I know I am a passionate kind of man who wants to get things moving. I have the feeling the main problem is with the veterans affairs department. It is as if people in the government perceived the ombudsman like an enemy that is out to make trouble and blow the whistle. That is not what this position is all about.
An ombudsman's role is to make sure the veterans get a good service and to contribute to better policies. He or she makes recommendations. An ombudsman cannot say we should pass a piece of legislation or change some program or other. He or she just makes recommendations. We heard last week that the ombudsman in New Zealand made 51 recommendations, and that 49 of them were implemented and the other two were discarded.
The role of an ombudsman is not to turn everything upside down in the government and departments, but to protect the citizens and to make recommendations on whatever is not working well.
One of the things that comes to mind which does not work well is the much talked about Veterans Review and Appeal Board. Some order needs to be restored in this board. I would like to know how Mr. Munro, a former president of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association, was appointed to this board. Was this a political appointment, or was a competitive process followed? I am really wondering.
How could the former political assistant to Mr. Assad, the former member for Gatineau, be appointed to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, even if this member did not try to be re-elected? I can give more examples of appointments to the board that seem to be political appointments.
We travelled to the veterans hospital in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. I can tell you the ombudsman there seemed to be more a member of the management team of the institution than a person whose mandate is to care for the patients, who are veterans.