Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank all of the witnesses for being here with us today.
You have just raised several questions we all had here. In fact, I have more comments than questions.
I read the reports and I heard everything that was said today. I am struck by something. The Canadian Army is recognized for its excellence, both military and operational. This is something we acknowledge and we know it. However, I am really pained to note that you seem singularly incompetent in the management of your human resources. I am saying this in the context of our study on the reserve, but also in light of everything we hear about discrimination and perhaps harassment. Your human resource management is problematical.
As we have just seen, you also seem to have trouble managing information technology. I think it's remarkable that you can be as effective as you are in combat or mission situations, and at the same time, have so many problems managing human resources. I don't think any piece of software is going to solve that problem. The issues seem rather to be a matter for your human resources managers.
I've also been quite surprised by this class of soldiers that was created by the Canadian Forces and that doesn't even exist in the National Defence Act, which is the reserve. How do you find this acceptable, particularly as you seem to find this a way of paying them less than you would pay a regular soldier?
These are my questions and my doubts. Again, I am always extremely impressed by the phenomenal excellence of the Canadian Forces in terms of operational capacity, but I find it very distressing that in the management of human resources, there is such a big issue. That I leave as a statement more than anything else.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.