I don't think the employees of the department would classify the ombudsman as an irritant. I think they would see it as another person trying to help veterans.
You know, there is a reality, and I'll speak of my own branch. I have 2,100 employees and over 60 service locations in Canada and around the world. Some days, somebody will make a mistake, and that's unfortunate. If the ombudsman can bring that mistake to our attention, then in fact we can correct it right away.
So I think it's a very useful role, and as the ombudsman's office goes on over a period of time, bearing in mind that he has only been there a very short period of time—I think he has testified before this committee in terms of the numbers of files he has had and the number of files that he hasn't been able to get to because of any number of issues—I think the real value of the ombudsman will hold true as they get more experience and as they can identify what one might call some systemic issues. In my view, they really haven't seen enough files, based on the testimony here, to really talk about systemic issues. There will always be the one-offs and you say you wish somebody hadn't done that, but I'm talking in terms of systemic issues. I think there is an acceptance in the department.