Hogan said in a press release accompanying the report.

“This could affect the army, navy and air force’s ability to respond to threats, emergencies or conflicts and accomplish their missions,” she added.

Hogan’s report on CAF recruitment revealed that nearly 192,000 people applied to join the CAF between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2025. Of that number, only 15,000 new recruits successfully joined the forces — falling short of the CAF’s target by about 4,700 recruits.

That means that the average recruitment ratio for that period was around one in 13. The CAF blew past its overall recruitment targets in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 fiscal years, according to the report, but slightly surpassed its target in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Hogan also found that, of the nearly 192,000 people who applied to join the military, more than half — 54 per cent or around 103,7000 — either voluntarily withdrew from or during the recruitment process or simply did not respond to the CAF’s outreach efforts.

However, the audit found the CAF did not conduct analyses to understand exactly why applicants had decided to drop out along the way.

“Without knowing why applicants left, it was difficult for the Canadian Armed Forces to identify what was needed to increase the number of applicants who complete the recruitment process,” read the report.

Even though recruitment has been slightly higher in the last year, the CAF’s internal analysis from 2024 predicts that 13 per cent of occupations are at risk of not reaching the minimum of 90 per cent authorized staffing levels unless “key challenges” are addressed.

Examples of these in-demand roles include pilots, combat engineers, and a number of technician roles — for aircraft structures, ammunition, aerospace telecommunications and information systems, among others.

Hogan noted in her report that the CAF has already highlighted these positions on its website as being more in demand and provided incentives, such as signing bonuses.

More details to follow…

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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