As I said in my opening remarks, I think there is a crisis of trust within the military around whether people are going be treated fairly. That is the core part of our mandate. When people come forward to us, they're looking for fair treatment and we try to help them get that.
The other element, though, is that the misconduct crisis that is clearly in the news and continues to be in the news is certainly causing people to lose trust. When they do come forward when there's a situation of misconduct—whether it is sexual or some other abuse of power—they want to know that they will be treated fairly. They want to know that they will be heard. [Technical difficulty—Editor] to deal with that particular situation.
The other one is that, as I go around to various bases and wings, I hear from families and members who are having a difficult time being able to afford housing. We are seeing policies, as some of the other witnesses have said, that are outdated and not agile enough to keep up with the economic factors that are affecting not only the military, but of course all Canadians, with respect to housing, inflation and so on. Some of those policies, like the post living differential, have not been updated. The rates have not been updated since 2008. The economy and the economic situation across the country have changed. That has created very much a situation of unfairness for a lot of members and a lot of families across the country.
There's a whole variety of reasons why people have decided to leave, but I truly believe it comes down to the basics. There's a lack of trust that the system will treat you fairly. There needs to be a change in the culture of respect and more respect for the individual. We need to help the military families and support them better in supporting our members.
Seamless Canada is an initiative that is trying to help deal with that with the provinces and territories, but this is an area that I strongly believe the Prime Minister and first ministers need to deal with quite directly with the provinces and territories.