My amendment is essentially designed to fulfill recommendation 74 by Chief Justice Lamer. This is of course because of the long-standing concerns about the length of time the grievance process was taking. It was a significant concern for people in the military who had a grievance. They were automatically put on the long finger, as it used to be said at one time, and they didn't get their matters dealt with.
I know significant efforts have been made, and we've heard about them. The grievance board representatives talked about how they've improved their procedures. Everybody has been talking about how they've been working very diligently to try to get these matters dealt with.
Frankly, the length of time it takes to do these things can be affected by the amount of resources put in to allow for this. If Justice Lamer felt that 12 months was a drop-dead date for the resolution of what are, for the most part, basic matters, then a way should be found to have these decisions made within 12 months. This amendment seeks to implement the recommendation that Justice Lamer made eight years ago.
I don't need to say much more than that. We did hear from witnesses about the consequences of delay, the effects on morale. These are what would normally be regarded as employment types of grievances, and 12 months, frankly, is a fairly lengthy period of time.
Granted, they may have to gather evidence from here and there. But the military has a terrific way of communicating; they have their own communications systems. If they were to devote the resources to this in the human resources department or the grievance section, then they should be able to meet that timeline. This would allow for a remedy for people who weren't getting their grievances heard within what's considered to be a reasonable period of time.
I think we should support it.