Plan to boost military reserves would focus on emergency relief, Defence Minister says

Minister of National Defence David McGuinty says the mobilization plan is important but not his top priority right now.

A nascent plan to boost Canada’s military reserves by as many as 400,000 is more about building a civil emergency relief force than preparing volunteers for combat operations, Defence Minister David McGuinty says.

General Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defence Staff, has said she hopes to present options to the Carney government by spring for a national mobilization plan in what would be a sweeping expansion of the country’s reserves.

Mr. McGuinty, in a year-end interview, said the mobilization plan is important but not his top-line priority right now. Instead, he said, his chief task is rearming the Canadian Armed Forces with the injection of more than $80-billion ov