Good morning, Madam Chair.
Good morning, honourable members.
I am pleased to appear before the committee today with Ms. West.
I am Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan, recently appointed chief of professional conduct and culture. I am honoured by the trust placed in me by my appointment to this mandate, which, to say the least, will be complex and challenging. While our responsibilities encompass the entire defence team, my comments today will focus on the Canadian Armed Forces.
For this change in culture to succeed, we will need to challenge our basic assumptions and guiding principles in building the professional soldier we need now and in the future.
Before this committee, I spoke last month about our military culture. There are many positive aspects to our culture. It allows women and men to develop the strength and the courage to put themselves into harm's way to defend Canada.
However, some aspects of our culture command change, and we are at an inflection point. There is a gap between our existing culture and our professed culture. Moreover, for a mission-oriented culture such as ours, there is a belief that tasks are to be done at all costs, that people's well-being and operational effectiveness is a zero-sum game. This premise is false. When applied indiscriminately, it contributes to toxicity within our units. Treating people with dignity is not a trade-off for operational effectiveness. In fact, dignity is at the foundation of trust, and we must have trust in one another to succeed in the challenging circumstances we so often face together.
The scope of this new organization's mandate is broad, and we need to make sure we build it on a solid foundation. Our first actions in this new organization will be to formalize the mandate and responsibilities, put the structure in place to carry out that mandate, undertake consultations with respect to professional conduct and culture, conduct a review of complaint processes and structures, and develop recommendations and implement them.
This culture change requires a sustained effort on the part of every CAF member to ensure that our behaviours, attitudes and beliefs are aligned with our values. That is why we are committed to building a CAF that reflects and celebrates the uniqueness and strength of all Canadians.
I feel encouraged and buoyed by the winds of change within National Defence as well as the many expressions of support I have received over the past two weeks from various individuals and groups within and outside Defence. We have a duty to do this properly, once and for all.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.