National Defence committee  Not that I am aware of.

National Defence committee  I would not be in a position to respond to that in terms of the confidence of advice and further discussions internally.

National Defence committee  No, it doesn't. I would just clarify that on the numbers you're referring to in terms of the salary ranges, the change for General Vance from a DM2 to a DM3 was effective in July 2017.

National Defence committee  Correct.

National Defence committee  I cannot. I do not—

National Defence committee  We certainly can always learn from others. One of the things we do try to focus in on in terms of innovation in the public service is not reinventing the wheel but taking good practices from others. In some cases, we know that they exist within the public service. We look at those and think about scaling up in terms of something that has worked well in one situation and might be applicable to another.

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I'm not an expert in.... I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not in a position to provide a view on a legal concept such as that.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure what the question is. Encroachment of...? It may be an issue with translation. I apologize. I'm not sure what you mean.

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I'm not sure I understand the question.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I cannot speak to the situation with the vice-chief of the defence staff. I had no engagement in that at all. I don't have information on that. As I have mentioned, based on my conversation with the former ombudsman, I did not have information about the nature of the complaint or specifics that would have enabled further action.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question and for your remarks. When I was speaking about structures, we often have policies, processes and frameworks that are constructed and intended to support the objective they are initially developed for. Particularly where we're looking for change and innovation in how we actually manage within the public service—not just in the context of complaints and harassment and workplace well-being—we do need to make sure that those systems remain relevant and effective.

National Defence committee  I would not presume that there was an explicit decision to not involve the national security adviser. As I have mentioned, the situation we were in was that we did not have information that would have enabled further action. We wanted to be cognizant of the issue the ombudsman had brought forward and at the same time respect the confidentiality that was being accorded to the complainant, so the decision in terms of next steps or what would or could be done was very much taking into account those elements.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  My exchanges with Mr. Walbourne on March 5 and 6 in particular indicate, I think, that I was clear that I did want to do the follow-up based on his conversation with the minister and that I was clearly not seeking any information that he would not be able to share, but that I was looking to understand the nature of the complaint.

National Defence committee  When I answered “yes”, I was answering fairly generically. As I've mentioned, my role in supporting the government in the context of managing GIC appointees does require me to have sensitive conversations with individuals at different points in time. That is in fact one of the reasons that the confidentiality that we bring to bear is so important—