Mr. Chair, I am certainly not recommending that the words the member has raised are found in the mandate of the veterans affairs ombudsman.
In the remarks that I haven't read, or maybe also in the parts that I have read, I think I made the point that as far as our office was concerned, there are issues that should be addressed, and certainly legislating our mandate would be one of these. That's one part.
The second part, I would also like to mention, Mr. Chair, is that since I've been ombudsman, since August 3, 2005, although these words are present in the mandate, there has been absolutely no attempt in any way, shape, or form by any minister or by his staff to interfere with our ability to do things.
Another point I would make, and it's also very important.... The member asked why the mandate would say that the minister could refer issues or questions to the ombudsman. Actually, I think this can be a very helpful tool for a minister to have, because it may be that at some point in time a minister would look at what his department was giving him or her and say, “You know what? This is not exactly what I need. I think the work that has been done here was maybe not as complete as it should have been.” Or maybe there is a risk that the work the department did will not be perceived as being independent.
One good example from the history of our own office is the Wenzel case. Mr. Wenzel, as you know, was a retired pilot from World War II, who for a number of years had been fighting to get a pension. Many ministers had tried to resolve the issue, to no avail, and at some point in time a minister said, “Okay, enough of this. We will refer this case to the ombudsman, because he is independent and he is outside, and we'll look forward to what he finds.” In fact, what we found was that there had been something wrong. In that case, I think, the end result of the minister having the power to give us a file like this was that we were in a position to accomplish a result that simply was not accomplished before when it should have been. So I think there is something useful in having that.