National Defence Committee on Oct. 30th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Go ahead, Mr. Rioux.

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

The new National Defence policy is ambitious, but it has been received with enthusiasm by all the troops. I think the skills of the people responsible for implementing it reassures all members of the committee.

Congratulations on your appointments. We are very honoured to welcome you today.

The focus of the policy has been on the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, as well as their families. This is what Canadians have clearly told us.

My colleague from Kingston and I have a number of things in common, including a military college in each of our ridings: the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston and the military college in Saint-Jean. My colleague has raised an important point, namely that it is necessary to connect the military world with the civilian world. There are many things we can do about it. For example, we have a responsibility to further promote the professionalism of the people of the Canadian Armed Forces, their commitment and the sacrifices they make.

There may be a second point that we can advance.

Mr. Matthews, I really liked your introduction. You said that you will focus on procurement and the transition to civilian life.

There will be major changes in the rules for procurement. The transactions, as a whole, will be done directly with the department, while the major purchases will continue to be with Public Services and Procurement Canada. I think it's an opportunity to connect with the civilian world because you have to inform people about those changes.

Mr. Matthews, how do you plan to connect with the civilian world to explain this policy and its impact on innovation and job creation in Canada?

[William Matthews]

Thank you for your question, sir.

I have only been in my position for a week, but I can say two things about the connection with the civilian world.

First, the deputy minister has already mentioned her intention to follow the progress of each initiative. More than 111 initiatives are under way, and we can begin to connect by communicating the progress we have made in this regard.

In terms of the jobs that are created as a result of the strategy, that's a secondary impact that I think is a little more difficult to communicate.

I think our focus for both the civilians as well as the men and women in the forces is that by implementing this policy, we are ensuring a well-equipped force as well as properly supporting the families and the men and women, either while they're in the forces or as they transition. It's a whole that you have to think about together.

The database is available to all employees; they can monitor it. You can then look at the public reporting that will happen as well. I think that is key in terms of making those links.

That's all I will offer for the moment.

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Mr. Venner would like to add a point.

[Gordon Venner]

I would just make a quick comment on what you were saying at the beginning about the importance of people. It relates to the comment that Mr. Bezan made earlier when he said the geostrategic environment is in chapter 4 of the document. One of the reasons you don't get to it until chapter 4 is that chapter 1 is about the people.

Part of the reason it ended up at the front of the document is related to the comments I made at the beginning about the tremendous consultative process and the 20,000 people who participated. We can't be certain, because people were allowed to participate in the consultative process anonymously if they chose to, but we're pretty clear from what we read online that a lot of the people who chose to participate were family members of serving members, or they were veterans, or they were serving members themselves who had just as much right to participate in the process as anybody else. One of my favourite comments left online was from someone who said that our Canadian Forces are the best in the world, and they deserve the best available aircraft, ships, vehicles, and boots. I had the feeling that the guy who wrote that comment had walked a mile in our boots.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Is that all?

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

Do I still have time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

You're out of time, unfortunately.

Mr. Garrison, you have the last formal question. You have three minutes.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you. I want to go back to Commodore Bernatchez.

I appreciate your forthrightness with us today. As I said, we don't often get a chance to ask questions on military justice.

I have a very large military base in my riding. One of the questions that's come up very often is on who is responsible for investigating and prosecuting sexual offences involving a member of the forces and a non-member, such as a civilian employee or even a family member. Who has the responsibility for investigation and prosecution?

[Cmdre Geneviève Bernatchez]

Let's start with the investigation. lt will depend largely on a variety of factors, including who's the complainant, who's the victim, and who is the alleged offender. There will be discussions between the national investigation service of the military police and the civilian police of jurisdiction if there is doubt as to whether the civilian police would be better suited to investigate, given all of these factors.

Once the investigation is completed, if it has been investigated by the civilian police, there could be a transfer back to the military. At that point there might be sufficient information to indicate that the military justice system would be better suited to prosecute the case, or it may be that it will stay within the civilian system and it will be the court of civilian jurisdiction that will prosecute.

It is an issue of what's best suited, given the specific circumstances of the case at hand. These circumstances are looked at very closely by the different actors.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Okay. Thank you.

About a year ago, the Minister of National Defence wrote to the victims ombudsman's office. I'm not sure who this question goes to, because I'm not sure who's responsible. I'm looking at the parliamentary secretaries as well. He said that it would be a priority of the government to fix the disparity between victims' rights in the military justice system and those in the civilian justice system.

Is there something under way to prepare the legislative changes that would be needed? That would be the Department of Justice, but is someone working with them actively now, since the minister said a year ago that it was a priority for the government?

[Cmdre Geneviève Bernatchez]

Thank you. Is this question directed at me?

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

I'm not sure whether preparation of new legislation falls under you or the deputy minister in this case.

[Jody Thomas]

I'm not aware of the work on that specific issue, so I would have to get back to you.

[Cmdre Geneviève Bernatchez]

My answer would have been that it is very much a political decision as to whether a bill would be presented by this government in that context. I'd be a little ill placed to answer.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

I'm just asking if the work is going on, since the minister said it was a priority.

[Cmdre Geneviève Bernatchez]

I'd like to say, though, that even if we don't have a bill moving forward in the House at this point, there's a lot we're doing right now to ensure there are victims' rights. Not all of it requires legislation.

As I said earlier, our director of military prosecution is doing a great deal to ensure that everything that can be done without legislation is implemented. The military police are doing exactly the same thing. There's a sexual misconduct centre that has been put in place to support victims of sexual crimes, sexual harassment, and it provides support to the victims throughout the process.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Great. Thanks very much.

[Jody Thomas]

If I could add something about the sexual misconduct reporting centre, it's now running 24-7 and is responding to calls from military serving members, civilian members on bases, victims, and people who have been accused. It's fulfilling a huge gap, obviously, in information and advice. It's also supporting family members. It's absolutely anonymous. We track stats, but we don't track details and we don't publish details.

It's been a very useful source of information to help the commodore in her work, help Rear-Admiral Bennett in her work on Operation Honour, and help the civilian human resources team and the military human resources team. It's a very useful service.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

I'll say again what I've said in public many times: I give a lot of credit to the military for having tackled harassment and sexual assault in a way that other public institutions have failed to do, even though there's more work left to be done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

That ends our formal round of questions.

We do have time, and people have been signalling to me that they want to ask more questions. I'll go to Leona Alleslev, James Bezan, and then back to you, Mr. Garrison, if you would like, for a maximum of five minutes each.

Ms. Alleslev, you have the floor.

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Excellent.

I want to take a bit of another tack, because we talk about industry collaboration and collaboration with civilian organizations. Once upon a time, we used to be known for our research and our academic collaboration.

I'm wondering if you could give us any insight on any plans to enhance our relationship with the academic community around collaboration and around increased research, particularly in our complex security and defence environment?

[Jody Thomas]

It's something we're very happy to speak about, and I'll ask Mr. Venner to jump in. He's going to be responsible for this area.

As part of the defence policy, we have a program that we're hoping to launch shortly, called IDEaS. It's about innovation in science and tech.

Perhaps we know we have a problem, and it might be something very simple, such as cold feet in the Arctic. Traditionally, you put out an RFP that says we need new boots that keep feet warm in the Arctic, but you don't know how. Now what we're doing is saying, “We have this problem. Our boots aren't keeping people's feet warm in the Arctic, so how do we solve that? What do you have?” We compete the problem rather than competing a product or a solution for a product. It's based on a program in the United States that's been very effective for innovation for the U.S. Armed Forces, so we're looking forward to getting that launched shortly.

Our science and tech group in the Department of National Defence is world-leading. The work in the research they do is really quite extraordinary. We just celebrated their 78th anniversary, and the wall of things they're responsible for, just everyday inventions you didn't realize came out of the Department of National Defence, is really quite remarkable.

We're investing a lot more money for defence research establishments in the IDEaS program that will change the nature of their work and engage with industry and with academics—

[Leona Alleslev, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Fantastic.