Mr. Chairman, in reflection, with Minister Thompson, I don't recall ever receiving any formal replies to anything. I may be mistaken on that, but I have to say, certainly in retrospect, that relationships were extremely strained at that point in time.
To Minister Blackburn's credit, when he took office, he took hold of the reins. Unlike his predecessor, with whom I'd have to make appointments several weeks in advance, he summoned me to his office the next day in order to talk about issues. The current minister has been much more proactive in responding to the observations that we bring up in the department.
Unfortunately, what comes to us from the minister's office, from the deputy minister, and from the department is just a regurgitation of exactly the things that we're trying to have redressed within the department. I used benefit of the doubt in one of those cases in point. ALS is another one where the response came back basically as “too bad, so sad”, that's the way it is.
I tried suggesting to both of the ministers that, much like the deputy minister is a voice that the minister has to rely on, the person right beside the deputy minister should be the ombudsman, giving the minister the ground truth. I explained that part of my job.
The rest of the time, sir, I was on the road communicating with veterans and looking into the department. I felt that I could give the minister a sober second look at some of the foolish answers, frankly, that were coming to things like benefit of the doubt and ALS.