Ombudsman Releases Report Marking Time: A Decade of Stalled Progress for Ill and Injured Primary Reserve Force Members
Press Release + Noah Note
OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 10, 2026 /CNW/ - The Office of the DND/CAF Ombudsman today released a new report, Marking Time: A Decade of Stalled Progress for the Primary Reserve, highlighting persistent barriers faced by ill and injured Primary Reserve members, despite recommendations made nearly a decade ago.
The report revisits recommendations first made in two 2016 investigations:
Compensation Options for Ill and Injured Reservists
Part time Soldier with Full-Time Injuries
Despite these recommendations, systemic obstacles remain, and meaningful progress has been slow. The Ombudsman's review confirms that inequities reported nearly a decade ago remain unresolved and recommendations are still relevant today.
Quote:
"Ill and injured Reservists stand ready to serve Canada. We must stand ready to support them."
"As the Defence Team work to grow their ranks and prepare for mobilization, building strong foundations to support these members is not optional – it is essential."
Mario Baril, Ombudsman
The report makes five renewed recommendations aimed at addressing the barriers identified and if fully implemented would:
Strengthen governance for Reserve Force Compensation;
Modernize and digitalize the compensation application process;
Improve access to information about compensation options;
Allocate resources to update health care entitlement and eligibility policies;
Include health resources for Reservists in Non-Effective Strength letters.
Marking Time follows previous progress reports that examined earlier investigations into the inequities in the treatment of ill and injured Primary Reserve Members. Most of the recommendations made in those reports have not yet been implemented.
The full report is available online:
Noah Note: Our first Ombudsman report of the year is one that will resonate with a lot of you. I know many of you guys and gals are in the reserves, so I would love your thoughts and feelings too. The struggle to take the Reserve and find a way to fully integrate it into the CAF ecosystem is a topic that never seems to find a resolution.
To their credit, the report captures the mood perfectly. It has been nearly ten years since the original investigations in 2016 highlighted significant gaps in how we treat ill and injured Reservists. The verdict that progress hasn't just been slow but has effectively stalled is a fair one to make. Can't argue there.
This isn’t terribly surprising to those who follow the administrative side of the military, but what I think is always excellent to highlight—which, to the report's credit, it does—is that the barriers aren't just about money or resources; they are deeply structural and tied to how the institution views liability.
Under the current system, the CAF is operating under a governance model that is, frankly, confused. The report notes a lack of consensus among senior leadership on what a Reservist is actually supposed to do. The CDS is quoted directly, admitting there is "lots of disagreement" at the base level on the employment model.
This has been a fairly established fact for a while. You have the Army, Navy, and Air Force all managing their Reservists differently, and no true single authority with the power to align the policies.
The CAF wants to grow the Reserves to 30,000 members by 2032, and if plans pan out, that number will grow significantly by 2040—up to 100,000, not counting the idea of a 300,000-man Augment reserve. You can’t reach that number if the backend support system is broken. You can’t base a growth strategy on a system where injured members are afraid they won’t be covered.
So yes, this isn't surprising. It is to be expected that fixing a decades-old cultural divide would take time. The Ombudsman has now set a hard deadline of January, 2027. By then, they want the governance fixed, the compensation forms digitized, and a mandatory 30-day decision standard for claims.
As of now, the review is done, and the ball is in the CAF’s court. I highly recommend diving into the whole report as it is excellently written and does go into significant detail. It is one of the better reports around that I have seen in the last little while.
Hopefully, we will see some movement now. You can only run on goodwill for so long before the administrative burden starts to hurt operational readiness. If they want 30,000, 100,000 Reservists, than they need a backend that can support them. Whether they can actually hit that 2027 deadline is another question entirely. I have hope. We'll see.
The Ombudsman was at our unit talking about this tonight in fact. I couldn't agree more. There remains structural barriers that make it challenging for Reservists to access CAF medical care. E.g. if a Class A member on exercise gets injured, base medical facilities will normally just direct them to civilian hospital. & The member better hope to have a family doctor for follow-ups (which is increasingly unlikely). Just a minor improvement in this domain can help retention... Every little bit will help. & As we move to distinct divisions in the Army, I only see the need for medical care for Reservists in the Defence division increasing...
The small things that count, why not give those on class b’s year round, actual REOs (Reserve Employment Opportunities) so that they can access the same benefits a reg force member has to these resources, for instance if ur reg force member posted to let’s say a major city then a reservist that works on a full time contract in the same city should have access to same resources as that member.
Idk thats my two cents take on this, some places seem a bit too underfunded and understaffed where hopefully the current changes that are being made will help alleviate and improve in these areas (again take what I say with a pinch of salt but that’s what I see).