The two initiatives were developed somewhat in parallel, as you will recall from my previous testimony before this committee. One of the roles of the ombudsman is to ensure that the department is upholding the Veterans Bill of Rights. That's really to make sure veterans are treated in a fair and equitable manner, they get the services they need on a timely basis, and the department is providing them with benefits and services in accordance with the law and its various provisions around access to information, and so on.
Part of the role of the ombudsman is to ensure that we're actually doing what the bill of rights has committed us to do and what we say we're going to do. The vehicle for him to do that is manifold. One way is to look at the various calls and complaints he gets and his interaction with veterans organizations on the broadest basis--some of the larger ones that play a significant role in Canada for veterans at large. That's part of his outreach. There's also looking for what I would call systemic problems.
In his annual report--which is certainly his to write--if he finds evidence that the department is not living up to the bill of rights, I expect that would be in his annual report that is tabled for parliamentarians. With due interest, this committee would probably ask some of us to come to discuss why the department was not upholding the bill of rights, which would be a fair question.
In reality, as we went through this, the ombudsman and the bill of rights were developed in tandem. They were both welcomed in the veteran community. These are items that the veterans organizations had requested for some time. So we went forward to have a bill of rights and an ombudsman.
I know we're talking about some challenges and issues, but at the end of the day that's probably not bad. We could still be at committee talking about whether or not there should be a veterans ombudsman, or why there wasn't one. The good news is that we do have a veterans ombudsman, we do have a bill of rights. We've had a few teething pains that we'll get over, but at the end of the day the veterans have an ombudsman and a bill of rights.