Yes, and thank you for the question.
When the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act first came into force in 2007, a number of organizations were excluded from the act, and the Canadian Armed Forces was one of those organizations. The onus was on the Canadian Armed Forces to put in place a parallel regime. I think the wording in the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act indicates a regime similar to that under which the Treasury Board rolled out the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act.
I'll just summarize very quickly. The tenets on which we built the Canadian Armed Forces process are very similar to what's under the civilian side under the Department of National Defence. We have a definition of wrongdoing; there are very minor differences in the definition of wrongdoing. We put in place established procedures for disclosure; there is no difference between the two regimes. A senior officer has to be appointed, so that's me for both of those; so that's identical.
There is a prohibition against reprisal. That's one difference that I'd like to point out to the committee. Under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, if there is a case of reprisal, in the case of someone coming forward with a protected disclosure, those cases are investigated directly by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner. Under the Canadian Armed Forces process, reprisal is dealt with by me. So all reprisal complaints are dealt with and investigated by me. I think that is an important point for the committee to note.
There is a requirement for confidentiality in the process, so we ensure confidentiality under both.
There is a need for annual reporting, so we prepare one annual report under both.
That sums it up.