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But it may not be that simple.

Photo by Master Corporal Gerald Cormier / Master Corporal Gerald Cormier

Incentives for reservists

“We are competing with economies that are getting better in some of the provinces and other employers,” he said.

As part of its recruitment drive, for the first time, the military is offering new recruits full-time summer employment for the first four years of their military career, as well as creating new training opportunities to get them ready for overseas or domestic operations quicker.

Reservists could earn anywhere between $11,000 and $17,000 to help pay for their tuition.

This is seen as the perfect time to begin to rebuild undermanned units with 3rd Canadian Division no longer in high readiness and away from active overseas deployment until at least July 2019.

“If I could get 1,500 reservists here I would, but we are trying to be realistic and pragmatic in our goals for this year,” Cadieu said.

Photo by Sergeant Bernie Kuhn / Sergeant Bernie Kuhn

From Western Canada to Eastern Europe

Three missions centring on Europe dominated 3rd Canadian Division’s overseas activities in 2017 — Operation Unifier in Ukraine and Operation Reassurance in Poland, which later morphed into a leadership and command role of the multinational Enhanced Forward Battlegroup in Latvia.

While the mission briefs differed, each theatre had the common denominator of trying to counter an increasingly unstable Eastern Europe.

The defend, deter and de-escalation mission of Operation Reassurance originally began in 2014 and came at a time when austerity measures were rippling across Europe’s post-global economic meltdown and as the warm afterglow of the Winter Olympics in Russia was wearing off.