There is one area I'm sure you're very well aware of from your work in this committee. It's the whole area of family services. One of the areas we struggle with in that particular domain is that services tend to be offered to family members based on their partner or their spouse being a client of the department.
What we're finding in terms of research is that very often the family member, whether it's the spouse or the partner or the child, has become impacted as a result of living with someone with an operational stress injury, and yet the individual has not come to us. The veteran has not come to us or the still-serving member of the Canadian Forces has not come to us, and it very often ties our hands in terms of what we can do for the family members. So it would be interesting for your committee to delve into that a bit more. We think there needs to be some legislative or regulatory change that recognizes family members as clients in their own right as a result of the service that their partner has incurred in the military.
I'm not sure if you've had that kind of discussion, but it would be well worthwhile to have it. Our needs on the veterans affairs side are different from what the Department of National Defence has around family services, but I think there needs to be a recognition that when someone goes into the military, it's not just an individual responsibility, but a family unit responsibility, and that there are responsibilities on behalf of the Government of Canada to serve the members of the families in a more effective way.
I throw that to you as something for your consideration.