Cutting alternative dispute resolution or ADR services was the decision of the Canadian Forces. I know that this will have a considerable impact because informal conflict resolution helped to solve a lot of problems.
Major strides have been made over the past five years within the Canadian Forces. They have integrated a joint team of military members and civilians in their informal conflict resolution system. It was a mixed team that made it possible to offer quality services to both the military and civilians on each base. In addition, the fact that this team was on the ground, that it was known by the chain of command and that it was made up of local people was very helpful.
As a result, eliminating this team means eliminating an important tool for quickly resolving issues on the ground.
In my view, if this tool no longer exists, people will be likely to go through much more formal processes a lot sooner because that will be the only solution they will see. In addition, all the existing formal processes take a long time. A harassment complaint takes on average 90 days to process and a grievance takes between 18 and 24 months.