OTTAWA — A scathing auditor general's report Tuesday shows Canada's army reserve is in dire straits, with only a fraction of its troops properly trained, equipped and fit for international operations and domestic emergencies. OTTAWA — A scathing auditor general's report Tuesday shows Canada's army reserve is in dire straits, with only a fraction of its troops properly trained, equipped and fit for international operations and domestic emergencies. Michael Ferguson's latest audit conducted a detailed examination of the problems faced by the military's part-time branch and found that even though there are 21,000 positions on the books, only 13,944 reservists are considered active and ready for service. The federal government's stated goal is to have a reserve force of 27,000.

Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, May 2, 2016. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/CP) The audit goes into detail about how National Defence has not only failed to recruit for the part-time force, but also how reservists are quitting at a rate faster than they can be replaced — and are doing so before they are fully trained. "In late 2015, National Defence set a goal to increase the army reserve by 950 soldiers (five per cent) by 2019. In our opinion, this goal will be difficult to achieve given the present rate of attrition," said the audit. The sweeping review also looked at training and found that many reservists don't receive certain basic weapons training, such as the use of a pistol or grenade launcher. They have been woefully unprepared for some duties in combat zones, such as convoy escort and force protection, and ill-equipped for missions at home like responding to forest fires and floods. 'Woefully unprepared' When there is a domestic emergency, reserve units are expected to assemble trained units of up to 600 soldiers, but Ferguson's report noted that they were thrown into the field over the last few years — specifically in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — without everything they needed, including essential items. "When we reviewed these reports, we found many instances of key equipment lacking, such as reconnaissance vehicles, command posts, and communications equipment," the audit said. "We found that the Canadian Army has not defined the list of equipment that all army reserve units should have for training their soldiers and teams for domestic missions. This means that army reserve units may have to rely on other Canadian Armed Forces units to provide this equipment, but we were told that it is often not available." The former Harper government was keen on highlighting the participation of reservists, notably the Canadian Rangers, in annual Arctic exercises. In 2013, it staged a series of photo-ops with then-prime minister Stephen Harper shooting rifles and mingling with the troops, who are drawn from indigenous northern communities.