Canada will boost pay for military service members by as much as 20 per cent along with a series of benefit increases and bonuses that will be rolled out over the next 12 months, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday.
The plan, which defence officials say includes the most significant pay raise in nearly three decades, is part of Canada’s effort to boost military spending and meet its NATO commitments on the accelerated timeline promised by Carney earlier this year.
“As the demands on our Canadian Armed Forces have increased, their resources and their salaries have not kept pace,” Carney said while flanked by military members at CFB Trenton in Ontario.
“These are the men and women we trust to wear the Maple Leaf, the Canadian flag, and to risk their lives for it their pay — your pay — should reflect the weight of your responsibilities.”
Defence officials said the increased pay and benefits will cost the federal government $2 billion annually, with this year’s funding part of the $9.3-million defence spending injection announced in June that will see Canada’s defence and security budget climb to $62.7 billion by next year.
It also aims to continue boosting recruitment at a time when the military says it is still facing critical shortages in about 40 per cent of its occupations, including some that are essential to military readiness.
What the plan includes
The “significant, pensionable pay raise” will be retroactive to April 1 of this year, the Department of National Defence said, with lower ranks seeing the highest increases.
For privates, sailors and aviators, a regular force member’s starting salary will increase 20 per cent, from $43,368 annually to $52,044. Reserve force members with those same ranks will see a 13 per cent raise.
Regular and reserve force members with ranks of lieutenant-colonel and below will also get a 13 per cent pay increase, and an eight per cent boost will be applied to salaries for regular and reserve force with ranks of colonels and above, which includes captains and above in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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The 20 per cent raise is not for all members across the board as Defence Minister David McGuinty promised in June. Defence officials said at a technical briefing Friday that the package amounts to a 20 per cent increase to overall compensation and benefits, but also reflects the need for a more “strategic and flexible” approach to compensation.
The last time the Canadian Armed Forces saw such a significant pay increase was 1998, the officials noted, although pay structures have been regularly modified since then. Members last received a pay adjustment in 2021.
“This is a generational change in pay for the Canadian Armed Forces,” Carney said at the announcement Friday when asked about McGuinty’s earlier pledge, pointing to the several new benefits and top-ups members will receive.
In addition to the salary raises, military members will get a new annual lump-sum payment based on years of service. The payments range from $2,000 for regular force members who have served between five and 10 years to $6,000 for members with more than two decades of service. The scale for reserve force members is between $400 and $1,200.
A new daily allowance of $45 will also be paid to members deployed to help respond to domestic natural disasters, while members deployed in the Arctic — a top priority for the military — will see a 50 per cent top-up to land duty allowances and a 25 per cent boost in sea duty allowances.
Those will be paid on top of existing environmental allowances that compensate members facing adverse conditions, which will transition from a monthly rate to a flat daily rate of $100 per day under the new payment plan.
The plan additionally includes bonuses for members who enter “stressed” occupations that are facing critical shortages of under 75 per cent employment, which officials said range from vehicle and dental technicians to engineers that help ready ships to get to sea. Those new members will receive $10,000 upon completion of basic training, and then a $20,000 allowance both once qualified in their trade and upon completion of their first contract, provided they continue in their position.
Instructors will also get an incentivizing bonus of $300 per month when posted to a designated military training school. Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School will receive an additional $35 per day they instruct up to $12,000 annually, while instructors at other institutions will get $20 more per day of instruction up to $8,400 per year.
Finally, the new plan changes the allowances for members required to relocate for postings from one based on pay scale to one based on the number of moves. For example, instead of paying out a month’s salary, members will get $13,500 for each of a member’s first three relocations, with the allowance climbing to $27,000 by the seventh move.
Members will also get new annual food, transportation and incidentals allowances when posted to a new location where they cannot be accompanied by their family.
Canada seeks to hit NATO target, boost recruitment
Military recruitment in the regular forces hit a record high this fiscal year, with more than 6,700 new members enrolled, and officials have said they’re seeing increased momentum. However, those gains are offset by the loss of 5,026 members, reflecting a growing retention problem.
Defence officials said the enhanced compensation and benefits will make the military more competitive in recruiting and retention, particularly for entry-level positions.
Carney has vowed to get Canada’s defence budget to meet the two per cent of GDP target for NATO members by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.
Since then, however, NATO members have agreed to a new target of five per cent of GDP, which includes 3.5 per cent in core defence spending and 1.5 per cent on broader defence-related investments like infrastructure, shipbuilding and energy.
Carney said at the NATO leaders’ summit in June that boosting military members’ pay will go a long way to helping Canada meet the new target by 2035 along with the rest of the alliance.
“At the core of our defence investment, of course, are the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces,” Carney said, adding military members “have not been paid to reflect what we are asking them to do.”
“We’re making up for that and level setting that, and that’s an important part of just what we’re doing this year in terms of the increase in defence.”
Retired general Wayne Eyre, Canada’s former chief of the defence staff, told Global News in June that focusing on people and infrastructure was particularly important to restore military capability.
“You can buy all the nice, new, shiny equipment you want, but if you don’t have the people, the infrastructure, the components of readiness that go into making a capability work, it’s useless,” he said on The West Block.
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