The military plans for a volunteer force to defend Canada

Members of the King’s Own Calgary Regiment present arms during a graveside ceremony honouring Cpl. Gawen Foster, who served with the 50th Canadian Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War, in Calgary, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

OTTAWA -- Faced with rising threats from competing states and climate change, the top military minds in the Canadian Armed Forces are drafting a plan to bolster the nation’s defences by creating a civil force made up of 300,000 volunteers.

The unclassified document was distributed by the Strategic Joint Staff, the internal group that provides military advice and analysis to Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan.

The details are outlined in a document with the title CDS/DM PLANNING DIRECTION - DEFENCE MOBILIZATION PLAN. The nine-page defence mobilization plan (DMP) document was dated May 30.

An ominous warning is embedded in the opening lines: “Rising threats fueled by accelerating technologies present urgent simultaneous and unparalleled challenges to Canada’s ability to defend itself. Global security has been dramatically affected by the rise of strategic competition among states combined with the growing frequency and intensity of natural disasters linked to climate change.”

The existence of the internal document was first reported by the Ottawa Citizen.

The plan calls for a “whole of society” approach, “in order to assure the defence of Canada against domestic threats ranging from low-intensity natural disaster response to high-intensity large scale combat operations.” The document states that the plan has to be “timely and scalable.”

It sets a target of boosting the number of reservists from 30,000 to 100,000 and recruiting 300,000 volunteers to join a supplementary force.

“It’s part of transformation and modernization efforts, which includes increasing our primary reserve and our supplementary reserve. We have to be prepared in times of crisis, whether it’s here or anywhere else,” said Carignan in an interview with CTV National News Chief News Anchor Omar Sachedina on Remembrance Day. “All Canadians will be invited to voluntarily serve.”

The document states that the supplementary force “should initially prioritize volunteer public servants at the federal and provincial/territorial level.”

Those who join the civil defence corps would face less restrictive age limits and meet lower physical and fitness requirements. Their training would be limited to five days per year to ensure accessibility.

In that short period, volunteers would learn skills such as shooting, moving, communicating, driving a truck and flying a drone, according to the mobilization plan. Canada’s civilian force would get medical coverage during training, but not pensionable benefits.

The mobilization plan was sent to 20 top Canadian commanders and admirals, including leaders at Norad and NATO, special forces and cybercom. The plan has not been approved by the government in its current form. However, Defence Minister David McGuinty says he supports the idea of a volunteer defence corps.

“The notion of having a civil force of Canadians ready and willing and able to serve their country is something that has been talked about for years in Canada. It’s something our allies are doing and pursuing very actively,” McGuinty said, pointing to both Finland and Sweden as examples for Canada to follow.

The two Nordic countries have hundreds of thousands of citizens who are trained to respond to both manmade and natural disasters. The volunteers help operate public and private bomb shelters and co-ordinate emergency responses at the community level.

CTV National News’ Genevieve Beauchemin recently reported on Sweden’s “total defence” strategy, which involves enlisting all citizens to prepare for war.

In response to a question from CTV News about the composition of a civilian force, McGuinty said he wants to see public servants join, but also “bankers and mechanics on the shop floor.”

But creating a civil force will be another challenge on top of the military’s current recruitment struggles.

The Canadian Armed Forces does not yet have enough soldiers to reach its “authorized strength” of 71,500 soldiers and 30,000 reservists. It still needs to recruit approximately 15,000 more people.

McGuinty says he’s optimistic the military will reach that target soon given the government’s new investments in defence.

“We just put $82 billion in the budget to strengthen our Canadian Armed Forces...there’s positive take up and recruitment is up 55 per cent from last year,” McGuinty said.