Veterans Affairs committee  No.

Veterans Affairs committee  If we're paying them for having performed a function, we know what the function was and what they were doing. Again, class A is 12 days a year and class B can be more or less than 180 days. It depends on the contract of service they're on, what they're doing and that type of thin

Veterans Affairs committee  The Canadian Armed Forces do a good job recognizing their members. There's a series of medals, and there are medals for a certain theatre versus another one. The Canadian rangers are part and parcel of that. They're treated the same as others. For exceptional service, there is me

Veterans Affairs committee  Have we seen movement? The report was submitted to the department as standard operating procedure. All the recommendations were accepted. Talking to the CRPGs and the commanding officers of the CRPGs, they are working towards them. Could I give you a concrete detailed plan of w

Veterans Affairs committee  I think there are many solutions. The Canadian ranger instructors, yet again, are the folks who are left with the responsibility to ensure that members are paid. We not only pay them for their service with us, but if we use their equipment—it's called an equipment usage rate—fo

Veterans Affairs committee  Any and all of those things are possible. One thing we're going to have to wrap our minds around is that we have a constituency base for which we are responsible and they're not coming to us, so it's incumbent on us to go to them. There is no other option. As I said, when the ne

Veterans Affairs committee  That is definitely outside my purview of authority. I'm sure that will be a decision made by the Government of Canada, where it wants to put patrol groups. However, let's consider that as we do position patrol groups. How are we going to get access to them? What will be that exc

Veterans Affairs committee  Some of it is going to take infrastructure, for sure, bricks and mortar maybe in some places. Most communities do not have a bank. Some will have the community store. One of the local northern chains would be in there. They'll cash a cheque.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know if those particular avenues are being followed today. Maybe it's an opportunity, but again, that would only be part of a solution. We can't let that go to an outside entity when it's our responsibility. I'll go back to it and I'll stay on it. If the Canadian ranger

Veterans Affairs committee  I know the intent is to increase the size of the rangers, the entity in itself, to make it larger than it is. There are active campaigns going on. The chief of the defence staff has said he is going to increase the rangers, and all five CRPGs are engaged in one way or another. I

Veterans Affairs committee  Not a lot. We haven't had much to do with something that far remote. Those are very specific term positions that people are in. They know what the task is going in. I think they are well prepared going in, so we've never had any complaints, specifically, from that group.

Veterans Affairs committee  There's always a resourcing issue. Let's look at the exchange of the rifles. For the rangers, that is something they've wanted to see happen much more quickly than it has happened. I know they've started, and I understand there's a process behind everything. However, even with th

Veterans Affairs committee  No, that mechanism exists today. We have serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are also clients of Veterans Affairs Canada. The last number I heard was somewhere around 8,000 to 10,000 members. That mechanism is in place.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know if it's a priority, but I'm sure it is something that would have a value-add to the proposition, for sure.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, I think we all have a part to play. At the ombudsman's office, I was quite proud to say that we published our report in five indigenous languages. I'm also sad to say that it's the first time we've done it. I think it's an opportunity for us to learn also in terms of what w