Same thing happens in the USA all the time. This is the face of budget cuts to the military.
When the military is faced with taking care of pensioners or defending the country they MUST choose the latter every single time.
It sucks but this is the way it is and, so far as Canada is concerned, you can't keep talking about cutting the Defence budget and then expecting to have first rate fighters, ice breakers, capital ships, and well-funded pensions for disabled veterans.
Bottom line is that the military is not a social welfare program and if you want it to fulfill that role then you have to buck up and fund it.
This will sound very cold but here goes. This is nothing new. In the CAF there are a set amount of positions/billets for personnel. If we countinue to retain people on permanent med cats then we have to find a place for them among the finite number of billets. This will eventually decrease the number of people we can recruit, therefore reducing the effectiveness of the CAF. We can't retain people just to ensure they reach a certain time frame if they are not employable.
When the military is faced with taking care of pensioners or defending the country they MUST choose the latter every single time.
It sucks but this is the way it is and, so far as Canada is concerned, you can't keep talking about cutting the Defence budget and then expecting to have first rate fighters, ice breakers, capital ships, and well-funded pensions for disabled veterans.
Bottom line is that the military is not a social welfare program and if you want it to fulfill that role then you have to buck up and fund it.