Declan Bigras of Aylmer, Que., joined air cadets when he was 13 because he dreamt of flying fighter jets. While he got onto wait-lists, he wasn’t selected for that highly competitive program. But he did rise to second in command of the 211 Squadron in Ottawa.
It was the best five years of his life, Bigras said.
Now, at 19, he’s intent on joining the Canadian Armed Forces. But it’s taking some time. With the permission of his parents, he tried to sign up two years ago when he was 17.
“It didn’t end up working out because the online system was very buggy back then,” Bigras said. “Now it’s finally doing better.”
He says when he tried to sign up two years ago, the CAF recruiting website wouldn’t send him a login code and then it forced him repeatedly to change his password. The CAF opened a new recruitment portal in September 2024 and made other major technical upgrades this spring.
Bigras is now progressing through the online recruitment process. “Every time, when I get an assignment, I try to do it as fast as possible because I really want to get in.”
Building up a trained military force is a challenge worldwide, especially in Canada. In 2024, former defence minister Bill Blair described Canada’s military recruiting issue as a “death spiral,” because more personnel were leaving than entering.
In October, Auditor General Karen Hogan’s “Recruiting for Canada’s Military”
said the CAF’s recruitment target time is between 100 and 150 days, but it often takes twice as long. The median number of days it took for an applicant to be recruited for the three-year period covered by the audit was between 245 and 271 days.
The audit showed the backlog of pending security quality checks rose from around 20,000 to almost 23,000, slowing intake. More than half of those who submitted online applications voluntarily withdrew before completing the recruitment process.
Only one in 13 who apply make it to basic training, Hogan wrote. “And then they don’t have enough housing for them.”
Recruiting happens on the CAF
. Interested applicants create an account and go through testing: aptitude, medical, reliability security clearance then, finally, a complete interview. If they’ve made the grade, they receive an offer. If accepted, they are invited to attend an enrolment ceremony. A person can voluntarily withdraw at any time during this process.
Next is mandatory basic training and applications for security clearance. Then occupation-specific training. If an applicant wants the CAF to fund their university education, they sign up for a contract length that guarantees the military recoups its investment in their education.
Hogan wrote that the military’s own internal analysis showed many new members were likely to leave within the first four years because of training delays, job dissatisfaction or issues related to the military’s culture.
In an October appearance at the standing committee on national defence, Defence minister David McGuinty said that potential recruits cited racism and sexual assaults in the military as a major concern when signing up.
“They told us in very large numbers, and in no uncertain terms, they wanted a 21st-century workplace,” McGuinty said when testifying about Bill C-11, the Military Justice System Modernization Act, which transfers jurisdiction for Criminal Code sexual offences to civilian courts.
The Department of National Defence recently released numbers showing that 6,706 recruits enrolled in the regular forces between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, surpassing its target of 6,496.
The figures represent a 55 per cent increase from the previous year and a 10-year peak. But the CAF is still short roughly 12,000 personnel. The
is to reach 71,500 regular forces members and increase the primary reserve force to 30,000 by 2032.
“Getting in uniform is probably the easiest part of the process,” said Andrew Burtch, the Canadian War Museum’s post-1945 historian. “Historically, it’s getting the people in uniform trained, specialized and in theatre. That’s the tough part that requires a lot of planning and procedure.”
To counter its recruiting crisis, the CAF is trying new recruitment tools, such as offering priority applications and bonuses for roles they desperately need to fill, such as instructors. The
offers accelerated enrolment and training, getting people quickly joining the fleet on either the East or West Coast for a one-year contract. “Try before you buy,” the program has been called.
In a May 30 directive, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan created a “
” to increase the reserve force, which included considering public servants as potential recruits.
McGuinty said he has toured bases across the country and inspected housing, and said the CAF is looking to make rapid improvements. He pointed to the purchase in October of a 37-unit apartment building in Esquimalt, B.C. He claimed the Forces have a plan to build or retrofit a further 850 units.
In August, Prime Minister Mark Carney
promised “the largest pay raise
for the CAF in a generation,” with a retroactive bump that members have started to see. For an entry-level private, that means an extra 20 per cent for regular force and 13 per cent for reserve forces. It also means a 13 per cent bump for active members up to the rank of colonel and eight per cent for those above that rank.
The federal budget 2025 then bumped CAF investments up to a historic
over five years.
Canada’s tough economy may actually work in the CAF’s favour if job markets tighten further. The people they are seeking with offers of bonuses and fast recruiting are those with technical skills for jobs such as aerospace and air weapons technicians, construction, plumbers and refrigeration, to name a few.
National emergencies such as pandemics, forest fires and floods are also good for recruitment, when people see the military helping in their communities. But besides disasters, there are few foreign deployments.
So, what are people signing up to do?
“Initial planning has begun to explore how the CAF could contribute to greater national resilience, including leveraging increased readiness from an expanded reserve force for defence purposes, in times of crisis, or for natural disasters, for example. Participation in an expanded reserve force would be entirely voluntary,” said DND spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin.
“If I could give any advice to anyone, it would be do the reserves for a couple of years, join to become an officer to get your university paid for, and then go into the Air Force,” said Bruce Moncur.
On June 23, 2001, at the age of 17, Moncur joined the reserves because his two best friends did. He began infantry basic training a week later. Five years after that, Moncur voluntarily deployed to Kandahar. A misdirected U.S. plane strafed him with machine-gun fire. He lost five per cent of his brain and was forced to learn to walk, talk and survive again. Moncur eventually recovered, went to teacher’s college and is now teaching in Manitoba.
“Try to find those trades that correlate easily into transferring into the civilian workforce,” Moncur said.
Mick Gzowski is a board member of Valour in the Presence of the Enemy, a group advocating for the re-examination of military.
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