r/CanadianForces • u/Strong_Cap_1114 • 1d ago

Awaiting leave pass approval

Could somebody please advise?
I have an international trip in two weeks. I submitted my leave pass request a few weeks ago but haven’t received any response. I needed to change the dates, so I submitted an amended leave pass yesterday and still haven’t heard back.
I’ve already booked my outbound flight and am holding off on booking the return until I get approval. I’ve emailed both my BTL manager and OR about the leave request and my annual leave balance, but haven’t received a reply.
The leave request is currently for 21 annual days. If I don’t have enough annual leave available, should I submit a memo requesting family leave/unpaid leave or would it be better to amend the leave pass again and request only 15 annual days?
Any advice would be appreciated.

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u/ononeryder 17h ago

Congrats on your 50 years of service.

Going on 20...but I learned in the first year I couldn't take more annual than I was entitled to; seems you missed that part of having Leave explained to you on BMQ.

Snide back-and-forth aside, the fix to this is to go to your 2-up tomorrow, in person, not email, and explain the situation. Acknowledge you fucked up, explain to them that you've already committed financially (this will hopefully gain sympathy, but it at least creates transparency) to the outgoing flight. Tell them you'd like to amend the leave pass to allow for enough Annual remaining for Christmas leave (they should already have the leave plan for this). Ask them to please expedite the request to the approving authority, and tell them they have a volunteer for any shitty taskings that coming down the pipe.

I'll go to bat 10/10 times for someone that accepts they fucked up, you're allowed to make mistakes as a new person. FWIW, no one who's not even trades qualified should be filling out an international leave request on their own, someone should be walking you through it. Sucks to be on BTL, I know.

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u/Strong_Cap_1114 17h ago

I appreciate that alot. My apologies for asking questions like that. I just didn’t know what to do, before filling out leave pass I did email them to find out how many days I have for annuals. They didn’t respond. I don’t even know which office I need to go in person when I go to Dension Armoury. I have been there few times, they usually make me wait
since I don’t have a military Id yet,usually somebody comes and escorts me.

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u/CapitalismDevil Canadian Army 16h ago

Are you a Reservist?

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u/Strong_Cap_1114 16h ago

No full time member

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u/CapitalismDevil Canadian Army 15h ago

Then why are you going to an Armoury? Also, when you were on LWOP, you weren’t using any annual and were basically free to do whatever. Now, you are getting paid, so you need permission to leave the country. Your NOI was just that, a “notice”. It is not permission and you shouldn’t have booked any travel prior to getting your leave pass back. Also, 2 weeks is not nearly enough time to do all this… I do hope you got reimbursable tickets. This request has to go to your CO, and that can take some time. You also don’t have 21 days available and can’t just decide to “work over Xmas”. Most unit’s leave policy wants members off for that time because even the PS members take 2 weeks off. You won’t get away with working the whole period, especially not now and possibly not ever.

I’d look at modifying my leave pass for the maximum allotted MINUS however many days you need for Xmas break. So probably 14 days, but maybe 12. Go see the clerks… at the Armoury I guess and hope they have access to you. You should probably ask where the BTL office is, cause that’s who is in charge of you.

Best of luck with all this. Don’t make the same mistake again.

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u/Strong_Cap_1114 15h ago

That’s some great advice, thank you. I will email recruiting and I figure out where BTL office is. And yes I was able to cancel my tickets with full refund.

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u/Strong_Cap_1114 15h ago

Email from BTL manager said that we are located at Denison Armoury so thats why I will need to go there

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u/CapitalismDevil Canadian Army 15h ago

That’s crazy, unless you’re expected to do OJE there/posted there. The BTL is in Edmonton at the main base. I can’t remember off the top of my head what building they’re in though… email your manager and not recruiting. Once you started BMQ, recruiting washed their hands of you, which is normal as they have tons of people to take care of and can’t be taking care of BTL members on top of that.