Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, May 10, 2018 -

Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) emphasized academic education over military training and had weaknesses in military training, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented today in the House of Commons by the Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the fall of 2017, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit whose objective was to determine whether RMC produced the quality of officers that the Canadian Armed Forces needed at a reasonable cost.

The audit found that RMC did not do a good job of providing military training or of integrating it with academic training. Furthermore, the OAG not only found that RMC’s cost-per-student was high, but that it did not demonstrate that its graduates had better career progressions compared with officers developed through other means. Lastly, the audit found that the College did not adequately prepare Officer Cadets for leadership positions or ensured their proper conduct.

On 1 March 2018, the Committee held a hearing on this audit. In this report, the Committee has made seven recommendations to help RMC and the Department address these matters to better ensure that the College produces the best and most capable future leaders of the Canadian Armed Forces.