Mr. Chair, perhaps I will clarify the seven years.
This is a new methodology for the Canadian Forces housing differential. It's to address the affordability of housing. We needed to find a way to ensure that what we are delivering is going to address the need, which is affordability. Seven years allows us, right now, to attain five years of data. We're not even through year one. By that five-years we'll be able to do an assessment to understand whether we need to change the methodology. Then, potentially, by year seven, we can decide, “Okay, the methodology doesn't work.”
If you look at the numbers within seven years, many members in many locations will have been promoted. Right now, they may be making $77,000, because that is approximately what the lower ranks make on average. In seven years' time, they're more likely to be making an amount over $80,000, because that is where the bulk of Canadian Armed Forces members' salaries sit, in fact.
We are saying “seven years” at this point, but a lot can change between now and our reaching that seven-year mark.