Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Hillier, I am not trying to play politics, and I am not in the habit of doing so, but when the Conservative government came into power, we had a department and an appeal board. Then, the government created the veterans charter and the ombudsman position. Earlier, you said that we could get rid of the ombudsman position. You also told Mr. Lobb that the relationship between the department and veterans was peachy keen.
There is one thing I do not understand. Why did the ombudsman appear before us on Wednesday and say that things were not going so well? I would like to hear your opinion on that. We had the veterans charter, an ombudsman, and things are fine, but the ombudsman told us that things are not so fine with respect to the issue of the Westminster style of government, about which I have still not received an answer. I asked the question on Wednesday, and I have still not received an answer. I would really like to know what exactly is going on.
I want the truth, because I and Mr. Perron, whom you knew well, were opposed to having the ombudsman report to the department, to the minister, since that is the way it works. If you recall, Mr. Marin, the ombudsman for National Defence, resigned precisely because—that was not in your day, it was during the Liberal era—he had to report to the minister, and it was not working. When the position is under the responsibility of the minister in charge, nothing works. If the person does not do what the minister wants, he or she is relegated to the sidelines, and the files are shelved.