Status of Women Committee on May 14th, 2019

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Yes, of course.

[Denise Preston]

It is true that Madame Deschamps' report had 10 recommendations, but many of them revolved around the responsibilities assigned to this independent centre. When the department set up the response to her report, it established the strategic response team on the CAF side of the house, which Commodore Patterson leads, and it set up the response centre that I lead.

However, the assignment of responsibilities to those two organizations was not consistent with what Madame Deschamps had envisioned, and we've come to realize now.... We sort of always knew it, on the ground, as we were enacting our roles, but when the Auditor General came in and did the audit last year, he made a number of very similar observations and recommendations to those Madame Deschamps had made, which had to do with this assignment of responsibilities.

That's the process that we're in right now, essentially, rewriting both of our respective mandates to essentially shift to the SMRC quite a number of responsibilities that CAF has been holding on to. That is significant from the point of view that now those responsibilities will be had by people who have subject matter expertise.

We will be informing policy. We will be informing training. We will be monitoring training. We'll be doing much more of what Madame Deschamps had envisioned. In doing that, we're meeting, I think, probably three or four of the recommendations, and that work is under way right now.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I have one minute. This will be fast.

I have a grandson who's going into his third year as a reservist, and I tell you this is something that concerns me greatly. I'm hoping it's a generational change—certainly from his perspective, I believe it is—but then I worry when I hear that, when you're immersed in the culture, it kind of takes over.

I'm very happy to hear that there's a lot of advice from the outside, but I think we have to recognize that we do have a cultural shift to make and, as you mentioned, it's not easy.

I have a couple of quick questions. You talked about the 24-7 call centre. How many people are employed at that call centre?

[Denise Preston]

Do you mean all together, or on the counselling team?

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I mean all together.

[Denise Preston]

All together there are 26 public servants.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Okay, and did you say that 48 civilian counsellors are being trained right now?

[Denise Preston]

No, the 48 are the people who work in Mr. Gauthier's program.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

They're being trained in this aspect of their work. Is that correct?

[Alain Gauthier]

They've already deployed across the country.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

How many resource centres are there?

[Alain Gauthier]

There are 16.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

You mentioned a provision for “face to face”. What does a provision for face to face mean?

[Denise Preston]

It means that we will ensure.... As we're decentralizing this service, we will be establishing centres. We haven't made the decision yet as to whether they'll be located at bases or wings, whether they'll be in regional centres or whether they'll be even perhaps co-located with the integrated complaint and conflict management system, but they'll be located in centres where people can come and receive face-to-face service.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank Dr. Preston, Alain Gauthier and Commodore Patterson. Thank you very much for coming and providing your testimony.

We will be meeting once again at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, location to be announced. We'll see you then.

The meeting is adjourned.