Accepting Colonel Gibson's caveat on his views that this is not intended to amend the Financial Administration Act, what it is intended to do is to make it very clear that the decision as to whether or not a grievance is successful includes the financial determination.
If we do this that will be a clear signal to the authorities, whether they be within the Treasury Board or wherever, that this is intended to be carried out. It seems that we have trouble, and we've seen other examples of this. We've seen it in the case of strong recommendations made four or five years ago to try to ensure that individuals who are reservists who are subject to insurance policies receive the same benefits as regular force members in the case of dismemberment, or other particulars of the insurance policy. That seemed to take four, five, or six years to try to resolve. Then finally when political pressure mounted in the House of Commons, the Minister of Defence was essentially indicating this was a Treasury Board problem not a defence problem.
If we can solve the defence problem here by saying we want to make it clear: the Chief of the Defence Staff who has the final authority, and that's the clear intention of the act...that includes financial matters. So there ought not to be, and as Colonel Gibson says maybe another department in JAG doesn't advise it... if it's a clear direction in legislation that the CDS makes the final decision on financial matters, it's not a lawyer advising the CDS, it's not a lawyer in the justice department, it's not somebody other than the CDS who makes the decision. That's the importance of this here.
It may be that the ex gratia order in council can be used for the actual mechanism for granting the money. I didn't get that level of confidence from the Vice CDS when he was here talking about it. We didn't get any indication that it had even been used to pass out money. So the mechanism should be found. This may not be adequate to do all the steps, but certainly in terms of decision-making there's no other layer. There is no somebody in the justice department who has to approve the fact that this person won their grievance and they're entitled to the money. They are entitled to the money. Somebody then has to find a way to get it to them.
We're here on the committee. We're lay people when it comes to the bureaucracy and how it works. Things go on in the bureaucracy that I'm sure amaze everybody in this room, particularly those who have more familiarity with the bureaucracy than I have. We're here as makers of legislation on behalf of the people of Canada. It seems to me to be a simple matter that we can say the decision-making, including on financial matters, is going to be made at the end of the day by the Chief of the Defence Staff, and it's up to the bureaucracy to find a way to give effect to it.
I think that's the purpose of this amendment so that it's crystal clear that once the grievance is over and the Chief of the Defence Staff signs off on it that there's no other process, some mystery process, that decides whether you actually get paid. There may need to be a mechanism but we're not making mechanisms here we're passing legislation. So I think if we can make it crystal clear in this proposed amendment to clause 6 then the detail as to how that happens can and should follow. If it requires another order in council I think we can expect the government to follow through on it. If it requires some other mechanism I think we can expect, or should expect, and have the right to expect that's going to happen. It's less likely to happen if we don't take this step.