The Administrative Response Centre is available to answer your policy questions

January 28, 2022 - Defence Stories

Do you have questions about Chief of Military Personnel policies on topics like benefits, health and careers? Are you perplexed by the difference between CBI 204.015(1) and CBI 204.015(2)? If the answer is yes, the Administrative Response Centre (ARC) is here to help.

The ARC, launched as a trial in 2019, achieved full operational capacity in June 2021. This is a streamlined centre of expertise put in place to answer questions and track inquiries related to policy matters, including pay, dress, honours, training and more.

The ARC’s services are particularly valuable to Chains of Command, Human Resource and Financial Services Administrators, Relocation Coordinators, Transition Advisors and other administrative support staffs – but they are also open to all current and former Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and their families. Inquiries may be submitted via phone or email. The dedicated team of analysts will provide a timely response to any question on Chief of Military Personnel policy, and work to identify policy gaps and confusion which may require future remediation.

The ARC’s mandate does not include grievances or requests requiring adjudication; queries relating to other active processes such as harassment investigations or legal proceedings; or queries where Chief of Military Personnel Command is not the functional authority.

In addition, CAF members should first contact the appropriate front line support staff and their chain of command, and abide by local directives. The ARC team welcomes policy questions but it cannot provide assistance with local procedures, nor does it have access to Guardian, pay systems or personnel records. Inquiries of this nature will be directed to the appropriate contacts.

The ARC staff are busy – they answered around 800 queries over the last quarter – but they can handle it. The most-asked questions relate to compensation, career management, education, and workplace rights. More recently, they have dedicated a portion of their services to responding to inquiries related to COVID-19 policies affecting military personnel.

For more information on the Administrative Response Centre, or to contact the ARC for assistance, visit Administrative Response Centre (accessible only on the National Defence network), call 1-833-445-1182 or email CMPARC.CRACPM@forces.gc.ca.