Aid to Civil Power

[Sharpey]

What ever happened to aid to civil power? The Reserves are a sizeable force and I think should be utilized. There has been more than one opportunity in Windsor over the last few years to have provided added security. Yes it‘s a cost to the tax payers yadda, yadda. Not that I beleive Windsor, even Canada at that matter, has any threat of anything on it‘s own soil, but you can never be to sure.
The public tends to frown on the CF, but during operations such as Ice Storm 98, for the most part, they couldn‘t have been happier to see the guy in green showing up on their doorstep with a box of Skor bars!
I don‘t know if I‘m really going anywere with this, but I am proud to wear the uniform, and think more presence in the public eye would show them another side of the forces.

 

[bc_railfan]

i completely agree with you sharpey. a big part of the reserves function should be civil aid. this would greatly add to the value of the reserve force.
bterragni@shaw.ca

 

[bc_railfan]

i completely agree with you sharpey. a big part of the reserves function should be civil aid. this would greatly add to the value of the reserve force.

-chet
bterragni@shaw.ca

 

[bc_railfan]

sorry about the double post.

 

[Bill Green]

Chet and Sharpey,

Glad to hear you are proud to wear the uniform and to assist Canadians in Aid to Civil Power (ACP). Just a couple of cautions as we get into this scope of operations. And I really hope Brad Swallows can give us the Legal line in QR&O. But this is from my take with no references at hand.

I once had a briefing from the Comd of the CF Forces at OKA about 1994 or 5. He stated that "the CF when called out to ACP was the force of last resort-it cannot fail" so when dealing with inserections or rebellion you first want to make sure the police forces both local and national cannot handle the situation. This opportunity would only arise when the request for assistance has gone from the lt gov (province) to the gov general (cabinet,pm;national/federal) over to the min of def and to the CDS. Reservists are not usually invited in this op because they must live in the community after the op is over without the security of the CF support system. Reservists were however involved at OKA from different units. The spectre of CDN soldiers engaged in combat with the very people they have forsworn to protect (other Canadians) is never entered into lightly.

The disaster assistance likewise should be of a scale that overwhelms the provincial and federal non CF resources. A few examples may help: Earthquake assistance to BC, out of control forest fires threatening communities, flood waters of a provincial scope, life threatening power outages, search parties for vast/dense areas, sea rescue/interdiction etc. I can‘t comment on shovelling snow and supplying scor bars something we might do to enhance our community footprint because I wasn‘t privy to the discussions on the situation.

Your eagerness to enhance the image of the CF is commendable. My question is what is going on in Windsor that would require CF ACP?

 

[Bill Green]

Apologies it‘s Brad Sallows.

 

[Brad Sallows]

There‘s not much to add. An important thing to remember: the phrase "aid to the civil power" implies armed force, and as noted is something that the reserves as a matter of policy aren‘t expected to do. "Assistance to the civil power" is unarmed - natural disaster assistance and so forth - and may certainly involve reserves. In practical terms, assistance activity may begin before formal requests and authorization are made. It‘s always preferable to not commit the military - we might need it for something more important.

 

[Recce41]

Well
For most aid to Civil power Tasks, us in the Reg force spend about a week to a month training. How many Res can take a week off. And it costs more money to task a Res than a Reg, due to different cost in training. we get paid 24/7. Res get paid 1/2 days and days. And most Res are not at the level of training needed in 1 or 2 weekends.

Sgt J. CD, CDS com :tank:

 

[Sharpey]

All good points yes. The money factor is a concern for the Reserves as well as getting an ample number of commited reservists in a disaster situation in the required amount of time. The one situation I was refereing to in Windsor was after 9/11. The border traffic was stopped, then opened up to a slow crawl. Traffic was backed up for miles and trucks were sitting for 12 hours to cross. Students and Staff from the local near by College were out on the highway passing out coffee, checking up on the drivers, etc... Traffic control was a mess! Yes it is an expence to our home units, but I think a sizeable group of soldiers could have been put together to help out. Not a very exciting task, but non the less important. Plus again, the "in the public eye" thing.

 

[Spanky]

Some very good points made by all in regard to ACP tasks. Here in Windsor there are a number of possible ACP scenarios. I am not talking about armed rebellion, riots etc. I agree that these should not be handled by local reservists. We do have to live here when it‘s all over.
The possible situations here in Windsor can be broken into two categories. One is deals with natural disaster. We are in the middle of Tornado Alley, and we do have the occasional blizzard or two. We were called out for a major one a number of years ago.
We also have a few possible situations that are unique to this area. There is a nuc plant (Fermi II) across the river that has a less than perfect safety record. We are downwind of it. We have a border crossing sight that handles billions of dollars worth of commerce a month.
Sharpie makes some good points.