Auditor's report finds that some armed forces living accommodations lack safe drinking water

OTTAWA — Not only has the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) not recruited and trained the members it needs to meet its operational requirements, but the living accommodations of the existing CAF members have been found to lack basics like safe drinking water.

These are some of the latest findings in two alarming reports tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday by Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan. She based the conclusions of her audits on government data spanning the last two or three years.

“I think my two reports today highlighted that the Canadian Armed Forces isn’t recruiting enough members when only one in 13 who apply… make it to basic training, and then they don’t have enough housing for them. So, this is going to impact retention,” she said.

Hogan’s report on CAF recruitment revealed that nearly 192,000 people applied to join the CAF between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2025. Of that number, only 15,000 new recruits successfully joined the forces — falling short of the CAF’s target by about 4,700 recruits.

“It’s not due to a lack of interest,” said Hogan in French during a press conference.

The CAF failed to meet its overall recruitment targets in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 fiscal years, according to the report, but slightly surpassed its target in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

Hogan also found that, of the nearly 192,000 people who applied to join the military, more than half — 54 per cent or around 103,7000 — either voluntarily withdrew from or during the recruitment process or simply did not respond to the CAF’s outreach efforts.

However, the audit found the CAF did not conduct analyses to understand exactly why applicants had decided to drop out along the way.

“Without knowing why applicants left, it was difficult for the Canadian Armed Forces to identify what was needed to increase the number of applicants who complete the recruitment process,” read the report.

Even though recruitment has been slightly higher in the last year, the CAF’s internal analysis from 2024 predicts that 13 per cent of occupations are at risk of not reaching the minimum of 90 per cent authorized staffing levels unless “key challenges” are addressed.

Examples of these in-demand roles include pilots, combat engineers, and a number of technician roles — for aircraft structures, ammunition, aerospace telecommunications and information systems, among others.

“This could affect the army, navy and air force’s ability to respond to threats, emergencies or conflicts and accomplish their missions,” said Hogan.

Hogan noted in her report that the CAF has already highlighted these positions on its website as being more in demand and provided incentives, such as signing bonuses.

In a separate report, the Auditor General found that the Department of National Defence (DND) could be doing a lot more to ensure that CAF members have proper living accommodation that responds to their needs and the needs of their families.

“National Defence’s own research has shown that housing is an issue that can negatively affect the well-being of military families, with impacts on retention,” reads the report.

The Canadian Forces Housing Agency maintains approximately 11,700 residential housing units on bases and wings across the country. The CAF bases also maintain 26,000 bed spaces in 318 buildings that may be used for training courses or short-term assignments.

Hogan’s audit found that DND did not always provide bed spaces that met its own standards. Her team visited quarters that had issues such as insufficient living space, which could result in overcrowding, and a lack of modern amenities such as wi-fi access.

Her team also found that many of DND’s buildings are old, and present significant issues.

“Some of the issues we observed included quarters buildings that lacked potable water, had malfunctioning sanitary waste systems, or had deteriorating exterior walls,” reads the report.

Overall, the audit found that 25 per cent of living quarters needed “major repairs” or did not meet the operational needs of DND or CAF members staying in them.

Speaking to the press, Hogan described those buildings presenting “the kind of conditions that you and I wouldn’t want to live in, and the kind of conditions I don’t think we should expect members of our Canadian Armed Forces to live in.”

More generally, there is a severe lack of units to meet the CAF’s needs, and that problem will only keep growing for future recruits. In spring of 2025, Hogan found that there were only 205 residential housing units available, while 3,706 applicants were still on wait lists.

“To meet operational needs, Canadian Armed Forces members can be required to move frequently. It is important for their morale and well-being that they can access affordable housing in good condition with sufficient living space for their needs,” reads the report.

The audit also found that the Canadian Forces Housing Agency — which manages those residential units — made mistakes in how it processed and prioritized applications.

In many cases, the wrong household size was entered in the agency’s system, resulting in further delays in getting the right unit, or agency staff assigned the wrong priority level to applicants, resulting in low-level priority applicants getting units before high-priority ones.

The agency is expected to spend $2.2 billion over 19 years to build 1,400 new residential units and renovate 2,500 more. DND has also been exploring options to obtain additional housing, such as partnering with the private sector to develop housing for the military.

However, the audit found that many of these initiatives are at different stages of implementation and have not yet been funded. The updated assessments also do not take into account the CAF’s plans to expand their forces to 71,500 members by 2028-2029.

Defence Minister David McGuinty said the period that the Auditor General’s team examined ended several months before the “new” Liberal government was formed and said that work is ongoing to improve CAF members’ recruitment and living accommodations.

“For decades now, governments, successively, have not been making the investments we need to make in our armed forces. We’re doing that,” he said.

McGuinty said he was aware that there is lead in some of the CAF’s water systems.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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