Family issues, desk jobs prompting exodus of RCAF fighter pilots

DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN

The Auditor General's recent report on fighter pilots leaving the Royal Canadian Air Force sparked a lot of speculation on why that was happening.

One of the claims made on social media was the pilots were leaving because the Canadian government didn't go ahead with the purchase of new fighter jets, specifically the F-35.

This seems to be a brilliant piece of marketing by F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin and shopped around with glee by F-35 supporters.

Unfortunately reality sometimes has a way of shooting down such bogus claims.

RCAF commander Lt.-Gen. Al Meinzinger outlined for Members of Parliament recently the real reasons behind the fighter pilots leaving.

“Certainly the feedback from those who are releasing is it's a question of family, challenges for their family,” Meinzinger explained to the Public Accounts committee. “There's a dimension of ops tempo, work-life balance, predictability in terms of geographical location, and then typically fifth or sixth are comments about financial remuneration.”

“We find that, unless there's a degree of predictability and positive career management over that individual, we often find individuals who are vexed,” Meinzinger further explained. “They come up to a point where they may not have anticipated they were going to move, or we're asking them to move their family to a location where perhaps their spouse cannot find employment.”

Another factor is that some fighter pilots are not happy being streamed into administrative jobs. They want to keep flying. “We find a lot of individuals often don't wish to move to headquarters and work in an office versus work in an aircraft,” the RCAF commander acknowledged. “We recognize that and respect it. But that dialogue, which must happen at the margin, before we force an individual to move, is very, very important.”

Not one mention of Canada not having the F-35 or any other new fighter jet.

The geographic location aspect has played into retention issues affecting other organizations supporting the RCAF.

The federal government will create a new centre of excellence in Ottawa to support aircraft testing, a move that affects the Canadian military's Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, or AETE, which has been at Cold Lake, Alta. since 1971. Under the new plan AETE would be relocated to the international airport in Ottawa and partnered with the National Research Council Flight Research Laboratory and Transport Canada Aircraft Services Directorate to create a centre of excellence for flight testing and evaluation.

Moving AETE will save $14 million a year and free up space for the arrival of more fighter jets at Cold Lake.

But defence industry officials were briefed earlier on one of the other aspects behind the move. That involves the difficulty in attracting civilian researchers and trained support staff to Cold Lake and retaining the military personnel that were transferred there. A move of the facility to a larger centre, less isolated and where spouses can find employment, is expected to help solve recruitment and retention issues for this organization.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/family-issues-desk-jobs-prompting-exodus-of-rcaf-fighter-pilots