Ottawa considering ‘combination of approaches' to 20% military pay hike

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The Canadian flag is seen on a soldier's shoulder during an interview in Calgary on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
OTTAWA — Defence Minister David McGuinty's office says it's considering a 'combination of approaches' to boosting pay for armed service members, including introducing retention bonuses for 'stress trades.'
'This investment represents an almost 20 per cent increase to the overall CAF compensation envelope,' McGuinty's spokesperson Laurent de Casanove said in an email statement to The Canadian Press.
'The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are actively working on how best to implement this investment — looking at options that include a combination of approaches such as retention bonuses for stress trades, increased starting salaries for junior members, and a broad-based salary increase.'
While McGuinty's recent public commitment to grant the Canadian Armed Forces a '20 per cent pay increase' won praise within the defence community, it has also led to confusion — and some experts are saying they want to read the fine print.
Military pay scales are complicated and are based on rank, profession, deployment and other conditions. There are many ways to roll out a boost in compensation.
Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said she thinks this will not amount to an across-the-board pay hike.
'What is clear to me from this statement is that they are looking at all the options,' she said. 'We're still in that big question about what it looks like because a pay raise versus specialty pay versus an adaptation of the compensation package overall — not in salary — are not the same thing.'
She said the way the pay pledge was communicated initially was 'risky' since the details were not readily available, and that has led to confusion among military members and expectations of a blanket pay hike.
Gary Walbourne, former ombudsman for the Department of National Defence, called McGuinty's promise 'vague at best.'
'There's nothing clear in this message,' he said. 'A 20 per cent increase overall to CAF compensation envelope, what does that mean? Is it coming in benefits? … Is it going be on a cyclical basis? What's the percentage increase? Is it based on seniority, rank, merit?'
The former watchdog for military personnel said it sounds like the Liberal government wants to implement a pay boost quickly, but 'the mechanisms that they apply to it is going to complicate it and once the bureaucrats get their hands on it, well, I can see a slowdown coming.'
If CAF members don't see a 20 per cent pay bump after the minister's announcement, he said, it will be 'déjà vu all over again' for military personnel who have been let down in the past by lofty promises followed by implementation that 'sucks big time.'
The federal government has multiple policy options for addressing the cost of living for CAF members, such as lowering rent for on- or near-base housing or boosting allowances, such as danger pay.
Duval-Lantoine suggested Ottawa should focus on specialty trades that 'do not get nearly the attraction that they need to have.'
The military has long struggled with shortages of professionals who are hard to recruit and retain — people in the technical trades and logistics, pilots, medical specialists and middle management.
The Navy has found it hard to attract and keep maritime technicians, while people working in maintenance trades such as plumbers and electricians can be paid better in the private sector.
Walbourne suggested Ottawa look at direct pay, focus on the lower ranks and address regional disparities in the cost of living.
Andrew Leslie, a retired lieutenant-general and former Liberal MP who has called for higher wages in the armed forces, hailed the minister's pledge as long overdue.
'They need it because the last 10 years, there hasn't been a lot of love shown to the Canadian Armed Forces by the government of Canada,' Leslie said.
'Quite frankly, a 20 per cent pay increase is outstanding and I compliment the leaders who made that decision. I firmly believe they're going to pay a 20 per cent pay increase to everybody in the Canadian Forces.'
Gaëlle Rivard Piché, head of the Conference of Defence Associations and the CDA Institute, called the promised pay hike a 'great first step' and something that could be achieved 'quite easily' compared to other challenges facing the armed forces.
'It was long overdue,' she said. 'We know that the Canadian Armed Forces have been dealing with both a recruitment and a retention problem, and an increase in salary will certainly help to make Canadian Armed Forces positions and employment more attractive.'
Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed during the recent federal election that he would rebuild and rearm the military and increase military pay. Some of the largest earmarks in his election platform go toward national defence.
He recently announced a cash injection of $9 billion into national defence this fiscal year, as Canada looks to finally meet its NATO defence spending commitment.
Then-defence minister Bill Blair last year described the state of military recruitment as a 'death spiral' and Canada is still short some 13,000 regular and primary reserve personnel, according to the Department of National Defence.
'There's been generally some delays in terms of receiving basic training, but also trade-related training, which makes people less inclined to finish their training and then become an actual serving member,' said Rivard Piché.
Leslie also said housing and base conditions remain abysmal in some areas and need to be quickly addressed.
'Black mould exists in a variety of national defence buildings. There are some bases that don't have drinking water. There's buildings and houses for families that are 60, 70, 80 years old in dire need of repair,' he said.
'As well, you've got to make sure that you have money for equipment, money for training, money to create the stockpiles of stuff you're going to need should the worst happen — i.e., war.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025.
Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press