A growing number of volunteers are walking away from the Canadian Armed Forces as crushing housing shortages, soaring costs and a lack of basic health care make military life untenable, according to a newly released internal report that paints a bleak picture of life in uniform.Blacklock's Reporter says the Evaluation Of Canadian Armed Forces Retention found more than 10% of CAF members were relocated in 2024, often into communities where housing was scarce and unaffordable. Researchers warned that high costs, limited military housing, spousal job losses, scarce primary-care providers and daycare shortages were driving members to leave rather than uproot their families again.At one army base, the daycare waitlist stretched to an astonishing 32 months. Families waited behind 1,658 others just to see a doctor. Housing waitlists were even longer, creating what the report described as financial and personal hardship for serving members..Dual-income families are now the norm, and military moves often mean the loss of that essential second paycheque, researchers wrote. Combine that with the need to repeatedly find new doctors and new childcare, and many young parents in the lower ranks — who already face a 9.4% attrition rate — choose to quit instead.The release of the internal report follows a damning October 21 audit from Auditor General Karen Hogan, who found military housing conditions so poor some units were unfit for human habitation. Hogan said her team inspected 45 buildings across three bases, many averaging more than 60 years old. One was built in 1930. Toilets didn’t work, exterior walls were damaged and living space frequently fell below the military’s own standards..Her audit, Housing Canadian Armed Forces Members, found 3,706 military personnel on waiting lists for just 205 available residential units. Many quarters were cramped, deteriorating and in desperate need of repair.The Armed Forces is the country’s second-largest landlord after Public Works, overseeing 21,000 buildings. A 2024 Audit Of Defence Infrastructure said roughly 25% of CAF facilities are more than half a century old and require major maintenance, upgrades or full replacement just to meet basic health, safety and environmental rules.With retention already collapsing and infrastructure crumbling, the report warns the Armed Forces cannot rebuild its ranks without fixing the housing and health-care mess driving troops out the door.
