Domestic Operations (S5 E3)
We joined for international operations, but also to help our fellow citizens. But this comes at a cost.
Capt Orton:Hi. I'm Captain Adam Orton with the Canadian Army Podcast. In the past few years, the military has been called out more and more to respond to domestic operations, be it the pandemic, forest fires, flooding, or any number of other emergencies. Here to explain how domestic operations are prepared and soldiers are sent out the door is Lieutenant-Colonel Geneviève Bertrand, former CO of 3e Royal 22e Régiment and currently working in the Canadian Army Headquarters in Ottawa. Welcome to the Podcast!
LCol Bertrand:Well, thank you and thank you for having me.
Capt Orton:So if we look at military equipment, you know, our uniforms, our vehicles, our training, a lot of that is focused on combat operations. You know, you don't need a 25 ton LAV to go out and fight floods. So why is the Army useful in domestic operations in emergency response?
LCol Bertrand:So I would say because our troops are kind of, trained to answer to a plethora of requests, So they will be able to just react quickly. We do have great training as well as part of just organizing our work that we need to do. Whenever there's a request for dom ops, domestic operations, it really is because everything else has failed and we need to go and provide assistance to the population. So our ability to actually plan quickly within the chain of command and as well for our troops to execute whatever that plan is, is actually quite useful. So if we're looking at floods, you know, we're gonna talk about sandbags.
LCol Bertrand:We're gonna talk about just vehicles to transport the troops back and forth in the equipment. And sometimes those big vehicles, those big LAVs are kinda useful for whenever the roads are flooded. So this is where it it will become a good thing to have our troops to go and support the population.
Capt Orton:You know, we spend a lot of time refining kind of our tools in the toolbox and being flexible to have options because when the next thing pops up, whatever it is, we have to be able to respond to it. But we can't necessarily plan for what that is because by nature, it's always some kind of emergency, whether it be military or otherwise.
LCol Bertrand:Absolutely. I mean, when we look at the weather forecast, we can a little bit plan on what's gonna happen. So this summer, for example, was a great example where early on, we saw that it was going to be a a pretty high fire index summer, and we went out on a few operations to help with that. But like you just said, when it came to COVID and when it came to to the support that we gave for Op LASER and VECTOR, we were not prepared for that at all, but we were able to rise to the challenge just because we looked at the problem. And because we're used to planning, it was something that we could do looking at a problem and coming up with a solution to try to tackle that problem.
Capt Orton:Yeah. The Commander of the Army also has said, you know, our greatest strength is our people. That's the thing that comes up a lot. And having that relatively vast resource of people that we can put almost anywhere in Canada and even to an extent with enough timeline anywhere in the globe, that's a pretty big, powerful battery that we have to power these operations.
LCol Bertrand:It is. And and whenever we're talking about domestic operations, it's never a good thing. Right? It's rarely a a positive thing that's happening. So it's either floods, it's either the forest fires, or it could be even, we had some quite intensive, snowstorms back in the Atlantic.
LCol Bertrand:Or it could be the hurricanes. So usually, it's very close and close to the heart of the soldiers as well because that's where they live. That's their area. So, of course, we're really eager to help, and we're always happy to have contributed to something and to have done good for the population.
Capt Orton:One thing I've noticed from what you've been talking about is a lot of it seems to be fairly weather centric. What's up with that?
LCol Bertrand:That I'm not a meteorologist to be able to talk about that, but we have seen an increase into the requests for Op LENTUS. So, really, the domestic operations is the name we have for it. So from 2010 to about 2015 or 16, we were running at about 2.25 Op LENTUS a year, right, as an average. Since 2017, that has jumped until 2023, that has jumped to 5.8. So we've doubled the amount of requests we receive every year, as an average, on domestic operations.
LCol Bertrand:So we're always ready. Every Division has their troops that are on kinda standby to be able to answer the call. But, yeah, there has been a different increase into environmental crisis.
Capt Orton:Yeah. I've been reading a lot about, how other militaries including our own have been adding climate change as a factor into emergency response whether on international operations or on domestic operations, and, we've definitely been tested by that recently.
LCol Bertrand:We have. We need to pay attention to it because we're always, as I said, eager to help, and this is why we're also joined. Right? We joined for international operations, fires in British Columbia for the entire summer, well, it comes at a cost of what training am I not doing to prepare for an international operation. it is something that we need to keep a close eye and have a good plan because we can predict it's gonna increase, but we don't know at what level and when is it gonna happen.
Capt Orton:Yeah. I know the Chief of Defense Staff has brought up also that domestic operations is having increasingly significant impact on our our ability to be prepared for things because troops that might be on standby till you go on an international operation or support a UN or NATO mission or something like that might get pulled, or people who are on leave aka vacation, they're getting pulled back to go and fight forest fires, or like you said, is, like, somebody in the middle of a training cycle get stopped, dropped, and pulled off of that training cycle to go and fight forest fires?
LCol Bertrand:Yeah. So it's something that we we always have a force that's ready to react to those, but that doesn't mean they're just sitting there and waiting for an event to happen. They're gonna continue on with their other training. But like you just mentioned, it might be something forest fire just just happens, and then we have to stop whatever kind of training that we're doing at the time. And then we're gonna just keep on with it.
LCol Bertrand:It does create some scheduling conflict whenever we have that unit that's identified to eventually... Maybe it could be even in a few months that's supposed to go overseas to do an operation, but that training needs to happen so that it can get there. So it is something we have to keep a close eye on. Our demands for international operations will also continue to increase, So that will increase the demand as well. So we need to start looking very much in detail how we're gonna tackle this for the next couple of years to make sure we have the troops available for the international operations, but we also have whatever we're gonna need if a request for assistance comes around.
Capt Orton:How do you go about generating solutions to that kind of problem? I mean, that's a pretty complicated problem to overcome.
LCol Bertrand:It is. So right now, we're looking at options so that we can propose it to the Commander so he can make a decision. And when I'm talking about the Commander, so the Army will have a thing to say, but, ultimately, it will be going up to the CDS and to higher levels of approval. What are we looking at? So one of the great things that we do have is our Reserve Force.
LCol Bertrand:And especially for domestic operations, we often tap into that pool of personnel. I mentioned earlier that whenever an event happens for domestic operations, it's very local. It's very you know, you're in your own turf. Right? So it's gonna happen if there's a forest fire in B.C.
LCol Bertrand:Well, the folks from B.C. are gonna be impacted by that. So by our nature, we wanna help our fellow citizens. The Reserve Force that are there that are local most likely are gonna be looking to support as well. But that comes at a cost as well. Right?
LCol Bertrand:So now we're talking contracts for those reservists, which is great. But now we're talking money. So it's something I don't control, and I have to pitch it forward to say maybe that's a solution. Maybe we put extra long contracts. So maybe that's something we're gonna look at.
LCol Bertrand:Maybe we're gonna look at a national response force, and so I'm just gonna have a unit that's gonna be in Quebec maybe, and then we're gonna push it out to B.C. when that happens. So we're losing that touch with the community that we would be serving, but it's still our fellow Canadians. So those are some things or some options that we're toying with.
Capt Orton:Yeah. And for context, as it stands, the Army has, like, these sections. Right? You got the Regular Force, which is these larger, more centralized units that are, you know, full time operations. You can throw them anywhere you need to.
Capt Orton:You have Reserve Force, which is generally part time soldiers, usually smaller units that are located in a wider variety of communities. And then you even have the Canadian Rangers that are in more isolated communities, and they have, like, specific local knowledge on their areas. How do those pieces all come together? Like, how do you engage them? Because the structure itself is it's large. There's a lot of pieces to dig into those. How do you get all the parts moving?
LCol Bertrand:So that's a good question and a hard question to answer, actually. Because whenever a request for assistance happens, because there's a crisis, because there's a situation that's percolating, you will see both the Regular Force that are on bases, those big bases that we have, they're starting to mobilize. And then you'll have the community, which has the Reserve Force, more spread out in smaller numbers, little smaller units, but they're affected by what's going on right now. So they will be mobilizing as well. And then the Rangers, if we're talking about, evacuation requests that we get, so we get those quite often, usually in the North.
LCol Bertrand:So this is where we tap into our rangers to support in those requests for assistance. So they really all come together. It will come under one command, usually led by a land task force commander, and then we'll have different organizations that will play the part. So we'll have a company for a Regular Force, and then we'll have a company that's augmented by Reserve Force. And then they'll be on the task for two weeks, three weeks, depending how long the crisis lasts.
Capt Orton:You made a comment on request for assistance and, you know, with a lot of people may not understand or realize, like, why is the Army not just grabbing a pile of sandbags and going out and doing the thing? You wanna explain a little bit how that works?
LCol Bertrand:Sure. So we have to understand as well that if we are doing this task, which is support to domestic operations, there's something we're not doing. Our main mandate is to make sure that we're operationally prepared to deploy anywhere around the world at the request of the government to provide support to another country or to an organization. When it comes to domestic operations, we have to understand that the provinces are actually responsible to tackle any situation that comes about. So whenever they're reaching a point where they cannot or no longer help or there's a danger to life or limb or important infrastructure and they're gonna be overwhelmed by it.
LCol Bertrand:This is where they've exploited all the resources that they would have at the provincial level, and then they return to the government and say, I need help. So, normally, we have liaison officers as well in pretty much every province. So from the Canadian Armed Forces that are there to also advise and say, you know what? This is happening. We can see that there's a major hurricane coming in the Atlantic.
LCol Bertrand:So we'll have some liaison officers in Halifax and say, you know what? We could be able to support with that. So here's the effect that I can help you with. And this is where they would request a certain type of assistance, and they have to request an effect. Right?
LCol Bertrand:So I need help to support the firefighters to put out the fires. Right? So we're not there to be firefighters. We're there to follow behind the firefighters and make sure we put out the hot spots, and we make sure that the fire doesn't come back afterwards. So that's how the request comes.
LCol Bertrand:So it needs to be brought in from the province to the Government of Canada and say, this is what I need help with. And then the government will look at it with the Army and say, hey. How can we help with that request? Do I just throw an airplane because I need to evacuate people? Do I throw personnel from the Army because I need people to fill in sandbags and to help with the floods, for example?
LCol Bertrand:So this is how the request will come in. There will be normally a time associated with it. Hey. I need support for the next two weeks. Usually, we see a two week kind of time frame, and this can be shortened or this can get extended once again.
LCol Bertrand:But that will be a second request that will come in to say, hey, I need more time to be able to deal with that problem.
Capt Orton:Now speaking of things that you can't do, like, I remember, when I was deployed with the Olympics, that was a pretty big domestic operation that was happening in B.C. As we were patrolling our area to make sure people weren't, like, trying to sneak into the Olympics or nothing bad was gonna happen, we were connected with law enforcement and conservation officers, and we generally can't conduct any law enforcement stuff because that's not within the scope of what we do. And, I was wondering, what are some things that we don't do?
LCol Bertrand:So that would be the main one. So I'll give you a perfect example where I believe it was in the first request for RFA that we had received initially for this year. So we'll call it 23-01. So that was the first set of forest fires that we had. And because they were displacing a lot of personnel and putting them into, for lack of better terms, a kind of like a staging area, so the province was afraid of a little bit of civil unrest or a little bit of loitering or, you know, like some, some quarrels in between the people that would be there.
LCol Bertrand:So one of the tasks in the RFA that we originally received was to help to maintain the peace there. And we said that we cannot do. We are not there to provide policing function on our own citizens. That's not what the, the CAF is there to do. Yeah.
Capt Orton:There's a good quote from a show that I've seen where it goes something along the lines of the military is there to fight the enemy of the state, and the police are there to protect the people. And when the enemy becomes the people, that becomes a really complicated experience. And, you know, we don't really wanna be put in that position unless it's, like, everything is just falling apart, really.
LCol Bertrand:Exactly. Same thing. Whenever we get a request for support or for assistance for the floods and we have to evacuate personnel, we still can't force residents to actually evacuate. We're there to support and to help them and bring them out of the the area. But if they decide they wanna stay, that's not for us to force them either. So these are the kinds of things that we would not be doing.
Capt Orton:So how is training for domestic operations different than international operations? Like, what do we do differently to prepare for that?
LCol Bertrand:So in terms of preparing for domestic operations, I would say other than for the firefighting task, which once again, we are not the firefighters, but there's no training that's really associated with it. Right? So we're often talking about floods, hurricanes, maybe even heavy snowfalls. Everybody's shoveled their driveway before so we can support into that.
LCol Bertrand:And then we would have for the floods. You know, it's mainly sandbags. It's patrolling also to make sure that, you know, we can give some directions as well to the province to say, hey. That bridge is about to be out. It was out. We need support there. You're gonna need to repair that. Right? So this is the function we would have. So in terms of training, not much. The main training is to make sure we remain ready.
LCol Bertrand:So that means into our physical aspect. So be in physical good shape as well as our medical is also good to go. So what you wouldn't want happening is a member on support of, floods and then, has to go in because all their medical is outdated and then they're not doing well. Right? So you wanna make sure you're on top physical shape for that. That's really the main training.
LCol Bertrand:In terms of the firefighting, this is where we have a two day course that is designed to help us, be on the lookout, know exactly how to put out those hot spots, and make sure also that we know how to conduct ourselves when we're following the line of firefighters that are battling the fire.
Capt Orton:Well, and that just highlights you're talking about patrolling a little bit as an example. Is it really highlights how we have, on the officer side of the house a little bit more, you have the operational planning process. So that's just planning to do a thing. It doesn't really matter whether it's combat operations or whatever. And then, patrolling, for example, is walking around the place, looking at things.
Capt Orton:You might be ready for a fight, but if there's no fight, you're still recording information, you're doing what's known as a patrol report, you're taking details on what's happening in that area, you're reporting it to higher. Those are all versatile tools that as part of our natural training, we do it, and then it can apply in a combat operation situation or in a domestic operation situation. It it just works.
LCol Bertrand:Exactly. I think sometimes that we are highly trained for it, and it's something that would come naturally to anybody that says, hey go into that village and make sure everybody's out, and then you would take back the information, push that to your chain and command, and say, well, I saw a few people that are staying there. Maybe there's something deeper that we need to talk with the mayor or that we need to talk with the actual city so that we can tackle this situation because right now, we can't do more. So that's the kind of training that we would bring to the table. It wouldn't be a specific training for the domestic operation, but because of our training for international operations, we can just apply it to it.
Capt Orton:Well, and also, CIMIC or civil-military cooperation is a specialization training that exists that people can take that's, again, used on international operations to connect with local partners, whether it be non-governmental organizations or local leaders or industry in that area to help get things done. And there's probably some pretty good translation to how that applies again in a domestic context.
LCol Bertrand:I've never done the CIMIC courses, but it would absolutely be transferable. And usually, in your organization, you'll have a few folks that would have had that training as well. Now it is not mandatory for our domestic operation execution. But, yeah, that would be a great tool to have in your toolbox.
Capt Orton:So can you tell us maybe the story of a recent domestic operation that we've stood up, and kind of how all the pieces came together? Like, how did we engage with the people? How did we select what was gonna happen? Can you take us through a little bit of something that might have happened recently?
LCol Bertrand:So I can run over a few. I don't think I can go that much into the details because in my role, what I'm doing basically is telling which unit, alright, you're gonna go and you're gonna deploy for this domestic operation because we've received the request. Once I do deploy the division and the unit, then they belong to CJOC, so they Canadian Joint Operations Command. So they're the ones that are responsible to control what's gonna happen on the ground. But in terms of how did it happen for the summer, because it was quite busy.
LCol Bertrand:We went up to 8 requests of RFAs that were accepted by the government, and we weren't involved, the Canadian Army, and all 8 of them. So mainly forest fires. Yeah. That has happened all across the country. So I think one of the ones that is a bit more out of the box that we were not used to doing, which would be the most interesting, is 23-07, which was the Northwest Territories.
LCol Bertrand:So, normally, we have each division has their own troops that are on standby. So IRUs, Immediate Response Units that are ready to respond to any kind of domestic operations that would happen. So every division has their own troops that are put on that standby 24 hours notice to move. They're always ready to go. So it's been very busy for 3 Div.
LCol Bertrand:So everything out west. So B.C., Alberta, it was quite busy this summer. So they were really, really requested. When 23-07, so the Northwest Territories happen, So we had folks that was already from 3 Div already deployed and busy with current forest fires in Alberta and in B.C. So we had to make a decision as Canadian Army.
LCol Bertrand:Are we gonna ask 3 Division once again to have other troops? Now we're taking other troops, and now it has a big trickle down effect to the international operations. Or am I looking what's going on as well in in the rest of the country, and maybe I can deploy somebody from a different area. And that's what we ended up doing. So what we decided to do was we were looking at the prediction that we could see as well in the forecast, and, we identified 2 Division in Quebec to be a good unit to deploy to the Northwest Territories.
LCol Bertrand:Now that came with a great challenge because we have to understand, we, as the Canadian Army, do not control our strategic lift. So it was a combined effort with the Canadian Joint Operations Command. So CJOC, who's in control of it, to say, okay. How are we gonna get those troops over there now? Because we gotta fly them over and the logistics that goes behind it.
LCol Bertrand:So, normally, when you have an organization that works into their area, then their logistic trail will follow. So their food, their water, their trucks will all follow. Now we had to push everything from elsewhere. 3 Div was still very, very much involved into supporting with the logistics aspect of it. But it's still about a 20 hour drive from Edmonton all the way to, Yellowknife where the fires were happening.
LCol Bertrand:So that was quite a bit of a challenge for this year. They arrived there, and then Yellowknife had to evacuate. So at the same time, where you have the head of the operation, which was in Yellowknife, because that was Joint Task Force North that was responsible to control all the elements, well, they had to evacuate at the same time, so that was quite a challenge for them. So a lot of back and forth, a lot of communication in between all the elements to make sure that the troops were there to help, but we got them out safely as well, staged them somewhere, and then returned them to where they had to be.
Capt Orton:And one thing we haven't had a chance to talk about a lot on the Podcast is logistics, but you just highlighted some of those challenges is the Air Force controls the airplanes. The Army controls the people. Somebody in the middle needs to kinda coordinate all of that stuff, and then you gotta get the stuff there, and you got your food, your water, and all of this. And because where you're going, you maybe don't have access that all the vehicles. Sometimes there isn't roads to get there, like, you literally can't drive there.
Capt Orton:Maybe the Navy is shipping stuff for you, you don't know. And then on top of that, when you hit the ground, if you're evacuating from, like, what I would call, like, a "hard headquarters" that's in a building or something like that, you gotta set up in the field, somebody has to set up all your telecommunications, you don't just, like, roll onto the scene and you've you got computer networks and satellite connections and all that stuff. There's a bunch of people that need to get out there. They need to set it all up. They need to connect to all these things, make it all happen so that these soldiers from all these different places show up there and are ready to go to do the thing.
LCol Bertrand:Yeah. There's a lot of coordination that happens before and during because usually we don't have much time. If it's a request for assistance, it's because things are not going well. So you need to act quickly and you need to react quickly as well. So as you're sending your first initial troops, they're starting to set this up, then the rest of the big group arrives, and then they're they're wanna start working.
LCol Bertrand:Have we made all the liasons on as well with the province? Yes. We're ready to go. Well, where's the trail gonna follow? So if I go back to that Northwest Territory event, so in Yellowknife, it took about three days for the logistics to actually catch up.
LCol Bertrand:So we had folks there with just basically their rucks on their backs and whatever they had in there to be able to to survive for the next three days.
Capt Orton:Twenty-four hours self sufficient!
LCol Bertrand:Well, exactly. So we're we're all military. We're all trained to do this kind of stuff. But at the same time, you're fighting in conditions as well that are not yeah. There might not be an enemy in the sense of the term that we usually use it, but it's not an easy situation.
LCol Bertrand:Air quality is so so poor. You're doing it in conditions that are not ideal either. So our soldiers are really good to be able to pull it through.
Capt Orton:So with all this being said, does it work? Are we doing it? Is it helping?
LCol Bertrand:So it is. I mean, there's always some lull in the battle. Right? So that's what I call it. So there's always some times, well, we gotta get there really, really quickly.
LCol Bertrand:And then we get there, and we actually get there before the province is ready to receive us. So sometimes a little bit of a lag time. Are we employed for the entire two weeks every day, every minute, every hour? Of course not. So there will be some little lag time.
LCol Bertrand:Are we helping? Absolutely. If we weren't doing it, would the province be able to find a solution? Perhaps. But that means with more planning, with more time, with more money, with more everything.
LCol Bertrand:It's the same thing for everyone. So if we're there, we can be able to help. It's always a great thing to be able to help your community. I mean, there's some troops that came back from, I believe it was from B.C., and they got stopped into a rest stop. And people came up to them and and were saying thank you so much for helping us.
LCol Bertrand:Thank you for doing that. So there's some great work that's being done. And when it's to help your community, it's very rewarding that way.
Capt Orton:Well, that's great. I think, I think we're doing it. That's what we're here for, I guess, is to help our people, our team.
LCol Bertrand:Absolutely.
Capt Orton:Alright. Well, thanks so much for coming on the Podcast, ma'am.
LCol Bertrand:Well, thanks for having me.
Capt Orton:That was Lieutenant-Colonel Geneviève Bertrand from the Canadian Army Headquarters here in Ottawa. I'm Captain Adam Orton for the Canadian Army Podcast. Orton out!