The Canadian military is expected to announce today that a large group of reservists from Western Canada will be deployed to Afghanistan to compensate for a troop shortfall.
Col. Kelly Woiden, commander of 38 Canadian Brigade Group, will hold a news conference this afternoon to discuss plans to send more than 160 reservists to Afghanistan by next year.
The group is responsible for all reserve units from Thunder Bay, Ont. to the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary.
Earlier this week, a Senate committee heard that Canada will need up to 5,000 new soldiers over the next few years to meet the nation's troop commitment in Afghanistan.
"I need 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers in the next three to five years and that's above and beyond our current figures," Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, chief of the army, told the national security and defence standing committee.
With the demand for troops, the military is expected to call upon more reservists to help fill the gap.
Reservists serve either in full-time or part-time position within the Canadian forces. Currently, there are 400 to 600 reservists in Afghanistan.
In total, there are 62,700 members of the regular force and 22,000 primary reservists, reports the Toronto Star.
Canada has about 2,500 soldiers based in Afghanistan, mostly in the Kandahar region. Since the mission began in 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan.
