National Defence committee  As I've said to a number of you already in our one-on-one briefs, when we have a complex case that we investigate, which could be one or two issues involved in it, or a very complex singular one—and those complex cases are certainly not all of the 14,000 calls we get in a year—when we investigate and we find that the situation is unfair for the individual, and we make a recommendation to the department, over the last five years, 100% of those have been accepted and implemented or are in the process of being implemented.

National Defence committee  That's correct.

National Defence committee  As I said, of the types of complaints we receive, the highest ones over the 23 years of our existence are always benefits. It would be the same in the grievance process.

National Defence committee  We have to remember that a grievance a member brings forward is typically in the area of benefits. They believe they are entitled to a benefit. It is not a part of the disciplinary process. That is a separate process altogether. A grievance is something where you feel you've been treated unfairly or you're owed a benefit, and you're asking for the decision-maker to look at your case and decide whether you should receive that benefit or receive a service, whatever it might be.

National Defence committee  Certainly. When we receive a complaint, or even a request for information, a lot of the information fills our analysis of trends. In this case, we are always looking at these complaints and requests for information and the actual investigations that may be carried out as a result of those complaints, and we're looking at those trends to see if there are some systemic issues in there that we need to look at more deeply.

National Defence committee  The simple answer to that is yes. I would support that type of recommendation. I think that's evident. Certainly, the report or position paper I put forward last year provides what I feel is a strong case for that, as well as draft legislation that would enable that. Yes, I would fully support that recommendation, but that's in the realm of the government and Parliament to be able to endorse.

National Defence committee  Of course, Ms. Normandin.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. Again, we will look more deeply into that in another year or so. However, I think there are a couple of areas. One is something that I discussed with the chief of the defence staff a little while ago: making sure that people are held accountable for dealing with a particular grievance in the process.

National Defence committee  In our case, if a complaint is brought to us, we will refer the individual to the proper process to be able to get it resolved. As I said, it's a difficult question to answer, because if there are compelling circumstances.... Somebody could bring a complaint to us, as happened last summer, in which the complaints were nine years old and four years old in the grievance system already.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure of the time. I'm not sure if Robyn has a timeline on that right now. To be honest, I don't think it's changed that much. I'll see if Robyn has the number.

National Defence committee  Certainly, they are in the process now of putting some changes in place. The pandemic has had an impact on recruitment, as you've heard from other witnesses as well. One of the most common reasons that we have complaints coming toward us is with regard to recruitment and the delays in recruitment.

National Defence committee  Which programs are you speaking about?

National Defence committee  I don't believe so. The comprehensive military family plan is something that was approved in principle. Essentially, everybody agreed this is something that we should do—in this case, the Canadian Armed Forces and the department. It simply needs the resources to be able to roll it out and implement it.

National Defence committee  I'll answer the last [Technical difficulty—Editor] on the benefits question. Phoenix is definitely one of the questions and one of the complaints we receive from civilian employees of the department. I'll ask Robyn to answer the first part of your question.

National Defence committee  When we're talking about the backlog, we're talking about the backlog in the grievance system itself, which is the internal mechanism available—in this case to military members we're speaking about—within the department. It's not within our office per se. We see some of the same situations you were just talking about, such that if we call with respect to a grievance, we will sometimes see a quicker response and quicker action on that.