Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is quietly preparing a massive expansion of Canada’s military and it’s counting on federal and provincial bureaucrats to fill the ranks.A new Department of National Defence (DND) directive, signed May 30, 2025, by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan and Deputy Minister Stefanie Beck, lays out a plan to recruit as many as 300,000 Canadians into a “Defence Mobilization Plan.” That includes thousands of public servants who would be given basic weapons and tactical training and sworn into the military’s Supplementary Reserve..The move comes as Canada’s regular and reserve forces continue to face a recruitment crisis, one so severe that Auditor General Karen Hogan recently warned the military cannot meet its operational needs.According to the directive, bureaucrats who volunteer would receive a one-week crash course in military basics: firearms, truck driving, and drone operations.The training would take place annually, and participants would remain part of the Supplementary Reserve, a little-known wing of the Forces composed mostly of retirees willing to return to duty in an emergency..At present, that reserve has only 4,384 members. Under the new mobilization plan, that number could swell to 300,000.Entry requirements would be loosened. The directive explicitly says the standards would be “less restrictive” than those for the Reserve Force, with relaxed age, physical, and fitness criteria.The recruits would not be issued uniforms, and their service time would not count toward government pensions. However, they would receive medical coverage during training..The focus, according to Carignan and Beck, would be on “basic skills (shoot, move, and communicate; drive a truck; fly a drone).”The directive envisions a “Whole of Society” effort, meaning this mobilization would extend beyond the Department of National Defence. The Privy Council Office, working under Carney’s leadership, would be tasked with leading what the directive calls a new “approach to population engagement” aimed at instilling a “servant culture around sovereignty and public accountability.”In plain language, the government wants every Canadian, not just soldiers, to play a role in defending the country or serving it..DND spokeswoman Andrée-Anne Poulin confirmed that participation would be voluntary “for now,” saying only that planning has begun to explore how an expanded Reserve Force could “contribute to greater national resilience.”Critics may note that “resilience” has become a favourite word among Ottawa bureaucrats for justifying sweeping government-led initiatives in response to crises from pandemics to climate change.To make this mobilization plan a reality, a DND “tiger team” began work June 4 at the department’s Carling Campus in Ottawa..The team is tasked with studying legislative changes, recruitment pathways, and coordination across departments and provinces.Neither DND nor the Forces would say when the full plan might be ready or what emergency might trigger its implementation.The same directive calls for a massive increase to the current Reserve Force, from roughly 23,500 to 100,000 members, a quadrupling of the existing structure. How those new troops would be recruited or trained remains unclear..The directive cites Finland as a model. The Nordic nation requires all men aged 18 to 60 to serve in the military, with women eligible to volunteer. After service, Finns are placed in the reserves, ready to be called up in wartime. This year, Helsinki moved to raise the reserve age limit to 65.Canada’s proposal stops short of conscription, but its nod to Finland’s system has raised eyebrows among some defence observers who say it could be a first step toward mandatory service if voluntary recruitment fails.The document does not say what would trigger the mobilization plan. But the rationale is clear: growing global instability and fears of great-power conflict..In June, Brig.-Gen. Brendan Cook of the Royal Canadian Air Force warned Canada must “rearm” to prepare for a possible war with Russia or China within the next five years. Earlier, former Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre stated bluntly that Canada is already at war with both powers, albeit in the cyber and information domains.Against that backdrop, Beck and Carignan argue that Canada must build “greater resiliency and autonomy on security matters.” But for a country whose armed forces have struggled to meet even NATO’s minimal requirements, critics say the plan to enlist bureaucrats smacks of desperation.The mobilization plan underscores a hard truth: the Canadian military is not ready for a major conflict. Years of underfunding, poor recruitment, and low morale have hollowed out the ranks. The Auditor General’s report in October 2024 found that the Forces still cannot attract or train enough personnel to fill key roles such as pilots and technicians..Now, the Carney government is looking inward to its own bureaucracy to bridge that gap.Whether public servants will trade their laptops for rifles remains to be seen. But the idea that Ottawa is preparing to mobilize hundreds of thousands of Canadians suggests the government sees the world, and Canada’s role in it, changing fast.And if history is any guide, that kind of change rarely stops where it starts.
