I don't know how many there are. If there are five, it would have to be three; if there are eight, it would have to be whatever. The idea is, I don't think there are dozens of people on this; 60% would guarantee a majority, and it's a question of figuring that out.
I realize this amendment is a bit inelegant, and I agree that the qualification issue is one.... But if I were writing the legislation, I'd do it differently. I'd say this is part of civilian oversight, and we'd define civilian—blah, blah, blah—and talk about a majority of civilians.
I've got fairly limited scope here in amending this legislation, so this is the route to go. The fact is, how do we get civilian oversight if we are not specific as we are here? Let's remember what this is about. The grievances board is dealing with how members of the CF are being treated when it comes to issues of medical treatment; when it comes to issues of fairness in promotion; when it comes to issues of discharge from the military and what conditions are they being discharged on. The notion is that the grievance is to decide whether you are being treated fairly by the military.
We're suggesting here—and it was suggested as part of the creation of these boards—that there needed to be a system for that. What has happened, by default perhaps—I don't know how it happened, but we've got retired senior officers...we've got people moving into retirement, leaving the forces to go to the grievance board. They're not necessarily people who have been out there in the world for 10, 15 or 20 years having other experiences.
There's no way of controlling that, and yes, it's a control of discretion. I don't make any apologies for that, and if there's a better way of doing it, presumably at some later point.... There's a five-year review of this legislation supposed to be taking place imminently, and if someone comes back with a better method or a more elegant solution, then I think this committee would be happy to consider it when it comes before it. But as it stands right now, this is a proposal to challenge the existence of the exclusive dominance of this grievance board by military and ex-military, and I stand behind that.