Defence Team

Description

Recruit, develop and support an agile and diverse Defence Team, within a healthy workplace free from harmful behaviour; support military families; and meet the needs of all retiring military personnel, including the ill and injured. Strengthen Canadian communities by investing in youth. 

Planning highlights

People continue to be at the core of everything the Defence Team does to ensure Canada remains strong, secure and engaged in the world. Our mission success depends on having healthy, resilient, well-trained, and motivated personnel supported by talented and dedicated defence civilians working within the Department of National Defence (DND). This integrated civilian-military Defence Team is the heart of our institution.

Looking forward, we will consolidate our successes and continue working to ensure that the entire Defence Team has the care, services and support it requires in a workplace free from both harassment and discrimination. The varied challenges of the present day confirm our goal of assembling a Defence Team that supports wide-ranging perspectives, cultural and linguistic diversity, gender balance, age, and other unique traits. By building a Defence Team with these characteristics we will be better able to respond effectively. Doing so will be central to attracting and retaining the people we need to ensure the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and DND are successful into the future. Investing in our people is the single most important commitment we can make, and our focus on our people must be unwavering throughout their entire careers within the Defence Team.

The CAF has a commitment not only to our members, but to their families as well. Our people serve in complex environments which can pose a high threat level. We will continue to deliver essential programs and services to give our troops comfort knowing their families are being looked after. We will also listen, and adapt, ensuring that new programs are reflective of the needs and concerns of our members.

National Defence has a long and proud history of supporting youth through the Cadet and Junior Canadian Rangers programs. DND is committed to strengthening support and expanding the reach of these important programs so more Canadian youth can experience these positive youth development opportunities and continue to strengthen communities across Canada.

Key Corporate Risk(s)

One DND/CAF key corporate risk can be associated with the Defence Team core responsibility. That is: there is a risk that the CAF and DND will not have the right military and civilian personnel, in the right numbers, with the right competencies, at the right place, and at the right time. This risk is prevented and mitigated through the activities of each Departmental Result below.

Departmental Result 3.1 – Canadian Armed Forces is growing towards its end state of 101,500 personnel

• Reduce significantly the time to enroll in the CAF by reforming all aspects of military recruiting.
• Implement a recruitment campaign to promote the unique full- and part-time career opportunities offered by the CAF, as well as to support key recruitment priorities, including hiring more women, increasing diversity, addressing priority/threshold occupations and the Reserve Force.
• Increase the capacity of the Canadian Armed Forces Leadership and Recruit School and follow-up with training institutions to shorten time for when a member is employable and deployable in their occupation.
• Restore the Royal Military College St-Jean as a full degree-granting institution to help prepare the next generation of leaders in the CAF and in anticipation of an increased number of recruits and officer candidates associated with a larger force size.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive CAF Retention Strategy to keep our talented people in uniform.

Planned results

Departmental Result 3.2 – The health and well-being of the Defence team is well supported

• Move toward the Modernized Canadian Forces Health Services Group structure, in order to better meet the health care needs of CAF members both at home and when deployed on operations.
• Optimize health care resources through the implementation of a new management structure and enhancing Health Service’s ability to monitor and improve health system performance and health care quality.
• Improve specific Health Services capabilities in support of Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) initiatives. This includes enhancing Health Service’s ability to provide health care coordination to CAF members during their transition out of uniform.
• Enhance Health Services capabilities to support concurrent CAF operations as directed by SSE.
• Through an integrated and personalized service delivery model, the newly established CAF Transition Group will continue to develop policies and procedures that will provide standardized, high quality, consistent, personal, and administrative support to CAF personnel. Support will be provided during all phases of recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration on return to service or transition to release for all injured and ill CAF personnel, former personnel, their families, and the families of the deceased.
• Enhance Civilian Total Health and Wellness through the Office of Disability Management, which provides support to ill, injured and impaired employees and their managers. Develop, implement and support additional programs and tools that promote employee well-being and psychologically healthy workplaces, such as the Employee Assistance Program^{Footnote xxxiii} and counselling.
• Develop and implement a more comprehensive well-being survey mechanism that enables a better/fuller understanding of the Defence Team well-being.

Planned results

Departmental Result 3.3 – The Defence team reflects the values and diversity of Canadian society

• Continue to implement the ten recommendations of the Deschamps Report through Operation HONOUR.
• Provide a full range of victim and survivor support services to CAF members.
• The CAF Employment Equity Plan, and the Diversity Strategy and Action Plan will reflect the diversity and inclusion values of Canadian society. The CAF Diversity Strategy and Action Plan will be updated towards this objective.
• Implement the Employment Equity Plan that identifies and addresses significant employment equity gaps across the department by setting clear objectives.
• Continue to implement the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for the Executive Community that demonstrates progress to address employment equity and diversity gaps at the most senior levels of the department, particularly via recruitment and talent management initiatives.
• Identify three to four actions that each organization within DND/CAF can undertake to demonstrate progress on implementing diversity and inclusion via their human resources management practices.
• Identify opportunities to support diversity and inclusion throughout the recruitment process and remove systemic barriers from a human resources perspective.

Planned results

Departmental Result 3.4 – Military families are supported and resilient

• DND/CAF will ensure necessities of national and local services and programs to enhance the well-being of military families through the Military Family Services Program that empower and encourage strong independent individuals and families. In FY 2019-20, the Military Family Services Program will be assessed to align service delivery with family needs by updating Military Family Resource Centre governance, establishing formalized partnerships for emerging family requirements, and redistributing resources to balance needs and outcomes.
• Family resilience is achieved through community engagement that revolves around the intimate relationship between the CAF, Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services, Military Family Resource Centres, and collaborations with external partners in actively supporting the unique challenges associated with the military lifestyle. In the upcoming FY, focus will be placed on community and provincial engagement and stakeholder alignments to address a Seamless Canada philosophy.
• Building on the Comprehensive Military Family Plan framework, resources, services, and outcomes will be aligned in order to enhance the Military Family Services Program. In FY 2019-20, DND/CAF will seek to enhance the areas of mental health, children and youth services, family resilience, employment support, deployment services, relocation support, special needs and access to health care. In addition, teams will be formalized at wings and bases across Canada to prevent and respond to gender-based and intimate partner violence.

Planned results

Departmental Result 3.5 – Youth in Canada are provided with experience and opportunities that enable a successful transition to adulthood

• In cooperation with our partner organizations, present a unified voice in our marketing and communications activities; expand our reach and awareness both within the department, and with external influencers, stakeholders and target audiences.
• Enable our programs to recognize trends in youth programming and development, and capitalize on our agility and flexibility to deliver world-class opportunities and experiences for youth.
• Continue to seek out, develop and further operationalize strategic relationships with key organizations such as the National Youth Serving Agencies, Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award – Canada, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, to integrate best practices and programming, and find overlapping or parallel opportunities to deliver the best youth program value to Canadians.

EXPERIENCES YOU CAN’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE

The Cadet and Junior Canadian Rangers Programs are world class youth engagement programs based on solid fundamentals and possessing a proud and valued legacy. There are five defining principles which characterize these programs; Invite all Canadian Youth; Instil Canadian Military Values; Develop Citizenship, Leadership, and Fitness; Balance Safety and Challenge; and Leave a Positive Lifelong Impact. These programs contribute greatly to the development of several thousands of young Canadians from diverse backgrounds life by providing them with exhilarating and unique experiences you simply can’t get anywhere else.

Photo: An Army Cadet passes the Torch of Remembrance to a Veteran during the Vimy Ceremony held at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario on 8 April 2018.

Planned results

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)