If you look at the order in council, which really gives the ombudsman the authority, I can speak to it somewhat, having been the executive responsible for making recommendations to government on this particular file.
The reality is that the ombudsman really operates on two levels. First is the situation of an individual case. Somebody goes to the ombudsman and feels that he or she has not been treated by the department in accordance with the Veterans Bill of Rights. In other words, the person hasn't been treated fairly in the review, or in fact has been denied a service or benefit. Or it could be that the person may feel that the case manager hasn't behaved appropriately. There's a whole range of things. On an individual basis, somebody wants to bring to somebody's attention that he or she is not happy with a decision or an activity of the department.
Then there's the wider, what I would call systemic, level. On review of the various cases the ombudsman would see.... For example, if 50% of your inquiries were related to a particular type of health benefit, you might say that you would like to talk to the department, because half the work is coming from that. Maybe it's a misunderstanding of a health benefit, or maybe there's a computer glitch. He can actually step back and sort of say that there is the individual case, but he's seeing a lot of cases like that, so he needs to understand. It also may be in terms of talking to veterans through the various kinds of outreach he does and through veterans organizations. Also, the veterans ombudsman has been equipped with an advisory board. Members of the advisory board would give him advice as to what they're seeing and hearing.
Tomorrow I'm going to be at CFB Gagetown, and I've been at various bases across the country: Valcartier, Edmonton, Cold Lake, Halifax, and Esquimalt. You can actually go and talk to the base commanders and ask them how it's going and ask them what they're hearing from the men and women who are serving their country. You can ask them to give it to you straight. It's nice to hear from them what you are doing well. But I like to hear the areas of concern as well--not that I am the ombudsman, but I am in the service business. So we have a common playing field where we all are at the end of the day.
If the ombudsman were here this afternoon sitting next to me, I think we would both say to you that we're all here for the veterans.