Canadian military is growing rapidly

For years, Canada has been crippled with shortages among the army personnel. As BBC reports, there is now a potential of reversing that process. The state consistently increases its military funding. There are several reasons for an increased number of recruits.

What caused the change?

Firstly, more and more armed conflicts break out, and geopolitical uncertainty is on the rise. Regarding said uncertainty, Canada experiences a pressure from its former close ally, The United States. President Donald Trump has now several times referred to the country as the „51^st state,” a remark many Canadians have considered as a threat to country’s sovereignty. It should be noted however that the interest in military applications has been already on the rise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Secondly, the increase is driven by quite high unemployment rate among the youth. In March it hovered at nearly 14%. There is a high demand for jobs in general and military service could fill at least a part of that gap.

Thirdly, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced the largest pay increase for military personnel in a generation. Military is one of the main points of focus for the current government. In March, it has been announced that Canada had officially reached the NATO target of spending 2% of its GDP on defence. Carney has pledged to keep increasing the spending up to 5% of GDP by 2035. The increase in wages themselves was an important factor that contributed to reaching the 2%.

Lastly, one of the reasons for an increased number of recruits could be tied to the reduction of bureaucratic hurdles, as Travis Haines, a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces told the BBC. „There was always interest. It was just hard to get through the system.” Part of the application process has been digitised, for example the submission of documents, which cause the speed up of the process. Additionally, foreign nationals have been allowed to enrol, as long as they are permanent residents of Canada. They made up around 20% of last year’s new recruits.

Yet to see the results

Increased funding however does not result in an instant betterment of the military and its efficiency. As a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institue, Richard Shimooka explains, „the Canadian Armed Forces currently, have the capacity to deploy only a few thousand soldiers at a time, along with a limited number of fighter jets. By comparison, the UK military can deploy 10,000 troops if necessary.” He expects that „it will take five or ten years before you start to see a real upswing.” Canada has been historically overreliant on the US for its defence. Even after reaching the 2% target, Canada still is one of the lowest paying NATO members, according to a report from the defence alliance released last year.

In late April, more than 7,000 new members enrolled in the Canadian military. It was the highest number of recruits in free decades. It is but a fraction of people who expressed interest in joining the ranks. In February, confirmed number of applications to the Canadian Armed Forces has reached 40,116 – doubling the number from the previous year. That’s the number of those applicants who have submitted all the required documents to confirm their eligibility. The total number of applications has reached nearly 100,000 over the past year. Currently, the plan for Canadian Armed Forces involves a total of 85,500 regular service members and up to 300,000 reservists.