Canadian Forces Welcome First Female Admiral As Chief Reserves And Cadets

[Oldgateboatdriver]

For some reason, there is a Reserve "shadow" organization that seems to mirror the chain of command from top to bottom.  Is this necessary?

It certainly used to be.

There was a time just post unification (approx. 68 to 74) where the reserves (all three) were almost wiped out and turned into mere "re-entry" columns for a nuclear devastated Canada. It was also a dark time for the Reg Force which had to deal with "fixed" budgets and increasing manpower costs that wiped out equipment (69 to 78). It was very easy under those circumstances to cut and steal from the reserves budgets. Thus the need developed for a system whereby reservists at all level could smack their Reg Force counterparts on the side of the head and say "Hellloooooo! I am heeeeere!!!".

Is there still a need with today's total force? I am not in a position to comment intelligently on that subject but I do know from friends still in that there is still a fight to be had, at least in the Navy, between the truly part time reservists and their issues on one hand and the long employment reservists on the other.

If such issues still exist, then the need continues today for such job.

P.s.: IIRC, the first Chief of Reserve and Cadet post was developed for General Richard Rohmer (Air force) and that led to the air reserve getting the Kiowa's. Not necessarily the best of deals - but at least the air reserve got to fly something when they were otherwise about to lose their last aircrafts.

 

[Haggis]

dapaterson, I'm plagiarising your post;

In many cases there is a lack of will to understand the differences between Reg F and Res F.  That assuredly drives needs for differences in policies, reporting, or timelines (or all three). - having a small number of pers to advise on that is useful and they are fairly successful in moving forward some of the issues from the "too hard" pile.

I most stridently beleive that there should be one CF, one policy on each subject for all and one common, well understood employment construct.  But there ain't.  And until the L1's of all stripes have the dedicated horsepower, will and impetus to move Reserve issues forward in a harmonized way (and there are literally dozens of them), they will sit in that "too hard" pile unless someone picks up that file and runs with it.  That's C Res & Cdts.  Until then, we need her and her organization.  Maybe someday we won't.  But today we do.

 

[kratz]

I most stridently beleive that there should be one CF, one policy on each subject for all and one common, well understood employment construct.  But there ain't.  And until the L1's of all stripes have the dedicated horsepower, will and impetus to move Reserve issues forward in a harmonized way (and there are literally dozens of them), they will sit in that "too hard" pile unless someone picks up that file and runs with it.  That's C Res & Cdts.  Until then, we need her and her organization.  Maybe someday we won't.  But today we do.

That's 2 for 2 Haggis. I can only award MilPoints once per day, but I do agree with the point made in your post.

 

[dapaterson]

dapaterson, I'm plagiarising your post;

In many cases there is a lack of will to understand the differences between Reg F and Res F.  That assuredly drives needs for differences in policies, reporting, or timelines (or all three). - having a small number of pers to advise on that is useful and they are fairly successful in moving forward some of the issues from the "too hard" pile.

I most stridently beleive that there should be one CF, one policy on each subject for all and one common, well understood employment construct.  But there ain't.  And until the L1's of all stripes have the dedicated horsepower, will and impetus to move Reserve issues forward in a harmonized way (and there are literally dozens of them), they will sit in that "too hard" pile unless someone picks up that file and runs with it.  That's C Res & Cdts.  Until then, we need her and her organization.  Maybe someday we won't.  But today we do.

So, the solution if someone isn't doing their job isn't to force them to do their job - it's to hire someone else to do the same job.

 

[Haggis]

So, the solution if someone isn't doing their job isn't to force them to do their job - it's to hire someone else to do the same job.

And we've both worked in Ottawa long enough to know that's true for not only the CF and DND but OGDs too. 

If we were to do away with C Res & Cdts today, without setting the conditions (as you described), instead of somebody doing the job, nobody would do the job.  Maybe CF Transformation will finally hold the L1's accountable for championing all of the Reserve issues in a pan-CF context.  Maybe not.

However, if I were a betting man......(you know where I'm going with this)

 

[OldSolduer]

[ soapbox ]

The reason such organziations have arisen is due to staff at various levels declaring reserve issues to be in the "too hard" pile - 

I've heard of this pile, but told years ago by a Captain, who had a lot to do with how I think today, that I wasn't allowed to use it. I refuse to use it.

Anyways, back on topic. Sorry for the digression.