We have not ever requested it. And I don't remember--it's been 13 years--anyone on the council ever suggesting that we get a written response to specific recommendations we made.
I have, in a sense, requested a response from the minister, but all I get is the “we do a lot for veterans” kind of reply. This is, again, not from the current minister, who is newly appointed, but I've had letters like that.
So why haven't we done it? We have felt that the relationship is good, ongoing, and more like a dialogue we have with these people.
When we have our council meetings there are always other members of the department there as well, besides Darragh and Ken Miller. And Brian Ferguson is there when he can be as well. So I think we've just felt that it's more like an ongoing dialogue. We give this advice, it appears in fairly detailed minutes, but we have not really felt the need to do that because we've trusted--and maybe it's misguided, although I don't think so--that they are doing their best to follow our advice and that they like our advice. They certainly tell us that orally, and in the minutes of virtually every meeting we have there is an expression from Brian Ferguson, the senior ADM, and from Darragh Mogan. That's in the minutes of the meeting, saying how valuable they find our advice.