Soldiers leaving Canadian Forces over ‘toxic leadership’, top adviser warns

Article content

Canada’s soldiers are leaving the ranks because of toxic military leadership, a top adviser to the chief of the defence staff has warned.

Canadian Forces Chief Warrant Officer Bob McCann highlighted his warning April 23 during an appeal for changes in how leaders dealt with lower ranks.

Article content

Job dissatisfaction and repeated moves to new locations across the country have been cited in past military reports as the top reasons that Canadian Forces personnel leave.

Article content

But McCann, who advises Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre on issues relating to non-commissioned members, said personnel weren’t just quitting because they were being moved to locations they did not want to be.

“A lot of our members leave this organization not necessarily because they are not going where they want to be,” he explained to the audience of officers during a virtual town hall. “They leave because of toxic leadership or bad leadership. This is one aspect that we need to address if we are going to support our members better as they serve.”

Eyre and McCann held the virtual townhall to discuss the Liberal government’s updated defence policy as well as the future direction of the Canadian Forces.

National Defence declined a request to release the video, noting it was for internal use only. But a copy was leaked to this newspaper by military staff who have grown increasingly frustrated with attempts to clamp down on information that could be considered embarrassing to the senior leadership or the Liberal government.

It is common for military leaders to state that the welfare of their personnel is a top priority, but there are concerns in the ranks that such statements constitute only lip service.

Article content

During the townhall, Eyre noted that Canada had become a more urbanized country while the vast majority of the military’s bases and installations were located away from major population centres.

“Enticing members and families who grew up in these larger urban centres to move to these remoter locations is going to be an ongoing challenge, one that we cannot fix by building bases in downtown Toronto, for example, because that is just not reasonable,” Eyre said. “So cracking the code on this is going to be increasingly important.”

Various reports done for the Canadian Forces have cited a desire for “geographic stability” and “job dissatisfaction” as reasons that personnel leave the ranks. Others include the need for more pay and benefits as well as military personnel having issues with senior or unit-level leadership.

In October 2023, this newspaper reported that Canadian Forces personnel were increasingly leaving the ranks rather than moving to new military bases where they couldn’t afford housing.

Brig.-Gen. Virginia Tattersall outlined ongoing problems with military accommodation in a June 14, 2023, briefing to senior staff, adding that Canadian Forces personnel who stayed in one location “have a significant financial advantage relative to members who move most often.”

Article content

“Increasingly, members will release (from the Canadian Forces) rather than relocate to an area they cannot afford or taking a loss on an existing home,” Tattersall’s briefing noted. That document was leaked to this newspaper.

Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis, but some members of the military are particularly vulnerable as they are required to move around the country often for their jobs.

Military personnel who move more frequently are exposed to “to higher prices and rates more often,” Tattersall’s briefing said.

“Average cost to purchase or rent housing now exceeds incomes of several CAF working-rank levels,” she added.

Military personnel are increasingly becoming frustrated with the lack of action by the Canadian Forces senior leadership on the housing situation, defence sources say.

In 2022, Eyre acknowledged that a lack of affordable housing had emerged as one of the main complaints made by military personnel to senior officers.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

Article content