I think right now...
The committee’s big problem is that our work is not grounded. When people from the Department of Veterans Affairs or young people come here to discuss the Ombudsman bill, they are not sure about the topic to be discussed. Therefore the committee and the government should table a draft of their view of an ombudsman. That way people who come to testify could say whether it’s good or not and tell us what has to be improved.
I don’t want to say anything against the witnesses we had last Monday, but they talked to us about the Korean War for 18 minutes out of 20. When we brought up the subject of the ombudsman, they were reticent and we had to drag everything out of them. If the witnesses had a document or a draft bill in hand that is to be examined, they could speak with more authority.
On that subject, I’ve reached the point where I think we have almost heard enough testimony. We have reached the stage of going to see the Ombudsman of each province and starting to draft a bill. I think we have heard enough witnesses.