Thanks, Chair.
We are not persuaded by those arguments. The grievances committee should be able to manage their affairs with the number of members they have, with the workload they have, to allow for appropriate transitions after a four-year term. In fact, they have managed their affairs—I repeat for everyone's benefit—recently under the current law, with the stipulation that service not go beyond four years, in a way that has come close to eliminating the backup, certainly reduced it dramatically.
Moreover, there is provision now for new members to be paired with outgoing members to ensure the transition, and there's no reason why that kind of pairing could not take place for cases that extend beyond the term of a member. That is indeed the case in a wide variety of independent tribunals, at both the federal and the provincial levels. We see no reason to change that rule in this particular case. Therefore, I will preview our position on the next two amendments, which is that we will also oppose them, because we do not think there should be prejudice against serving or former members of the Canadian Forces with regard to their potential membership in a grievances committee. There are close to 100,000 serving regular force/reserve force members. To think that none of them is qualified enough to be impartial on a grievances committee strikes us as odd, as it does in the case of the over-600,000 veterans of the Canadian Forces.