Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan has delivered a scathing assessment of living conditions for members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), describing many military accommodations as deteriorating, unsafe, and overcrowded. In her latest report released Tuesday, Hogan said that several buildings inspected at bases in Esquimalt (B.C.), Gagetown (N.B.), and Trenton (Ont.) were so dilapidated that 32 of 35 required at least one urgent repair — with some lacking safe drinking water, functioning toilets, or structurally sound walls.
“These are the kind of conditions you and I wouldn’t want to live in, and certainly not what we should expect for our Canadian Armed Forces,” Hogan told reporters. Her report found that a quarter of all military quarters require major repairs or no longer meet operational needs. Despite years of warnings, the Department of National Defence has consistently failed to meet its own infrastructure maintenance targets.
Defence Minister David McGuinty acknowledged the poor state of the facilities, including reports of lead contamination in water systems. “We have work to do,” he said, emphasizing that the government has made the largest investment in the Armed Forces in a generation, including pay raises to improve recruitment and retention. “For decades, successive governments have not made the investments we needed.”
The report also revealed a severe housing shortage across bases. As of this spring, only 205 residential units were available, while more than 3,700 members remained on waiting lists. The shortfall comes as the military aims to add 6,000 new recruits by 2029, a goal Hogan says is at risk due to poor housing and slow recruitment processes.
A 2024 policy that prioritizes new recruits for base housing has caused frustration among longer-serving members. The Auditor General warned that National Defence failed to assess how this policy could discourage experienced personnel from staying.
In a separate audit, Hogan found that the military is still struggling to attract and retain skilled recruits. Between 2022 and 2025, only one out of every 13 online applicants successfully joined the forces, with over half abandoning their applications within two months. Although the CAF exceeded its recruitment target last year by 210 people, the audit noted persistent backlogs, slow processing times, and shortages of instructors and equipment that threaten the military’s ability to train new members.
Despite some recent progress, Hogan’s overall conclusion was blunt: without immediate attention to infrastructure, recruitment, and training, Canada’s military readiness — and the well-being of its service members — will continue to deteriorate.