Navy still struggling to fill recruitment gaps throughout the service: vice-admiral

OTTAWA — Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee says the Royal Canadian Navy is “not out of the woods” yet on its recruitment crisis and the next four to five years are going to be “really hard.”

It’s been two years since Topshee, commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, posted a video online warning that recruitment was in a “critical state” and the service was facing “very serious challenges” that “could mean we fail to meet our force posture and readiness commitments.”

In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Topshee said he’s seeing signs of improvement emerging in some areas. He pointed to the new one-year Naval Experience Program, which he said is making a big difference by pulling in new recruits and convincing them to remain in military careers.

But the navy is still running short of key information technology people and the marine technicians it needs to maintain warships at sea.

A shortage of marine technicians can keep a ship from leaving harbour. Topshee said there are signs those jobs are starting to be filled.

“We’re on track to recruit probably about, fingers crossed, 70 per cent of the target for the year,” he said of marine technicians.

“That target is set at about half of what we actually need. It’s set at what do we think we can get. That gives us enough to basically continue holding our own, but we need to explore other options to get back to health as quickly as possible.”

The navy has hired only 17 per cent of the weapons engineers it needs so far this year, Topshee said, adding he’s looking to increase the “visibility” of that career path among young people.

The navy’s personnel shortage has deepened at a rapid pace over the past decade. Its current force of about 17,100 is short some 1,600 sailors. Exact numbers fluctuate but some naval occupations have struggled in recent years with shortfalls of around 25 per cent.

Topshee said the Navy has made strides in addressing its training backlog.

“We’ve actually doubled the production of naval warfare officers over the 10-year average this year and it’ll be tripled next year, and then we’ll be able to sustain that. That gets us back to health in terms of the people who lead the navy and lead and command ships quite well,” he said.

Topshee said recruitment of naval technical officers has “exceeded expectations, to the point where it’s become very challenging to get in as a naval technical officer, naval logistics officer, naval intelligence officer.”

But the service still struggles to fill other jobs, such as cooks. The navy needs people to prepare five meals a day at sea to feed crews throughout the day and night.

“For cooks, a lot of people just don’t see themselves doing that work for whatever reason,” Topshee said.

“What I think we want to do is say, there is a model where you can absolutely go off to a college and get a great training as a cook. There’s another model where you can go off, serve your country, see the world and come back with incredible skills. We’ll train you to the same standard. We pay for the whole thing.”

Topshee said the service is reaching out to school guidance counsellors to spread the message that the navy is hiring.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan said in August that surveys conducted for the government show that one of the biggest problems facing recruitment is the fact that most students don’t know about the various jobs on offer.

“There’s very low knowledge of the 107 different trades that we are offering,” she told reporters in Trenton, Ont.

Topshee said he knows exactly what kind of message he wants to get out to convince more Canadians to sign up.

“The Australian Navy’s got a great tag line, which is, ‘Live a story worth telling.’ That’s what we offer,” he said. “Not only can you get all these skills, but you can do it in a unique and interesting environment surrounded by high-technology gear and some of the greatest people in the world.”

Topshee said the Naval Experience Program is the service’s biggest recruitment success so far. It’s a one-year training and sailing program that gives a few hundred potential recruits a taste of a variety of jobs at sea.

The pilot program, a five-year trial that launched in March 2023, now accounts for about a third of all new navy recruits. Topshee said the program ensures new recruits know what kind of life they’re signing up for in advance.

Roughly half of Naval Experience Program applicants end up staying in “hard-sea trades” in the navy, he said, while roughly 80 per cent remain somewhere within the military.

Topshee said he hopes the recently announced military pay raises and signing bonuses — coupled with plans to buy new high-tech gear, such as submarines — will go a long way to boosting recruitment.

“We have no challenge recruiting submariners, but that type of contract can attract a lot of visibility to Canadians and attract attention,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2025.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press