February 2001

We need to communicate! (page 1)

That was the stated theme of the new Chief of the Land Staff (Land Staff used to be called the Army) during his first visit and first address to the Institute. Lieutenant-General Mike Jeffery started his speech to the joint RCMI/Fort York Legion dinner, by saying that over the years, and especially since his new appointment, communicating is the toughest thing a person can do. The General said that, "The reality of human nature is, what I say, and what you hear, will not be the same". Then while christening the ground, he went on to say that the Army is one entity; that during his presentation he would not differentiate between the Regular and the Reserves.

The commander said that despite a recent increase in funding, the Department of National Defence has gone through 14 budget cuts during the last seven years. He added that despite the funding situation, Canadian soldiers have been operationally successful, but we (The Army) are shy about trumpeting that fact. "When we go overseas our allies regularly comment on how well we are trained and how well Canadian soldiers, NCOs, and officers perform". Jeffery added that, "We tend to down play our contribution and our quality, we have been tremendously successful."

Readiness and Capability Levels of the Army

General Jeffery says that the CF is the process of getting more new equipment now than at any time in the last 30 years, "In a sense it is a crisis of riches, because the biggest challenge is absorbing all that new equipment", he said. Training and readiness is not such a good news story, "While we are training very well for the type operations we are undertaking. The biggest challenge is that our collective war fighting skills are starting to erode, they have been for some time." Jeffery added that, "If we do not abate that erosion and reinforce those war fighting skills we risk a serious compromise of our capability in the longer term".

In the area of tasks and resources, there is serious imbalance between the tasks the Army has and the resources the available. Jeffery said, "In short we have got more tasks, training and operational tasks than there the dollars and people to sustain. I will be frank, we can not sustain it for much longer". The bottom line is the Army is short of people, "The Canadian Forces is already well below the 60,000 level, and all of our units are under strength, regular and reserve. He added, "There is a moral fatigue within military, in part due the personnel tempo on the institution and in part due to, what I would call an erosion in confidence and a lack of trust."

Lack of trust

In a remarkably frank public statement for a military bureaucrat, Gen Jeffery said, "As I stand here as Army commander, I know the reality is that many across is military do not have great confidence in me or the senior leadership, and to be blunt, the trust level is not high.

The commander went on to layout out his views on how future world events, changes in social values and demographics in Canada will impact on the Army. "The one thing does not change, is the very nature of human conflict at its base level." Jaffrey said, "The bottom line is, if we cannot put Canadians together, to fight together as team, to keep each other alive, then the institution will not achieve its mission."

LGen Jeffery believes that the Army has been a loose assembly of tribes and individuals. He noted that, "For to long we have been divided, our regimental and tribal groups, rivalries of all nature, always worried more about the tribe, than the Army at large." That is one the reasons he travels across the country to speak to groups. So that there is two-way communication, to develop a common understanding of the challenges and were have to go. After a truncated question period, which at times became quite heated, Gen Jeffery fielded questions and listened to opinions on the ground floor of the Institute.

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