Canada's mission in Afghanistan has put the Canadian army under so much strain that it is relying increasingly on reservists to sign on as full-time soldiers, the head of the army told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of the Canadian army, told the House of Commons defence committee that to complete the mission in Kandahar, which is slated to run until February 2009, the army will have to draw on reservists.

Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, seen here in Afghanistan, told a commons committee in Ottawa that reservists will be key to maintaining Canada's deployment in Kandahar.
SGT FRANK HUDEC

"The army, right now, can do that which it was told to do. But it's tough," Leslie said. "I'm pretty confident the reserves will answer the call and get us through this transition period."

Most of the Canadian Forces' 18,000 reservists either work full-time in civilian jobs or are full-time students.

Leslie said the army is trying to persuade about 1,500 of them to sign on for two to three years of full-time duty. About 300 reservists are currently serving in Kandahar. By February 2008, he said he expects that number to double.

Leslie said he hopes the strain that is being put on the army because of Afghanistan will ease as more recruits become fully trained and join units in the regular force. But he said it takes about 18 months to train a new soldier for combat duty.

"We obviously have a little gap," he said. "And that gap is going to be filled by persons such as myself and the minister and the chief of defence staff asking reservists to contribute in more numbers than they have done so in the past."

Canada has more than 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, the majority stationed in Kandahar. Canada first sent troops to the troubled country in early 2002.

According to the Canadian Press, Leslie also told the defence committee that the Canadian Forces is relying on civilian help to prepare recruits for war.

That means civilians are training recruits, including in such areas as learning to drive armoured vehicles. Junior officers and non-commissioned officers, who do most of the training of the army, are in short supply and therefore training has had to be outsourced.

Recently, Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, suggested the Canadian Forces would try to "re-role" some personnel to deal with the stress that the Afghan mission is placing on the forces.

That would mean personnel from the navy and air force would be transferred to the army and deployed overseas in non-combat roles so more soldiers in the infantry could be freed up for combat.