Military hits 30-year recruitment high but still falls short in key trades

OTTAWA — The Canadian military just had a banner year for recruitment -- but not enough for the defence minister to declare an end to what his predecessor called a personnel “death spiral.”

Military recruitment hit a three-decade high when the Canadian Armed Forces brought in 7,310 new members over the past year, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Monday.

That’s roughly 600 more than the previous year, when the military brought in 6,710 recruits.

McGuinty touted a surge in enlistment applications Monday morning -- just hours before a House of Commons committee heard testimony about how the Canadian Armed Forces has struggled to keep applicants from dropping out of the recruitment process.

The minister said the armed forces received more than 44,000 applications to join the regular force over the past year, 62 per cent more than the year before.

The last minister of defence, Bill Blair, said in 2024 the Canadian Armed Forces was locked in a personnel “death spiral.”

When asked about that stark assessment and whether the military’s recruitment woes are over, McGuinty said he “wouldn’t characterize today as anything but very positive news.”

“This is a very good news story for Canada. It shows that we are making progress. There’s more work to be done,” he said.

McGuinty said new recruits he speaks with tell him they “want to see Canada remain secure and sovereign.” He never said explicitly whether higher recruitment is being driven in part by U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for Canada’s annexation.

Military brass also shied away from the annexation question.

“Everybody joins for their own personal reasons,” said Lt.-Gen. Erick Simoneau, chief of military personnel, during an online briefing.

“Is it the economy? Is it their relationship with our partner to the south? Is it the critical occupation recruiting allowance? It’s probably all of those, but we don’t have a survey in particular on this.”

The minister credited the military pay hike announced last summer and changes to medical requirements for enlistment for helping to push up the numbers.

“The pay package, the standards that we brought to bear, the streamlining of the application process, the improvements we’ve made on the medical requirements -- all of these things are beginning to bear fruit,” McGuinty said.

McGuinty said that while the overall size of the military is growing, it remains some 3,600 regular force members short of its full authorized strength. Attrition stood at 8.5 per cent over the last fiscal year, according to National Defence.

Just a few hours after McGuinty’s media briefing Monday, a House of Commons committee heard from the auditor general’s office about a series of problems that have plagued recruitment in recent years.

Deputy Auditor General Andrew Hayes told the House of Commons public accounts committee that tens of thousands of applicants attempted to join the Canadian Armed Forces from 2022 to 2025 -- but only one in 13 ever made it to basic training.

A high number of candidates withdrew and the military never figured out why they were leaving, he said.

“Without understanding why applicants are dropping out, the forces does not know what changes are needed to increase the number of successful candidates,” Hayes told the committee.

“In the absence of a sufficient number of highly qualified recruits, including pilots and arms technicians, the armed forces, the navy and air force will have difficulty responding efficiently to threats, emergency situations and conflicts.”

Deputy Minister of Defence Christiane Fox said the department has launched an online portal to collect better data on why potential recruits are “dropping off” and will start conducting exit interviews.

“We are seized with this because it is a gap if we don’t know why people are leaving,” Fox said.

McGuinty acknowledged the military is still facing shortages in specific trades, such as weapons engineer technicians and marine technicians.

Internal statistics show recruitment falling behind targets for those two categories, while other trades, such as combat medics and aerospace communications techs, beat their targets.

National Defence sets all of its own targets and did not provide current personnel numbers for stressed trades.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press