National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and honourable members, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here with you today to answer your questions concerning the Canadian Forces Grievance Board's role in the military grievance process, given that there are provisions in Bill C-

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. The board's position on the 18 recommendations has never changed since the Lamer Report was tabled. One of my obligations as agency head is to provide support, or not to provide support, when those recommendations concern the board's work. The board'

National Defence committee  We support them all, more specifically those directly concerning the board. Recommendation 85, which would enable members to complete their caseloads if their terms are not renewed, is outstanding. A number of other administrative tribunals have a similar clause or provision. O

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. Mr. Chairman, the process naturally does not come under my responsibility, but we have an in-depth knowledge of it by default. So it's a formal two-level process, which does not exclude informal measures. However, when a grievance filing is formalize

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, exchanges regarding the grievance process are made in writing. This is an arbitration process, if you will, in the context of which exchanges are made in writing. The board has the power to hold hearings and to ask people to appear before it. Apart from that, submis

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, that's a question I will have to think about a little more at length because it's not part of Bill C-41. However, it reinforces the argument I made earlier in my address. The value added by the board, which is completely outside the Canadian Forces, is this notion o

National Defence committee  Thank you for your question. Mr. Chairman, the board is absolutely in favour of the principle of independence. It's a principle essential to its proper operation. I should mention once again that the board enjoys institutional independence, that is to say that it suffers no dire

National Defence committee  Thank you for the clarification. Mr. Chairman, I believe that the board's statistics speak for themselves. Since it was established in 2000, regardless of the membership of the Canadian Forces Grievance Board, an average of 40% of the cases that have been referred to the board o

National Defence committee  Yes and no. There may be certain personal decisions, particularly in harassment cases. As a general rule, however, those decisions concern the interpretation of regulations, rights, social benefits and things like that.

National Defence committee  There is indeed an intermediate level, Mr. Chairman. Once the grievance has been submitted to the commander, the initial authority intervenes. The initial authority will basically consider and determine the grievance on its merits. When a member is not satisfied with either the

National Defence committee  That provision was taken away by Bill C-25when it received royal assent. It removed the minister from that process. It was a chain-of-command process with seven levels. It was brought down from seven levels to two. It also involved the creation of this board and the removal of th

National Defence committee  I believe that is an understanding of the issue. The board's position has not changed. The department and the Canadian Forces know their positions. However, I'm not in a position to tell you with any accuracy the reasons why the recommendations are not part of the bill. Our posit

National Defence committee  I know that, in principle, they have been accepted by the department, but I can't explain why they aren't included in the bill.

National Defence committee  We have never had to revert to that use of power. Over the last year, we came close on several occasions to having to revert to a hearing in order to acquire a single document. We understand that there's a statutory obligation on the department to provide the board with all the i

National Defence committee  Thank you. With regard to the board's independence and make-up, that's an interesting question in that I would characterize the model adopted by the department and by the Canadian Forces as highly specialized. It's a stand-alone complaints management model, in a way, in the cont