The country’s top military commander said Thursday that the Canadian Armed Forces’ (CAF) problems with recruiting and retaining soldiers, sailors and air crew are going are get worse before they get better.

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre issued a sweeping directive Thursday morning for what he described as the “reconstitution” of the CAF.

“The CAF will experience higher than normal attrition and lower than normal recruiting unless appropriate professional culture and personnel management modifications are implemented,” the directive said. “As a result, CAF effective strength will likely continue to shrink over the very short term.”

The directive blames many of the issues the military