Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As far as the Canadian Forces are concerned, we are not assessing defined contributions at all. We are very pleased that it is a defined-benefits package, and as far as we are concerned, that is the way our pension plan is going to continue. Therefore, we w

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, good afternoon. It is a great pleasure for me to be here today to represent the Canadian Armed Forces. I am joined today by Mr. David Grandmaison. Of course, the Canadian Armed Forces' pension plans are very important to forces members, b

National Defence committee  At the current time, no time limit has been put on it. The terms of reference will be such that it will permit the Independent Review Authority to really look fulsomely at our workplace, our workplace culture, and the programs, policies and procedures, everything from training to

National Defence committee  Sir, I cannot ballpark it. That will be up to the Independent Review Authority.

National Defence committee  I don't know, sir.

National Defence committee  I think the Chair, just prior to the end of the last session, characterized it very well as stigma. We've seen it recently on the mental health side, that mental health is characterized by depression, PTSD. A forces member attempts to fix the problem, and when they can't fix it,

National Defence committee  Yes, we have. As a matter of fact, we are part of a type of cooperation working group with New Zealand, the U.K., Australia, and the U.S., where we discuss these very issues. Canada, as you know, was one of the first nations to open its combat roles to women back in 1989 and, ind

National Defence committee  Thank you, ma'am, very much. Once recruited, as soon as they enter into boot camp, that is our fist enculturation of defence ethics. Indeed, that's when the actual formal courses are given to all our recruits. As General Lawson mentioned, there are four sessions in about a nine

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, thank you. Certainly, they do. In each of our wings and bases we have a military family resource centre that is for the families and the member. These centres are another place and another mechanism of voice that a family member can go to should they feel that their mi

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir, very much. Within the Canadian Forces, as we mentioned we're a very proud institution that defines itself with the highest ethical and moral standards. That is institutionalized through our defence ethics program, and indeed transcends through the government and

National Defence committee  Did you want to comment?

National Defence committee  Yes, sir, and we do have our spiritual leaders on each of our bases. Even if our members were not necessarily comfortable with going to the padre on that base—once again, because it's still associated with the environment and perhaps the chain of command—we have a 1-800 padre hel

National Defence committee  The report you are talking about is the actual survey, the workplace harassment survey that we do within the Canadian Forces as part of our continuous improvement program. It surveys our Canadian Forces' members anonymously and allows them to report on the workplace culture they

National Defence committee  Indeed, it is a continuous process. The survey was completed in 2012. At that time, we started to implement even greater measures. As the Chief of the Defence Staff alluded to, on March 11 he implemented changes and improvements to our harassment program, and that was prior, as a

National Defence committee  In terms of their propensity? Our recruiting standards, techniques, examine certainly—