Amid the Afghanistan war, and planning for the Vancouver Olympics and two international economic summits, the Canadian army is quietly cutting staff, training and recruitment in reserve units across the country.

Over the past few months, Southwestern Ontario’s 31 Canadian Brigade Group has cut its budget by about 16%, or $2.5 million on its $18.2-million budget.

Group-training exercises, exchanges with overseas units, and travel budgets have been cut and the brigade has dropped recruitment levels to about 260 from a high several years ago of 400, said Col. John Celestino, brigade commander.

The brigade has had to cut 25 full-time jobs, ranging from a lieutenant colonel to corporals.

“It hurts. There’s no doubt about it,” Celestino said. “This is nationwide . . . and the cuts are substantial.”

Nationally, the army is cutting 300 full-time reserve jobs from the force’s 4,750, moving about $15 million a year from personnel to other areas, Canadian Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jay Janzen said in a telephone interview from Ottawa.

Operating budgets across the country are being “re-aligned,” cutting travel and administrative costs to beef up other operations, he said. Overall, about $80 million in the annual budget of $1.6 billion is being shifted.

Domestic operations require more training, more equipment and more personnel, Janzen said, adding it’s not clear if these are the final job cuts.

“A further reduction may be required.”

In separate interviews, both Janzen and Celestino stressed the army’s overall budget was not being cut, and in some areas, such as military equipment, was being increased.

“We have so many balls in the air right now we have to deal with them one at a time,” Celestino said from 31 Brigade headquarters in London.

“We’ve had to prioritize our expenses and send the money to the operations that have to be supported,” Celestino said.

“We’ve had to focus on the essentials by making sure our soldiers are trained as individuals and the key elements are maintained for looking after those soldiers.”

Before this year, reserve units have been getting healthy budgets, allowing for more training, more hiring and more travel, he said.

“These are the nice-to-haves that make your training much stronger, your soldiers that much more committed, but those are the things we’ve had to reduce.”

Celestino said his soldiers understand the necessity of the cuts.

“If you give soldiers the reason and you don’t try to buffalo them, they understand.”

Yet he acknowledged some soldiers will feel the effects as workloads are spread among those remaining in the units — workloads that increase as demands on the regular army increase.

“Our tasks tend to increase when there are operations.”

Celestino said he expects budgets to be tight next year, but hopes they return to normal once the Olympics and the G8 and G20 economic summits are done.

Recruitment especially has to return to higher levels eventually, in order for the units to help the regular army, he said.

Reserve units are made up largely of part-time soldiers called Class A reservists. But the units also include full-time soldiers, Class B reservists, who are on long-term contracts. Class C are those on deployment, and are paid the same as regular army soldiers.

About 25% of the 31 Brigade reservists have served in Afghanistan. The brigade has about 2,000 soldiers, 93% of them part-time.

The personnel cuts have been spread across the 15 units and headquarters in London of 31 Brigade, Celestino said.

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Randy Richmond is a Free Press reporter.