Certainly, Mr. Chair. I'd be happy to make a few comments on this.
I think you heard from the vice-chief when he appeared that he did note that the underlying issue that's trying to be addressed here is very complicated. He certainly acknowledged the time that had passed in trying to deal with it, and he noted that much work was ongoing within his organization to try to find a solution.
The issue is really from the perspective of what the effect of this proposed amendment would have. It's very unclear what it would do. I think Vice-Admiral Donaldson made clear that the Chief of Defence Staff currently has the authority to render the decision that I believe Mr. Harris was referring to, a written decision saying the member is entitled to x. So the issue isn't one of granting, through this amendment, the authority for the chief to direct or give that decision; the issue really is one of how we give effect to that decision. Vice-Admiral Donaldson, I think, was very clear that the objective is to find a mechanism to do that.
With respect to the whole question of his being out of answers, again it's not for me to interpret the evidence that was heard, but I do believe that the Vice-Chief of Defence staff did point out that he was looking at a number of options right now, a number of mechanisms to achieve this. He did say they were much more complicated than he had anticipated them being when he started looking at this last summer. But I didn't hear him say that he was out of ideas or out of ways to try to make this better.
So again, I think the only point I would make is that it's not clear what this amendment achieves with respect to the change in the act. I appreciate that it does make an express reference to financial matters, but that authority seems to exist already and is exercised on a regular basis by the CDS in rendering his decisions. Perhaps it might even further complicate or make this matter even more complex to resolve if we end up with a legislative provision that says this and nobody really knows what it does or how it works within the broader framework of the Financial Administration Act and the authorities issues that the vice-chief and his staff are currently struggling with. The same would be true for the membership, obviously, as they try to figure out what that means when they render a decision. They receive a decision from the CDS, but the effect is really no different than it is today.
I put those comments on the table for the committee to consider.