Article content

The Canadian Forces says it is bringing in new initiatives to boost the numbers of pilots and the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk recently outlined some of those for Members of Parliament.

At the Commons defence committee Feb. 28 Wynnyk pointed out the issue of pilots who are assigned to staff jobs but who want to keep flying. He suggested there could be changes that will allow that but didn’t provide many details.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canadian military wants retired pilots to come back - system needs to be flexible to allow that, says general Back to video

Wynnyk did note that the call will be sent out for retired pilots to come back to the RCAF. “We’re reaching out to retired individuals from the Canadian Forces and seeing if they’d like to join and particularly making it more flexible for pilots who have retired to go into the reserves to perhaps look at ways of getting into Cold Lake, Bagotville, or wherever we need to fly them,” he told MPs. Wynnyk also mentioned “potential bonuses” but didn’t provide details.

Late last year RCAF commander Lt.-Gen. Al Meinzinger told MPs the reasons behind the fighter pilots leaving but money appeared to be low on the list of issues forcing pilots to leave. “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.”