National Defence committee  Yes. That's one of our recommendations that was not accepted by the department. That was to have the CAF, or the military health services, make that decision on service attribution of an injury. We still believe in that, absolutely, because it seems to be the most logical and most efficient way of doing it, but they've been reluctant to look at that since our previous report.

National Defence committee  At the time—and perhaps I'll ask Robyn to supplement this—they brought up the ethical issues of a treating doctor providing that decision. There are ways to get around that. They could have a separate group within the organization do it, separate from the treating doctor. That was the issue they brought up at the time.

National Defence committee  I wouldn't say so. I think the point is that we want to see retiring members get the benefits they deserve as quickly as possible, and, in fact, get the adjudication decision before they leave the forces so they have every piece of information and all the benefits and services in place before they leave.

National Defence committee  Exactly.

National Defence committee  I would say that, since I started in 2018, we've experienced the same problems and delays in getting information from the department—in this case, the minister and minister's office—with respect to our systemic recommendations. We know the department, through our discussions with them, has been working on these recommendations—whether or not to implement or action them.

National Defence committee  We can provide this committee with a chart of that information for all places in the world we have that information for. In the area of the Five Eyes—the most closely linked communities and countries we work with—we are the only one that does not have a legislated mandate for its ombudsperson, inspector general or whatever they might be called.

National Defence committee  First of all, they can access our services at any point in time—it does not matter—and we will make sure they get on the right path to get the right recourse mechanism, if that's the case, or to get the information, whatever it is. They can access us at any time. It does not matter.

National Defence committee  First of all, in the area of law enforcement or judicial proceedings like that, we are prevented from looking at that area in particular and any criminal matters in that regard. On your question in general of being able to access information to support their lives or their careers, it is morale damaging when they can't get the information in time.

National Defence committee  Good morning, committee members. Over our history, every ombudsman has called for our office to be entrenched in legislation. We have advanced this committee copies of four reports we've prepared on this subject. Legislating this office and having it report to Parliament is both symbolic and practical.

National Defence committee  I don't have the statistics in front of me for the construction of housing right now, obviously, but I think overall more is needed. There's no doubt about that. The wait-lists are always rising pretty well across the country now—that's factual—so more is needed. Again, it's a good question for the CFHA to get the exact numbers.

National Defence committee  There's certainly some leniency in terms of where they can find housing, how they find housing and so on, but the end result is.... There's limited capacity on base to house people. Generally, it's full. There's really no opportunity other than in the community to find housing. They get into this situation where there's simply not as much housing as is needed, not only for all Canadians but also for military families in the communities they serve, and again, it comes down to needing more.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure how I would answer that per se, but I will come back to the point. I think given the economic environment out there and given the issues of military members leaving because of the cost of living, cost of housing and family issues, raising the rent, in my personal opinion, is not the right thing to do at this point in time.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  When I talk about the living units and the pictures I've been shown by military members, these are the barracks or shacks. They're not the residential housing units that I've seen. Those are different. They are two different things. Certainly, these pictures were horrid. They were of toilets not working, toilets overflowing, mould on walls and ceilings, heating not working—all sorts of issues that you would not expect in a facility that houses the people who save our lives and defend our security.

National Defence committee  This would be a good question for the CFHA as well. I would say that, overall, they're not in bad condition. The residential housing units are better than what I remember, to be honest. We generally see the newer ones as they're getting updated—