A Canadian soldier, left, from the International Security Assistance Force stands guard with Afghan soldiers in Mir Bazzar on the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan, May 12, 2009. (Allauddin Khan/Associated Press)

Hundreds of Canadian soldiers will receive a pay raise this month — as much as $18,000 per year in some cases — CBC News has learned.

The military has approved a new allowance for some members of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Troops as well as technicians and support staff who work with the elite troops are eligible for the pay increase.

"When we're looking at the whole command, we're really deploying a special operations task force," said the command's chief of staff, Lt.-Col. Jean-Francois Prevost. "We pick the right capabilities from each one of those units."

The special forces command runs several regiments, and one of Prevost's duties is overseeing administration and support for the elite forces.

One of those units, the secretive Joint Task Force 2, is quite well known, and its soldiers are said to be among the most highly trained in the world. These troops, whose mission is to focus on counter-terrorism and hostage rescue, have received extra pay for years.

Two other special forces units that send their members into the field alongside those commandos will now also start receiving that extra pay.

This includes soldiers with specialized training in handling nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. It also includes commandos who perform the most daring infantry attacks and patrol behind enemy lines. The extra pay ranges from $8,000 to nearly $18,000 a year.

"It's really to be fairly compensated for what we're asking them to do," said Prevost. "It shows our people that we care for them."

Soldiers in these special forces units lead hectic lives and expose themselves to extra levels of deadly risk — whether it be in combat or in training. The new allowance will also be awarded to technicians who work with the units, repairing weapons and equipment and traveling with the assault troops to hotspots around the world.

"So, we're asking from that person a much higher level of skills, in very often much bigger or much more demanding or much riskier environment, and at the same time, a level of readiness that is incomparable to anywhere else in the Canadian forces," said Prevost.

The new allowance will serve as an effective retention tool at a time when special forces skills are in high demand, said Elinor Sloan, a military analyst at Ottawa's Carleton University.

"Special operations forces never used to be so important, and now, they're extremely important, … so especially when you're looking at those areas, it's important to keep those skilled people," Sloan said.