There will still be challenges, she said. Steve Whelan.Įyre said he's working on a recruitment plan and Von Hlatky said it seems tailored to address urgent personnel shortages. "Leadership churn in the command tasked with overseeing recruitment and retention obviously isn't helping solve these broader personnel strains," she said, referring to the cases of Vice-Admiral Haydn Edmundson and Lt.-Gen. It doesn't help, she said, that two of the leaders who were supposed to oversee policies related to growing the Armed Forces have been either removed or sidelined because of misconduct claims. Stefanie von Hlatky, associate professor of political studies at Queen's University, said recruiting and retention were already major challenges for the Armed Forces before the pandemic and the latest episode of the misconduct crisis. "All vital leadership roles, both in the field and as we address the existential imperative of changing our internal culture." "And these are the heart of our command structure, the 'missing middle' – master corporals, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, majors, master sailors, petty officers, lieutenant commanders," he said. The 'missing middle'Ĭompounding the problem for the Armed Forces is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has constrained both recruiting and training.Įyre presented the defence conference with figures on Monday that show the full-time military is 7,500 people short of its required strength - an enormous gap in a regular force of around 70,000. Nearly a dozen leaders have been accused of either sexual impropriety or of downplaying abhorrent behaviour. That's left many military officers and non-commissioned officers looking for the exit.Įyre has described the brain-drain an "existential crisis" and a matter of national security. Recent months have seen an almost relentless series of allegations of sexual misconduct touching the most senior ranks - including Eyre's predecessors, Admiral Art McDonald and retired general Jonathan Vance. Eyre's predecessor as chief of defence staff, retired general Jonathan Vance, was charged by military police in July with one count of obstruction of justice in relation to an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
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