The Canadian Armed Forces has received more than 21,000 applications from permanent residents eager to join the chronically understaffed military full time — but CBC News has learned that less than 100 of them have made it into the regular force in the year since they were allowed to sign up.Permanent resident Jamal Ludin prepares for his aptitude test at the Canadian Armed Forces recruitment office in Ottawa.
And of the 6,928 permanent residents who applied to join the navy, army and air force reserves, just 76 were accepted between Nov. 1, 2022 and Jan. 26, 2024, the department told CBC News.Military personnel shortage will get worse before it gets better, top soldier says "Certainly it's frustrating, and we field those frustrations from candidates and from Canadians and from our own chain of command all the time," she told CBC News.Brodie said permanent residents are told when they apply that it can take 18 to 24 months for Canada's security agencies to handle their files because they can require an "additional level of security screening" due to "foreign implications.
"Multiple Government of Canada departments are involved in processing the files of permanent residents to join the Canadian Armed Forces — and we will be working with other government departments to ensure that more permanent residents of Canada can join the CAF," defence department spokesperson Alex Tétreault said in a statement to CBC News.
"We do lose some applicants to the pre-security clearance form just because it is a lengthy time," she said. "But we do keep in contact with them. We try to say, 'Hey, your file is still open, this is still going, are you still interested?' So we try to keep them engaged." Faced with long delays, about 15,000 permanent residents applying for the regular forces have lost interest in serving, the military said.Brodie said, calling it an "exciting number for us to work with."
Ludin is from Afghanistan; he escaped aboard a military plane when Kabul fell in 2021 to the Taliban. After living in a NATO camp in Albania, he came to Canada in May 2022.