I don't have a legal background, but I've looked at the testimony that's been presented through this committee, and I would say there are two views.
In the best of all worlds, it would be great if they had the power and the mandate to report to Parliament, but it's going to take a long time. If we look right now at the DND model of today, not the model of nine years ago but the one today, it's working well reporting to the minister.
From a practical point of view, the other issue we could see coming out of this is how it will be addressed when the House rises or a committee is not available and something happens during that time period, whereas a minister can be contacted at all times.
As an organization, we want to see something that's effective and will work. As far as we've seen, the DND ombudsman seems to work quite well. We would support such a model, but it'd be nice to have it legislated.