Veterans Affairs committee  Normally, the Office of the Ombudsman is the office of last resort. It doesn't preclude legal action, though. Complainants are free to use the courts.

Veterans Affairs committee  The Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, and it should be through this committee or another committee. I am against having an ombudsman report to a minister.

Veterans Affairs committee  To my knowledge, normally when they come to us they don't go to the courts afterward. We are really a last resort. We've gotten involved in cases where there were class action lawsuits. Then they come to us. We resolve it and there's no class action lawsuit. A good example is an investigation we did in Ontario about special needs children, where the government was being sued for not supporting families with special needs children.

Veterans Affairs committee  The problem is, very simply, that there is a conflict of interest. The role of a minister is to administer his or her department. The minister is the person in charge. If we consider the British theory of ministerial responsibility, the minister is responsible for the actions of the department.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are two aspects to that. First of all, you need robust investigative tools to get the job done. By “robust”, I mean power of entry, subpoena ability, the power to take testimony under oath, compulsion, cooperation, powers. You need those, on the one hand. I'm not advocating, however, that the role of the ombudsman for Veterans Affairs be anything more than recommendatory in nature.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, we enjoy the exact same status as in 1975.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. As ombudsman, what you do is talk softly but carry a big stick. And the stick is the ability to blow the whistle publicly on maladministration. So there are no penalties involved. Your recommendations are merely recommendations, but they have authority because you've reached into an organization, grabbed the evidence and you are articulating it in a convincing fashion.

Veterans Affairs committee  First, on the costing of our operation, when I'm reading the transcripts and I see these costs that are thrown about and when you throw all these inflated numbers around, it scares people off and they don't want to provide any power to the office because we don't have the funds.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's indeed an honour for me to be here this afternoon. It's a topic that I hold very close to my heart, and I want to say at the outset that I've been extremely impressed by the work this committee has conducted so far and the genuine concern for getting it right and for coming to terms with this position.