Open house showcases hundreds of army reserve jobs in Nova Scotia

Hundreds of jobs in the army reserve in Nova Scotia are sitting empty, and some of them could disappear from the area if recruitment efforts aren't successful enough.

Military brass promoted the jobs at open house on Saturday in Sydney, N.S., and Halifax. There were about 100 such events taking place at armouries across the country as part of a national recruitment campaign.

The Cape Breton jobs are all part time, said commanding officer Lt.-Col. Keith Rudderham of the Cape Breton Highlanders Battalion, adding that 300 people could "easily" be hired.

"The pressure is on to fill them, because if we don't fill them, there's a possibility those positions may move elsewhere in the country where recruiting is going better," Rudderham said.

Another officer at Victoria Park in Sydney, Maj. Jason Doyle, said the opportunities cover a wide range of work.

"Everything from infanteers [soldiers] to cooks to mechanics. We have so many different job opportunities for everyone, and we want to be able to showcase that," he said.

Tradespeople, people with various technical skills, engineers and those with communications training are just some of the types of applicants in demand.

About 1,000 vacancies in N.S.

Hundreds of people in Halifax had the chance to see first-hand what some of these reservists do. Kids sat in the driver's seat of large army vehicles, while others had the chance to hold a rifle.

Lt.-Col. Andrew Morrison is the commanding officer of 36 Signal Regiment, which provides communications to the army to control and manoeuvre its troops in the field.

Morrison was busy demonstrating some of the radio equipment capabilities on Saturday. He said there are about 100 people currently in 36 Signal Regiment, but they have room for 300.

"Right now we have nearly 200 vacancies, and that's just in our regiment. If you looked at all the units in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, there's 10, together we have about 1,000 vacancies," he said.

Numbers dropping

There are approximately 21,000 army reservist positions in Canada. The reserve lost about five per cent, or about 1,000 soldiers per year between the 2012-13 and 2014-15 fiscal years.

Col. Thomas Mackay, director of the Canadian Army Reserves, attributes the shrinking force over the past decade in part to a strong economy that offered part-time reservists other opportunities, as well as the end of the Afghanistan mission.

"After the Afghanistan mission ended, I think there was a period where a lot of soldiers probably looked around and said, 'Well, that might have been the best [mission] we were going to have, and now there's nothing on the horizon,'" Mackay said. 

He also said the reserve hasn't always prepared recruits adequately or challenged them enough.

"You know, these are all volunteers — they can leave the force any time," Mackay said. "If the training isn't delivering to their expectations, if they're not getting the experience that they hoped to get out of the institution, then yes, the person is likely to leave."

Application process streamlined

Lt.-Col. Rudderham told CBC's Mainstreet that a new strategy is being piloted in Cape Breton to entice more people into the army reserve system, noting that the orientation process in the past was too time-consuming.

"By the time we got them through the system, in the old days, they would already have another job," Rudderham said.

He explained that the program has been streamlined to fast-track applicants. Fitness tests, aptitude tests and medicals are done right away "with the aim of getting them in within 30 days and in some cases even shorter than that," he said.

Applicants must commit to a minimum of one evening a week and one weekend a month to be considered for any of the jobs. Anyone between the ages of 16 and 58 is eligible to apply, said Doyle.

Education opportunities

Education opportunities exist through employment in the army reserve, Doyle said.

"Grade 11 and 12 students can receive one high school credit by taking the army reserve training and get paid for it at the same time," he said.

Beyond that, there is a post-secondary education tuition program through which the Canadian Armed Forces will pay $2,000 a year toward a student's tuition to a maximum of $8,000.

He explained that the basic training course follows the applicant's acceptance to the army reserve. The 25-day program can be done over a period of time in cases where the person is available for only two or three days a week. 

Security, medical checks

Despite the push to get applicants into the system in a more timely fashion, it's not going to be fast for everyone, said Rudderham.

"The big thing that slows people down are security checks and medical checks."

He added that security clearance is relatively quick "if you have an easily traceable background, not being in trouble with the law, and are physically fit. If your mother and father are in the Hell's Angels, it's gonna take a long time to get in," he said.

Rudderham said recent immigrants to Canada are welcome to apply, but they need to understand that because they come from another country, it will almost certainly take some time to do a thorough background search.

Once a person has become an army reservist, he or she is not required to take a post overseas. 

"Unless they volunteer, they will not be sent overseas," he said.

Rudderham said the Cape Breton Highlanders have a lot to offer and he encourages people to come out and ask questions.

"We promise to excite them, give them things that they don't think they can do, and through coaching and mentoring they'll be quite capable of doing things they thought were impossible before they joined," he said.