Evidence of meeting #17 for National Defence in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was peers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
I have a last question to wrap up. Colonel Ethell, given your incredible experience and expertise, where are we today, where do you see we've been, and where do you see we're going in a macro sense?
Col Donald S. Ethell
As I indicated to Mr. Coderre and the committee, this is a growth industry. As I also indicated earlier--not that it's within my purview--I think more money should be devoted to the increased number of PSCs and FPSCs, the regional coordinators, and so forth.
You've made the point about rural areas. Personally, I don't think we need PSCs all over the Northwest Territories or anything like that. That's a waste of resources, particularly in this day and age, the electronic age, when people can talk on videophones and so forth.
This business is not going to go away. Thank God the OSISS program was started, and thank goodness the peer support coordinators and the volunteers and so forth are out there so that somebody can call them up and meet them at Tim Hortons.
Before we finish, Mr. Chairman, it's not my right, but Mrs. Black asked a question about women. I was hoping that Mariane Le Beau could answer that question.
Maj Mariane Le Beau
Would you mind framing that question again, just to make sure I answer correctly?
NDP
Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC
The question I asked was around people self-reporting and whether there were particular, special challenges for women. I asked about reservists, and women in particular.
Maj Mariane Le Beau
To my knowledge, I know of no particular challenges that preclude women from self-reporting. Cyndi...?
Peer Support Coordinator, Calgary and Alberta South, Department of National Defence
I have several women peers on my peer load. Of course I'm female myself. It just goes to show that as we discussed earlier, OSI knows no trade, no rank, no gender, no race.
NDP
Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC
I understand that, but is it more difficult, or do you think it's easier for women to self-identify?
Peer Support Coordinator, Calgary and Alberta South, Department of National Defence
From my perspective, I didn't have a difficult time coming forward once I figured out what was going on with me. I have quite a number of women I work with on a daily basis.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
Thank you very much, all of you, for being here.
As you can tell, the bells are ringing, and Mr. Bachand is on crutches, so he has to get a head start on the rest of us.
Before we conclude, we didn't get an opportunity to get a financial update from VAC. Could you supply that?
As well, if there's anything you--any of you--think this committee could use to help formulate its recommendations, even in the form of a couple of recommendations, please supply it to us.
I want to thank you very much for your service to your country and for being here today. Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.