NDDN Committee Report

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA

On behalf of the New Democratic Party, we would first like to thank the witnesses who appeared before the committee, especially those who serve in the Canadian Armed Forces. We also would like to thank the Library of Parliament analysts for putting together an excellent report and the clerk and interpreters for their work.

The recruitment and retention challenges faced by the Canadian Armed Forces are multifaceted. Through this report, there is a clear need to tackle many of the systemic issues faced by members of the CAF. A lack of inclusion is a significant barrier to retention and recruitment - the CAF must attract, recruit, and retain that talent that is representative of our Canadian society.

The recruitment and retention challenges faced by the CAF could have been avoided. New Democrats have called on the government to create and fund a special Canadian Armed Forces program to recruit women and underrepresented groups, as recommended by the Auditor General in 2016.

The government failed to implement the key recommendations of Justice Deschamps' 2015 report. They failed to listen to the report from the Auditor-General in 2018, and they did nothing with the report on this same issue from the Standing Committee on the Status of Women in 2019. New Democrats are calling on the government to implement former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour's recommendations outlined in the latest Independent External Comprehensive Review into Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Harassment.

All women, including women who serve, deserve much better from their government. We need to ensure women who serve can do so equally, and we need to adequately fund the support for women who serve, and the educational programs needed to change the toxic culture within the Forces.

The Canadian Armed Forces must also better respond to mental health issues among its members. On average, the Canadian Armed Forces still lose one serving member per month to death by suicide. The government needs to pass Bill C-206, which would remove self–harm from the military code of conduct as a disciplinary offence. By making this change, the government could show leadership and mark a significant shift in attitude and policy on mental health and provide more funds for mental health support to all CAF members. It needs to start by recognizing that not all injuries are visible, but those invisible injuries are injuries all the same.

Finally, the government needs to tackle the issue of outsourcing and privatization. With the continued privatization of services, we are losing institutional memory, accountability, and control. We can invest intelligently by stopping the outsourcing and privatization of Canadian Forces' maintenance and repair work, traditionally done by either DND employees or regular serving members. The Forces must preserve first-level maintenance capability and support good, stable, public jobs as part of our domestic economic health.

The Government of Canada needs to take the recommendations outlined in this report seriously. Leaving the issues outlined here unchecked will only continue to worsen the problems and challenges faced by members of our Armed Forces. They deserve a government that will take action.