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OTTAWA \u2014 Many of the living spaces used by Canadian Armed Forces members at several bases are in \u201cpoor physical condition\u201d and ripe for overcrowding, Auditor General Karen Hogan said in a report released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Hogan and her team examined living conditions on three Canadian Forces bases: Esquimalt in British Columbia, Gagetown in New Brunswick and Trenton in Ontario.<\/p>\n
Hogan said the buildings her team inspected were aging and decrepit \u2014 the oldest dates back to the Great Depression \u2014 and 32 of 35 need at least one high-priority repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might mean that building didn\u2019t have safe drinking water\u2026toilets weren\u2019t working, or there was structural damage to the exterior walls of the building,\u201d Hogan told a news conference after the report\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
These are \u201cthe kind of conditions that you and I wouldn\u2019t want to live in, and the kind of conditions I don\u2019t think we should expect our Canadian Armed Forces to live in,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The report said National Defence\u2019s own data suggests at least 25 per cent of its quarters need major repairs or do not meet operational needs. She also called out the department for failing to meet its own spending goals on infrastructure maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working actively to improve all of that,\u201d Defence Minister David McGuinty said when, after the report\u2019s release, a reporter asked him if he would live in base housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made the single largest investment in Canadian Armed Forces in a generation. We\u2019ve made major pay increases\u2026part of the package to recruit and retain young soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is long overdue. For decades now, governments successively have not been making the investments we need to make in our armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGuinty also acknowledged problems with lead in some of the base housing water systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have work to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The audit looked at living quarters managed by individual bases and houses managed by the Canadian Forces Housing Agency.<\/p>\n
The audit said the agency does not have enough housing units to meet the military\u2019s needs \u2014 just as the Canadian Armed Forces is looking to add more than 6,000 new members by April 2029.<\/p>\n
The military had just 205 residential housing units available in the spring, with 3,706 applicants on waiting lists.<\/p>\n
Discussion groups Hogan\u2019s office arranged with service members also heard from many who were unhappy with a 2024 policy change that gives new recruits priority access to the available residential housing stock.<\/p>\n
It found National Defence did not evaluate the potential impacts of the policy change and whether it could undermine efforts to retain longer-serving members.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the number of new members that need to be added to bring the Canadian Armed Forces up to full strength and the fact that the stock of residential housing units did not grow substantially during the past two fiscal years, there is a risk that longer-serving members will be at a lower priority for residential housing units,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
In a separate report on recruitment, Hogan said the military is not bringing in enough new people to meet its operational needs \u2014 and National Defence doesn\u2019t always know why potential recruits ultimately abandon their applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Canadian Armed Forces continued to have challenges attracting and training enough highly skilled recruits to staff many occupations such as pilots and ammunition technicians,\u201d Hogan said.<\/p>\n
Only one out of every 13 Canadians who applied online to join the armed forces over the three year audit period was successfully recruited, the auditor general reported.<\/p>\n
The CAF received 192,000 online applications from 2022 to 2025, but 54 per cent of applicants voluntarily withdrew within two months of applying.<\/p>\n
The military has committed to recruiting more permanent residents. While the number of permanent resident recruits did increase over the audit period, only 2 per cent of permanent residents who applied were recruited, compared to 10 per cent of applicants who were Canadian citizens.<\/p>\n
The CAF\u2019s target timeline for recruitment is between 100 and 150 days. The audit found the recruitment process actually takes twice as long, and the security screening backlog increased over the three-year audit period from 20,000 to nearly 23,000 potential recruits.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Armed Forces sought to bring in more than 19,700 new recruits over the course of the audit period, but fell short by 4,700.<\/p>\n
McGuinty defended his department, saying National Defence has made strides in overhauling its recruitment system over the past year.<\/p>\n
The military did surpass its recruitment target in the last fiscal year by 210 people.<\/p>\n
But the report warns it doesn\u2019t have the capacity to train everyone it brings in if it also meets its recruitment targets.<\/p>\n
That pressure has forced the CAF to hire temporary instructors. The audit warns future training is in jeopardy due to a training instructor shortage likely caused by \u201cinsufficient incentives and a demanding workload,\u201d combined with persistent equipment shortages.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 The Canadian Press<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n