At some risk, I will disagree with General Semianiw. When you decide where you're going to put your major treatment centres for operational stress injuries, yes, proximity to the population at risk is very important, but you also have to be realistic about where the resources can be found.
Petawawa, I know, is two hours up the road from Ottawa, but we have been trying, unfortunately, for the last three or four years to hire people into that position. The reason we're posting military social workers and a military psychiatrist there this summer is that we cannot attract civilian providers to Petawawa. It's a beautiful place in the upper Ottawa Valley, but we have been unable to attract them there.
If we had decided back in 1999 to open the OTSSC in Petawawa, it would have half the staff it has now in Ottawa. The ideal would be to have all the providers you want where you want them, but it's better to have them close by than not to have them engaged in your organization at all. Of course, 8,500 people have rotated out of Petawawa, but the total base population is somewhat less than that. That accounts for the fact that people get posted and people get rotated.
We are continuing our efforts to build the clinic in Petawawa. When we achieve what we're going to get to this summer, they will have a full general mental health program. Of course, they have a full psycho-social program. The only thing they will be missing is the OTSSC label, but they will have all the components of an OTSSC.
I'll turn it over to the director if he wants to correct me on this, but I don't see any reason we could not institute the assessment protocols right in Petawawa.