In terms of the experience you had, I was very happy to see the committee out meeting the troops on real operations. We get to see them here in uniform, but it's hard to really get a good appreciation until you see them in action. More importantly, as you stated, you get the reactions of other people to what they are doing.
This is one of the reasons why, in the supplementary estimates, the pay raise is so important. By having an over 6% pay increase, we are able to make sure we are thanking them. More importantly, this pay raise is not about just now; it is actually retroactive, going back to 2014. They were getting their lump sum cheques back in June.
When we launched our defence policy, we wanted to make sure our members felt that we were looking out for them. One of the reasons we also put in place the tax-exempt compensation for international named operations was that those impact the members as well as their families.
Our defence policy not only puts significant emphasis on our people but it's also to remind everybody about their families. That's why we're investing heavily in the MFRCs and building that resilience. We still have a lot of work to do, because we have to implement the defence policy. That resilience piece is also going to be extremely important. As we jointly announce the suicide prevention strategy with Veterans Affairs, we're going to be working on and finalizing the plans for how we're closing the seam and having that seamless transition from the military.
We are absolutely seized of this, and we're going to continue to work hard. That pay increase was one way of starting.