Canadian military hoping to beef up reservists numbers

Canadian army reservists play a key role in providing support to those impacted by wildfires and floods in Alberta.

Back in May, wildfires threatened Alberta communities in northern and central Alberta.

A total of 135 volunteers were deployed to Drayton Valley to protect the community.

Colonel Christopher Hunt, the commander of the 41 Canadian Brigade Group, stopped by Lethbridge to explain how the military is looking to hire over 300 reservists between now and the end of the year.

“With the demands we’re seeing for domestic operations at home, as well as increased NATO commitments overseas, we need to hire more reservists. We need to grow the army. We’ll be doing that by offering employment in a wide range of occupations. So within the brigade, we’ve got a couple of dozen different occupations, from combat soldiers to human resource administrators to communications specialists to vehicle mechanics. I’d encourage people to go to forces.ca where they can learn more about those employment opportunities. Typically, the training can be done part time with elements of full time service and the more technical courses, and then people can serve from their hometowns.”

Caroline Patton, the Alberta Chair of the Canadian Forces Liaison Council offered details as to some of the supports available that reservists can tap into.

“One of the keys to success for reservists is employers and the agility that they can have when a reservist needs to deploy for training or whether they need to deploy domestic or international. And one of the best ways they can do that is with a new program which is called With Glowing Hearts, and it’s available at canada.ca/withglowinghearts.”

The 41 Canadian Brigade Group has about 1,700 Reserve soldiers in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer Calgary, Edmonton, and even some in Yellowknife.