National Defence committee  That has been in effect since the first... We occasionally receive that type of grievance; they are subject to a discretionary referral.

National Defence committee  The act provides that certain types of grievances are determined by regulation. In addition to that, according to the regulations, the Chief of Staff may decide, on a discretionary basis, to refer another grievance to us. That's what's called referrals that are not mandatory, tha

National Defence committee  Indeed. That started on January 1; it's brand new. In principle, we should receive for review approximately 85% of all grievances forwarded to the Chief of Staff. We now refer grievances that historically fell solely within the chain of command, for which a decision had been made

National Defence committee  Yes, since January 1.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  No.

National Defence committee  As far as I know, this committee's mandate is to review the National Defence Act.

National Defence committee  The types of grievances we're now getting under this process are promotion grievances and administrative measures. Even though they're not disciplinary measures, the CF are allowed to, for behavioural or performance issues, give a recorded warning and C and P--

National Defence committee  We never used to have counselling and probation. We had them once in a while, but now we're going to get all those--

National Defence committee  There's relief of command, removal--

National Defence committee  --and repatriation from Afghanistan. We've had a few of those. Those types of grievances that are usually within the chain of command prerogatives and that were not referred to the board before are now being referred to the board.

National Defence committee  Members in general are very happy when the board reviews the grievances, whether we are denying their grievance or supporting it or supporting a grant, because they, for the first time, often see a reason and an explanation providing both sides of the picture. We've seen grievers

National Defence committee  All the board findings are confidential because the names of the complainants cannot be disclosed. However, all the summaries of our recommendations and findings are on-line. You can even do a search by subject. That's also how we can detect subjects that repeat. There's also a l

National Defence committee  That's correct. If we want to put these three recommendations in place, we need an amendment to the act.

National Defence committee  I'm sure it can.