CHAPTER V
THE MILITARY FAMILY

INTRODUCTION

As noted in previous chapters, life in the military involves frequent moves, long periods of time away from home, and a higher risk of injury and death than for most Canadians. Members of the Canadian Forces live with these realities because they want to serve their country and have chosen this way of life. However, their families must also deal with these realities. Every time military personnel are posted to a new base, their spouses must integrate new communities and, in many cases, find new jobs while their children must adjust to new schools and leave friends behind. Often, this also means that both military personnel and their families have to adapt to a new language environment. Every time they leave for peacekeeping and other military operations or for training missions, their families have to cope as best they can with their long absences. The families, including parents and relatives of military personnel, must also live with the knowledge of the risks involved with military service. Since major events in world troublespots are broadcast live, they can actually witness their loved ones face life-threatening situations, as happened in the former Yugoslavia when Canadian peacekeepers were held hostage. In such circumstances, military families must have confidence that they can obtain information and support if and when they need them.

Support for military families should not be an afterthought. On the contrary, it is not only an important element of efforts to maintain the morale and overall quality of life of military personnel, but also a vital measure to ensure the operational effectiveness of the Canadian military. Other countries like the United States and the United Kingdom have recognized the important role family support and other quality of life measures play in ensuring the operational readiness of their military forces. They have put in place an array of measures in response to the needs of their military families such as child care and other services and continue to take new initiatives. Likewise, the Canadian military must continue to reinforce and improve the network it has developed to inform and assist military families.

After all, personnel participating in peacekeeping and other military operations or in training missions can focus on their tasks much better if they do not have to worry about how their families are coping back home. By the same token, military families will more easily accept the realities of military life if they know they have access to information and a variety of resources to help them deal with them. Accepting the realities of military life will be easier if information and access to resources are available in both official languages. Otherwise, more and more personnel will be persuaded by their families to end their military careers and return to civilian life. Improved pay and housing will encourage people to stay in the Forces and stop the erosion of our pool of military skills and experience, but that investment will be jeopardized if it does not include revitalized family support programs, a vibrant family network and access to these resources in both official languages.

THE FAMILY NETWORK

Indeed, the family network is a prominent feature of military life. The network is composed of various elements which each have their own area of responsibility, but which can also combine their resources to meet the needs of military families. Some elements such as units and padres have traditionally played a role in helping military families integrate into new communities and deal with emergencies. Other elements are more recent in origins such as the various personnel support programs, especially the Military Family Resource Centres (MFRCs). To understand how the network works, its various elements have to be examined individually.

Individual units such as regiments, ships or air force squadrons, have always provided some support to the families of their personnel. Units can help families deal with medical emergencies, financial difficulties, and other circumstances, but they also play an important role during deployments. When an army unit deploys for many months to participate in a training or peacekeeping mission, it establishes what is called a rear party composed of the remaining members. Many units now have considerable experience with rear parties because of the frequent deployments to the former Yugoslavia and other peacekeeping operations in the 1990s. Air Force units and navy ships have similar groups called sponsor or shore elements. Although each unit may have a different approach, rear parties or support groups can help families cope with the long absence of one of the parents in a variety of ways ranging from providing snow clearing services to making regular calls to check if help is needed. These actions may appear to be of minor importance, but they can be of real value to a spouse caring for a young family while the other spouse is away from home for six or nine months. Another important role is reassuring the families by providing information on the current situation in the area where the unit is deployed and the date and time of the unit's return.

Although everyone recognizes that units have a role to play, we heard conflicting views on the effectiveness of rear parties, some families praising all the services they provide while others complained of being ignored by the units during deployments. Some units provide considerable background information to families during deployments through Internet sites and publications while others make little effort to inform and reassure the families. Some Unit Commanders attach more importance to rear parties than others, possibly because of the different experiences they have had with rear parties in the past. This may explain to some extent the inconsistent level of support provided. In any case, the different approaches to rear parties mean that some families can enjoy a high level of support at one base and then get little help from their unit when they move to another base. This may force them to rely on other elements of the family support network which may or may not be able to respond to their needs. Since some Reservists are often deployed with Regular Force units involved in peacekeeping operations, their families may also face problems obtaining help from rear parties if their needs are not taken into account. To ensure that families can obtain a certain minimum of support regardless of the unit the military members belong to, especially during deployments, and that Unit Commanders recognize what is expected, certain standards should be established for rear parties and other support groups. There should still be room for individual approaches because both the units and the family members involved in the organization of rear parties or support groups may choose to concentrate on fulfilling some needs more than others depending on the circumstances. However, everyone should know what is expected of rear parties and support groups, so we recommend:

58. That guidelines be developed to govern the operation of rear parties and other unit support groups in order to ensure a standard level of support to families of both Regular Force and Reserve personnel during deployments of units. These measures must also take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families. Special attention should be paid to the needs of personnel from other units deployed overseas with larger units. A report should be made to SCONDVA on an annual basis.

Although rear parties play an important role, they do not necessarily provide support for all military families. Some units, such as many logistics and communications units, may not have rear parties because they are too small or only deploy a few of their members at a time. In any case, military families need help not only when units deploy, but also during the rest of the time. Families may still get help from their units when they face personal, financial, or other problems, but they often have little choice but to turn to the padres on their bases.

The Chaplaincy Service has always been an important element of the Canadian military and although chaplains are mainly preoccupied with the spiritual needs of military personnel and their families, they also play a key role in helping people deal with personal problems. When families are dealing with a financial crisis, the death of a close relative, or tensions between parents and their teenagers, they often turn to the base padre for help. Padres often have a better idea than anyone else of the state of morale of military personnel and their families on a base because people confide in them and explain their problems. Presentations by padres at the bases we visited during public meetings and round-table discussions with base officials were very helpful to the Committee during our study. We gained a better understanding not only of the current situation on bases, but also of the problems padres have faced in recent years helping families grapple with the implications of long deployments overseas and the downsizing of the military.

Indeed, the past years have been difficult for many families and padres. Families with problems turned more and more to the padres for help, but the latter and the rest of the family network were not always able to help people when they needed it because of bureaucratic delays and a lack of resources. One of the issues frequently raised by padres concerned compassionate travel for families dealing with family emergencies such as funerals for parents. Military personnel learn to live with the fact that they can be posted to bases very far from their parents and other family members and their spouses have to deal with the same reality. They often have to turn to padres for help in arranging transportation for themselves and their spouses when a parent is critically ill or dies suddenly.

Personnel on duty overseas can obtain compassionate leave as well as reimbursement for travel costs to return to the country when a parent is ill or dying. However, when people serving in Canada want to travel to other parts of the country for similar reasons, they often experience difficulties arranging such trips in a timely fashion. They can also face considerable transportation costs depending on the distances to be covered. This is less of a problem if they can make use of service flights for at least part of the distance. However, seats on service flights are not always available for compassionate travel. In the past, service flights were mainly scheduled military transport flights to destinations across Canada, but in recent years, the Department has signed contractual agreements with airlines to provide transportation for military personnel when required. When seats are available on service flights, personnel travelling for compassionate reasons can use them, but we heard many complaints about all the uncertainty involved with booking seats and about the limited availability. These problems cause a lot of frustrations for military families, not to mention the padres trying to help them. Padres are also asked to intervene in situations where personnel have difficulty obtaining compassionate leave to be by the side of parents on their deathbed and for other family emergencies. The rules for compassionate leave should be more clearly defined to ensure that Unit and Base Commanders as well as military personnel clearly understand them and that the concerns of military spouses are taken into account. By the same token, procedures for arranging transportation for compassionate reasons should be reviewed to ensure that military personnel and their families have some guarantee of being able to travel when family emergencies occur. With this in mind, we recommend:

59. That a clearly defined policy on compassionate leave and travel arrangements be developed to ensure that military personnel and their families can be certain of being able to travel in an appropriate fashion as soon as possible whenever family emergencies occur. When compassionate leave is requested, padres and commanding officers should consult on appropriate arrangements. A report to SCONDVA should be made on an annual basis.

While padres and units can provide information to families and help them deal with certain situations, they have other responsibilities and cannot spend all their time on family matters. In the 1980s, there was growing recognition that new elements had to be introduced to the family network to ensure that military families could obtain information and assistance when they needed it. As a result, Military Family Resource Centres (MFRCs) were established on military bases to give families access to information and services they may need at one time or another.

The Military Family Resource Centres are the tools through which the Department's Military Family Support Program, established in 1991, is implemented. The centres provide information and services in a number of areas including child care, emergency assistance, and volunteer programs. They also help families to integrate their new communities when they arrive in the area. The centres are non-profit organizations incorporated under provincial laws and have elected board of directors. More than half of the directors at each centre must be civilian spouses of military personnel, but the Base Commander is also a member or has a representative. Many of the services at the centres are provided through public funds, but the centres can also obtain municipal and provincial grants and undertake fund raising activities. Nevertheless, public funding remains an important part of a centre's budget and since the centre also makes use of a base's infrastructure and utilities, Base Commanders must keep in mind the centre's requirements as well as those of all the other elements on a base, including operational units.

We had the opportunity to visit resource centres on many bases and were impressed by the array of services and information provided and the dedication of the staff. Some staff members are professional counsellors hired under contract while others are volunteers. Indeed, volunteers play an important role in the administration of the centres and in the organization of activities, in keeping with the family support program's emphasis on helping people help themselves. To supplement the handbook and other publications prepared by the Military Family Support Program, volunteers at various centres have participated in the production of pamphlets and Internet sites to introduce families arriving on the bases to the surrounding communities and to provide helpful tips. Some of the employees of the centres are military spouses. Indeed, the centres are not only a source of jobs for military spouses, but also a tool to help them find jobs on or off the bases, as discussed later in this chapter.

However, we have some concerns about the ability of the centres to help all military families. All bases now have a resource centre and many locations outside of the country where a number of Canadian military families live such as Geilenkirchen, Germany, have one. These centres no doubt meet many of the needs of families living on or close to the bases, but it is not always clear to what extent they help families living in the surrounding communities. As mentioned in the chapter on housing, only about one-third of military families live on bases, so a large segment of the families might live quite some distance away from the base itself. In some cases, this problem has been recognized. For example, at CFB Valcartier, the resource centre on the base also has a satellite centre in Sainte-Foy to serve some families living off base. At other locations, the centres run the danger of meeting mostly the needs of the families living in PMQs on bases. This is especially troublesome when there is a possibility, as mentioned in the chapter on housing, that existing PMQs on bases might be replaced in future by new or leased housing in the surrounding communities. There are advantages in having centres on bases because they can make use of base infrastructures and facilities, but there are also disadvantages. A resource centre on a base may have to compete with units and other facilities on that base for funds. At the same time, it may be located too far for many families to make significant use of its services.

Some centres on bases or near certain facilities are already grappling with the effects of their location on their presence in the military community. In Ottawa, for example, there are many military families, but no base as such. Most of the military members work at National Defence Headquarters, but except those residing in small PMQs areas with uncertain futures, families live throughout the Ottawa-Hull area. The resource centre, according to comments made during our meetings with personnel in Ottawa, has difficulty meeting the expectations of many families. Despite the efforts of its staff, the centre has had less success than some other centres in helping to integrate families into their new community because of the difficulties encountered in identifying new arrivals and contacting them. The centre has also had difficulty in getting all the funding it needs to, among other things, open satellite centres and its very existence appears to have been questioned by some in authority despite the large number of military families in the area. If a resource centre in an area with a significant military population has such difficulties, it is easy to understand why military families who live near small military facilities like the one in Debert, Nova Scotia, or in areas quite distant from the nearest base and resource centre, feel somewhat abandoned. People perhaps have the impression that all military personnel live on or very close to military bases, but a number of them, such as Regular Force members working with Reserve units, live in remote areas of the country. Their families may need information and services like those provided by resource centres, just like other military families.

These problems do not mean that resource centres are failing at their tasks. On the contrary, the establishment of a network of resource centres at bases across the country and at some locations overseas is a significant achievement carried out despite many obstacles, including the lack of recognition in some circles of the importance of such centres. However, we are concerned that the full value of this investment will not be attained if the funding for the resource centres is not on a solid footing and if the implications of changes in housing policies and the complexion of the military community in and around bases are not fully taken into account. At some locations, the centres may be more relevant to the military community if they are situated off base. However, the site can be of little importance if the financial situation of a centre is undermined by the reduction in the availability of non-public funds if, for example, CANEX stores do not produce as much revenues as before. With this in mind, we recommend:

60. That the commitment to support Military Family Resource Centres be reaffirmed and that policies governing their operations be reviewed to ensure that the implications of new housing policies and the changing complexion of the military community on and off bases are taken into account. The proposed measures must also take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families. A report should be made to SCONDVA on an annual basis.

Just like the units and the padres, the resource centres are a key element of the family network. However, there are situations, according to the evidence we heard, where neither of the elements were able to help families or to do so in a timely fashion. Some people had the impression that they were simply referred by one element to another without necessarily finding the help they needed. At some bases, many lessons of past efforts to resolve problems have been taken into account and, as a result, solid lines of communications have been established between the resource centres and the other elements of the network. At other bases, the coordination between the various elements is not as good as it should be.

A lot of work has been done to ensure that the services provided by family resource centres across the country meet minimum standards, but the lack of coordination between the various elements of the family network can result in significant differences in the level of assistance provided to families from one base to another. The lack of coordination can also result in the duplication of efforts, something which the network cannot afford because of the limited resources available. A well-coordinated network should be able to marshal its resources to deal with a problem instead of leaving it to the families to find the best source of help. In any case, military families should be able to obtain a minimum level of support wherever they are located. This may really be possible only if there is a clear all-encompassing policy on support for military families to guide the various elements of the support network and the Department as a whole, so we recommend:

61. That the Canadian Forces develop a military family policy to ensure better coordination and cooperation between all the elements of the family network and to guide decisions on matters which affect the quality of life of military families. That this policy take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families. A report should be made to SCONDVA on an annual basis.

POSTINGS

Better coordination between all the elements of the family network will help it deal more efficiently with the needs of military families. However, the network is sometimes called upon to deal with some problems that could have been avoided if other parts of the military apparatus paid more attention to family requirements. The Committee heard many comments about the role career managers play in deciding where military personnel are posted. The work of career managers is discussed elsewhere in this report, but the effects of their decisions on military families must also be examined here.

Any new posting has a number of implications for military personnel and their families, but some military families face more complex problems than others when they have to move from one base to another. For example, some families with children with special needs often depend on doctors and facilities in the community around a base to obtain all the care these children require. When the military member is posted to another base, the family has to develop a new network of doctors and facilities to meet the needs of the special care children. The area around the new base might not have the same level of specialists and facilities available as the previous location, and even if it does, the time required by the family to re-establish a network might have a negative impact on the condition of the child. In such a situation, military personnel may ask not to be posted to a new base or at least to be sent to an area where the required medical specialists and facilities are available.

There are many other situations where for family reasons, personnel may ask for the next posting to be delayed as much as possible or to be in specific areas. Some wish to live close to parents needing care or to the site where their child is buried while others do not want to leave an area until their children finish grade or high school. Other personnel request to be posted in certain regions instead of others because the members of their families do not have second language skills and would have great difficulty communicating and pursuing their education in regions where the second language predominates. For families where the two spouses are in the military, there are situations where one spouse lives at another base and requests to be posted to the base where the other spouse is located. The Forces have made efforts in recent years to ensure that all members of a family where the two spouses are in the military are at the same base, but they cannot guarantee this for every family because of operational and training requirements. These and other requirements also frequently prevent other personnel from getting the postings they requested or the delay they asked for. As a result, families are understandably angry that their pleadings have fallen on the deaf ears of the career managers.

Career managers have not always dealt with family situations as well as they could have and they should be reminded that military families facing difficult situations must be treated with compassion. Too many times, we heard military families tell us that some career managers responded to their pleas by saying: "If you don't like it, leave." However, career managers are also frustrated because the guidelines they have to work with allow them little flexibility to help families. The Department has recently reiterated some existing directives to ensure that factors affecting a military family's ability to move from one region to another such as, for example, the lack of second language skills of some of its members, are taken into account by career managers. Military requirements must of course remain pre-eminent and reductions in the number of personnel in recent years leave little room to manoeuvre, but family needs cannot be ignored. In fact, under present guidelines, career managers can arrange compassionate postings, but these have such significant implications for the careers of personnel who request them that both career managers and people being considered for postings hesitate to use them.

As matters now stand, personnel who obtain a compassionate posting lose almost all chances for promotions for the duration of such a posting, two and sometimes three years. As a result, some people who really need a compassionate posting do not request one. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that there is so much frustration with this issue. On the one hand, family circumstances are taken into consideration during the posting process, but on the other, personnel feel they may be penalized if their families have special needs and require compassionate postings. Military families must have confidence that their views about postings and their requirements will be taken into account by career managers. At the same time, career managers must have more flexibility to facilitate requested postings without limiting the chances for promotion of some military personnel. This can be done by removing the implications associated with compassionate postings or by creating a new category of postings in between compassionate postings and regular ones to meet family requirements without after effects. With this in mind, we recommend:

62. That special requirements of military families such as health and education be one of the major factors taken into consideration during preparations for postings of personnel. That these requirements take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families.

63. That posting guidelines be modified to provide career managers greater flexibility to facilitate postings for special family needs without limiting the career prospects of personnel. That posting guidelines take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families.

CHILD CARE

Military readiness is usually associated with the level of training of personnel in combat units and the state of their equipment, but many other factors influence it, including the availability of child care services. It may seem strange to link something like child care to military readiness, but the most powerful armed forces in the world, those of the United States, have no hesitation to do so. In fact, the U.S. military has developed an extensive child care system which has been highly praised and identified by the U.S. government as a model for civilian child care systems in that country. The importance of child care in the military has not always been recognized, but the realities of modern military life now leave no doubt about its necessity in Canada as well. Long deployments on peacekeeping missions overseas, the necessity for the two spouses in many military families to earn incomes, and the number of single parents are among the reasons why at one time or another, military families have to make use of child care services.

At many of the bases we visited, child care services are available at the Military Family Resource Centres or at facilities operated by them. In some cases, we saw brand new facilities which have only recently opened while at some other bases like Trenton, a child care centre has been in operation for over 20 years. The level of services offered may vary from one base to another, but at least, child care services are now available at almost every base and the need for them is recognized. To what extent the need is fulfilled is another matter.

Military families are not the only families in Canada who need child care services either regularly or on occasion. However, they have to deal with some unique situations and sometimes need child care services quite different compared to those required by civilians. When one spouse is deployed outside of the country for six months for a peacekeeping operation, the other spouse may need child care services for a few hours while at work or at a medical appointment. When one spouse is overseas for six months, but the other spouse is also in the military and can be called away from home at any time of the day for base duty or to deploy to another region of Canada because of some emergency situation like the ice storm, child care services might be necessary for longer periods of time and on short notice. For single parents, the situation can be even more complicated whether they are outside the country for six months on a ship or just a few kilometres from home on a weeklong training exercise. Whatever the circumstances, military families may need child care services quite suddenly at any time of day or night.

The Military Family Resource Centres are only one source of child care services available to military families and the range of services they offer and the number of children they can deal with is limited. Since Treasury Board policies prevent the use of federal public funds to subsidize child care costs, the services provided by the centres in this domain depend on user fees and non-public funds provided through fundraising and the revenues produced by elements of the Personnel Support Program, including CANEX stores. The centres can facilitate the provision of child care for parents participating in activities at the centre and provincially regulated child care for parents who need alternate services. A nursery school with a formal educational program is also available, but it is self-funding. If 24-hour child care is required, parents are referred to licenced and trained care givers on base or in the surrounding community. In short, child care services are available at the resources centres and similar services in the area have been identified, but the costs and the limited availability pose problems for military families.

The child care services available address at least some of the needs of military families on a routine day, but we are concerned about what happens when military personnel have to deploy on very short notice at any time of the day. For both long absences and sudden deployments, single parents and others have to turn to parents, friends, and services available outside the bases to ensure proper care. However, some of the parents, for example, may live in another province and need time to travel. It could be difficult to find appropriate child care in an emergency situation if arrangements have not been made beforehand. Given the suddenness with which deployments can occur, it would certainly be a good idea for individual families as well as for the military to make plans for child care in the event of a deployment on short notice or other emergency situations. The Committee noted with interest the comments made at one of our meetings by Ms Carolyn Becraft, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence, Personnel Support, Families and Education, from the United States, who explained that U.S. military personnel are required to prepare a plan for the care of their children in case of a deployment and must inform their commanders. This is especially important for single-parent families and families where the two spouses are in the military. The plan ensures that child care will be provided by a parent, a relative, a child care centre or through other arrangements when deployments occur. It also reassures commanders because they know that members of their units have made arrangements for child care and will not be preoccupied by family requirements when they have to deploy. We believe that this is an example which the Canadian military should follow and we therefore recommend:

64. That all military personnel with children be required to prepare a plan according to predetermined criteria to ensure that whenever they deploy, their child care requirements will be met.

In return, the Forces should make the commitment of providing so many days of notice of deployment to allow personnel time to put their pre-arranged child care plan into effect. Most personnel usually know many weeks in advance that they will be deployed for many months for a peacekeeping operation and there should be enough time to implement their plan. However, when there is little or no notice of a deployment, as happened during the ice storm when units were alerted barely a few hours before leaving their bases, and parents have no time to implement their plan, measures must be in place to ensure that children will be taken care of. This is particularly of concern for single parents and for families where the two parents are in the military. The Forces must have their own plan to provide emergency child care services or assist persons who have to make last minute arrangements when the agreed upon criteria for the pre-arranged plan is not met. We therefore recommend:

65. That the Department develop a plan to ensure emergency child care when military members must deploy with less notice then provided for in their child care plan submitted to their commanders. That the Department's plan take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families. A report should be made to SCONDVA within one year.

Ensuring child care during a deployment or during work hours is only one of the preoccupations military families have with regard to the needs of their children. Some families expressed concerns about the impact of frequent moves on children of all ages. Changing schools every two or three years, leaving behind friends, and dealing with the strains of constantly moving to new homes in different regions can take a toll on children. Indeed, these children must also deal with the fact that one of their parents is frequently absent while away on a ship, on a training exercise or in a foreign country. Some children have difficulty accepting the fact that one of their parents is not there for birthdays and other special occasions. Their reactions can be troubling for the parents who return from a deployment or a sea voyage with the hope of quickly re-establishing contact with their families. Efforts have been made by resource centres and others to provide information and assistance to help both the children and the parents deal with these realities of military life. However, more needs to be done, especially for teenagers.

Even in the United States where considerable efforts have been made in the area of child care and other types of support for military families, it is recognized that youth programs have not kept pace with their needs. We face the same situation in this country. At some of the bases we visited, some facilities have been made available to teenagers for meetings and other activities, but they are often makeshift. The teenagers of military families face the same problems as other youths, but many of them also have to contend with the isolation of the bases they live on from the surrounding communities and the activities they offer. Teenagers can use some of the sports facilities on bases, but this may not fulfil all their needs. It would be a mistake to impose on them programs which might only succeed in turning them off, but it would be just as serious to overlook the needs of teenagers, so we recommend:

66. That programs for teenage members of military families be given special attention in the development of family support policies. Efforts should be made to recognize special education needs and to encourage the development and use of programs such as the Individual Educational Plan. That these programs take into account the need for access to services in both official languages for military personnel and their families.

SPOUSAL EMPLOYMENT

Even with improved pay and standardized rents, two incomes will still be considered necessary by many military families to ensure financial stability. This is a reality that many other Canadians with growing families are faced with, but military life has its own set of circumstances which often makes it difficult for the spouse of someone in the military to find employment and to maintain a career. Postings every two or three years to new regions with often different economic and linguistic situations complicate job searches. Every time they have to move, many spouses start all over again in a new job, losing the seniority they acquired in the previous job. Others have to accept lower paying jobs because they cannot find employment which matches their considerable skills and experience. Many, however, cannot find jobs or do so only many months after arriving in the new location. The absence of a second income or the delays in getting one inevitably complicate a family's financial situation and can increase tensions within the family unit. In today's society, many families consider two incomes to be essential and many of the spouses not in the military, be they male or female, want to pursue meaningful careers and do satisfying work. This is not always easy to do in society in general, but it is even more difficult for military families. They already have to deal with considerable stress with each new posting because of all the problems associated with moving, registering the children in new schools and finding a new home, but the difficulties encountered by spouses trying to find a job and maintain a career add considerable frustration to the process. These difficulties have been recognized and some assistance is given, for example, for the preparation of curriculum vitae.

However, despite this assistance, many spouses find themselves in difficult situations because although they are highly qualified, their new location may be in a different province which may for certain professions require new exams to be taken and licences to be renewed. These requirements imply additional costs for military families which have just moved from another province and often present military spouses with a dilemma. They need time and money to take the exams and renew licences, but until they become qualified in their new province, they cannot get a job in their field of work. In the meantime, they may have to take jobs with lower salaries than what they would normally earn, if such jobs were available. In the end, some may decide to abandon their careers. Spouses of military personnel on postings overseas such as those at NATO headquarters and diplomatic posts face similar problems when they return to Canada because their professional qualification may have lapsed after two or three years outside the country. The provinces should be made aware of the problems military spouses face when they have to renew professional qualifications, but pending action on their part, military families should get some assistance because of the implications of the costs for careers and financial stability. We therefore recommend:

67. That military spouses with professional qualifications be reimbursed up to 50% to alleviate costs of taking exams and renewing licences for the purpose of seeking employment when they have to move to a new province or return to Canada.

Military spouses seeking employment must also contend with the attitudes of employers who recognize their skills and experience, but reject their job applications because they will be in the region for only two or three years. The statements we heard at almost all the bases we visited leave no doubt that this type of attitude among employers exists throughout the country. Some spouses were for all intents and purposes hired by employers, only to be rejected because their address was in a PMQs area or because their curriculum vitae indicated the frequent moves that are part of military life. Everyone loses in such situations because whiles spouses remain unemployed or must take jobs paying less, the employers lose the opportunity of hiring qualified and reliable workers who despite their short stay, can still make a valuable contribution to the local economy. The Forces also lose because military families become frustrated while grappling with the consequences of losing a second income.

Perhaps the most unfortunate result is that military families who are committed to the service of the country and who, unlike many other Canadians, have the opportunity to live in many of its regions, are to some extent penalized because they have to move frequently. There are no easy solutions to this problem because frequent postings will remain a fact of military life and local economic conditions affect job availability in the communities around bases. Nevertheless, efforts must continue to encourage local employers to adopt a more positive attitude towards the employment of military spouses. At many bases, senior base officers and the Military Family Resource Centres have already developed close ties with local chambers of commerce and local government officials to inform them of the problems facing military spouses seeking employment. Other opportunities both on and off bases should be explored. The family resource centres already employ some military spouses and the CANEX stores and other elements of the personnel support programs also employ some. However, other types of work in the area of security, training, accommodation, and others might also be sources of employment for military spouses, both on and off bases. There are a number of organizations involved in security and other types of work with branches or offices across the country such as the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires which can play an important role in providing job opportunities.

The Corps has always been involved in finding employment for former members of the military and of the RCMP and could extend its efforts to assist spouses of military personnel as well, especially if it diversifies the type of services it offers. The Corps already has a presence in many communities across Canada near military bases and besides having military spouses in its employ, it could help them find similar jobs when they move from one base to another. Other employers with branches in most regions of the country, like banks for example, should also be in an excellent position to assist military spouses in their employ at one location, find similar work in another. In short, there are many opportunities not only to find new sources of employment for military spouses, but also to facilitate their search for employment when they move to new locations. To ensure that these opportunities are not missed, we recommend:

68. That the Department develop a program to encourage greater awareness among local and national employers of the problems faced by military spouses seeking jobs and to explore opportunities to make more jobs available. A report should be made to SCONDVA on an annual basis.

Even if employers in a community have a better attitude towards military spouses seeking employment, the latter may miss many job opportunities because they have just recently arrived in the area and are unfamiliar with the local economy and the types of skills in demand. The task of finding a job could be much easier if military spouses could get some guidance on the type of jobs available in the new community and the potential employers to contact. The resource centre in Esquimalt has a full-time employment counsellor who maintains contact with local employers and who can advise military families on employment opportunities. With the counsellor acting as a go-between, it may even be possible for employers to replace military spouses who are in their employ, but have to move, with others who have just arrived in the area. If all bases could offer employment counselling, military spouses would not only get help to find employment when they arrived at a new location, but also be reassured that they could count on similar services at the next location two or three years down the road. We believe that there is a definite requirement for employment counselling and recommend:

69. That all bases offer employment counselling through the Military Family Resource Centre to assist military spouses find employment. That counselling services be available in both official languages for families of military personnel.

Employment counsellors can also play an important role as the first contact military families make with a new base and community, referring them to the other services offered by the resource centre and the family network as a whole. In fact, the first contact does not have to wait until families actually move to their new bases. The sooner military spouses can start their job search in the new location, the greater their chances of starting their new job shortly after moving. Thus, it would make sense for spouses to come to a new location a few weeks before the move to contact the employment counsellor and start the job search. Alerted to the fact that someone with certain skills and experience will be arriving soon, the counsellor could identify and notify potential employers. Interviews with potential employers could be arranged even before the family moves. It is already possible for military families to go to the new location ahead of time to select a PMQ or to find a home or apartment in the local housing market as well as to find out what schools are available. This period of leave often called the house hunting trip presents an ideal opportunity to meet the employment counsellor, but the current limit of five days does not leave much time to select a new home, much less to start a job search and carry out interviews. The time allocated for such a trip should at least be equivalent to what is available to federal public servants, seven days, so we recommend:

70. That the period of leave allocated to military personnel to visit an area prior to a posting to find accommodation and make other arrangements be increased to seven days to, among other things, give more time to military spouses to start job searches.

Whether or not a military family can visit a location prior to moving there, a military spouse may have the opportunity to contact some potential employers with the assistance of the employment counsellors and to arrange interviews. It may not always be possible to arrange to have the interviews during the house hunting trip, so a military spouse may have to travel to the new location between the house hunting trip, if there is one, and the actual move. Given the difficulties military spouses have had in finding employment when moving to a new location, they cannot afford to miss job opportunities and should be able to go to job interviews even before they arrive in the new area. The travel costs involved may cause some to hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity because of the burden it might place on family finances, so we recommend:

71. That in exceptional circumstances, prior to the move to a new location, military spouses be reimbursed for the reasonable costs of travel and accommodation to that area to participate in job interviews which cannot otherwise be held during the trip to find accommodation.

Since military families move from region to region, they can often find themselves in a different linguistic environment than the one they usually operate in, something which can further complicate job searches by military spouses. When an anglophone family moves to a francophone area or a francophone family moves to an anglophone community, the military spouse may not have the linguistic skills necessary to obtain a job in that area. Many spouses eagerly participate in second language training courses offered on bases to improve their ability to communicate with the local population and their chances of finding employment, but others do not have access to such courses. Some spouses did point out to us that the courses offered do not always provide a sufficient level of linguistic skills to communicate adequately with the local community, but many of the comments were about the unavailability of such courses. In some cases, courses do not start because there are not enough students while in others, courses are not made available to military spouses. The Army, Navy, and Air Force apparently have different rules on this. Since military spouses often need language skills to help them find employment and communicate better with the local population, they should have access to second language courses on all military bases. We therefore recommend:

72. That second language training policies be amended to ensure that military spouses can have access to language courses on bases when requested. A report on developments should be made to SCONDVA on an annual basis.

ACCESS TO SERVICES IN BOTH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

Given the frequent moves their work entails, our military personnel and their families often find themselves in places where their mother tongue is not that of the surrounding majority. The Forces have an important role to play in helping them cope with this awkward situation. Through a host of programs and services, they help our military personnel integrate smoothly into their new communities. However, the situation remains less than perfect, and that is why the Committee has made a series of recommendations in this Report that will, we hope, improve matters. Future developments have not yet been defined, but it seems to us important to highlight the need for the Department and the Government to take into account the impact of Canada's linguistic reality within the Armed Forces. We therefore recommend:

73. That in the future, all services and programs offered by the Department of National Defence to military personnel and their families be available in both official languages.