More and more members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are choosing to leave their ranks rather than having to move to a military base where the cost of living is out of reach.
In a briefing to senior staff, Brig.-Gen. Virginia Tattersall warned of an ongoing problem facing the CAF; affordable housing for personnel.
In June, Tattersall noted that CAF members who are able to stay in one location “have a significant financial advantage relative to members who move most often.”
“Increasingly, members will release (from the Canadian Forces) rather than relocate to an area they cannot afford or taking a loss on an existing home,” reads the briefing, which was later leaked to the National Post.
The entire country is facing a housing crisis and CAF personnel are no exception.
Moreover, the crisis has made some members particularly vulnerable as their jobs often force them to move around Canada, which exposes them “to higher prices and rates more often.”
“Average cost to purchase or rent housing now exceeds incomes of several CAF working rank levels,” reads Tattersall’s briefing.
Defence sources have said that frustration over a lack of support regarding the housing situation is growing within military personnel, who expect more action from CAF senior leadership.
The issue was acknowledged as one of the leading complaints from CAF members last year by Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre.
Currently, there are 12,000 units owned by the CAF, but they also have 28,000 occupants residing in military housing.
The Canadian Forces Housing Agency (CFHA) “effectively manages the largest housing portfolio in the Government of Canada at 27 locations across the country,” said one defence source.
Nearly 4,500 military members are currently on the CFHA wait list for accommodations and an additional 5,000 housing units will be required to be built across Canada to meet the demand.
This has prompted the CFHA to move its resources from maintaining existing housing units to building new ones, with some of the earliest construction projects to begin in Edmonton.
The shift in resources will still come with a price, warned assistant deputy minister for Infrastructure and Environment Rob Chambers, who said the cost will be “in the form of a deterioration of the existing portfolio and less improvements and modernization to existing” housing units for personnel.
An internal National Defence review warned the CFHA about the state of the 12,000 housing units in its portfolio last year, giving almost one in five units a “below average” rating.
Additionally, changes to the military’s housing allowance have presented new problems for soldiers depending on where they are posted, leading to more wanting to be released from the military so they can avoid being posted in unaffordable locations.
