Status of Women committee  Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair and committee members. Thank you for the invitation to participate in this discussion in my capacity as the assistant deputy minister of civilian human resources for the Department of National Defence. I have been a member of the public serv

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I think a really important point has been raised by General Whelan, which is that we have work to do to build trust. While we have myriad programs already in place across the public service, and national defence public service employees are part of that, I think th

Status of Women committee  I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I had technical difficulties with the translation. I couldn't hear. I was trying to slip back and forth. Can the question be repeated, please?

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I'll go very quickly. I think that in the main that's a natural consequence, that fear, especially in large organizations. I think there's an opportunity to rethink how we do labour relations and provide that trust and support so that privacy, confidentiality and proc

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I'm not an expert with PCO machinery and how it's worked. I've had a relationship with PCO and I've worked with senior personnel, but I would refrain from providing any expert comments on that.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. That's not something I was personally involved with, so I would not have anything to offer.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm optimistic and I'm hopeful that we are at an inflection point in time in which the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces can make significant changes.

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I'll try to build on General Whelan's comments. I think throughout the public service and where we find ourselves in 2021, there's a real opportunity to look at how labour relations are constructed. I think it's still very much an industrial relations era model, so

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, I wasn't able to hear the first part of the question, just the last part. I assume it was addressed to me. I believe the question is around Mr. Boland, if I picked up all of that. As I said in my opening remarks, I can't speak to individual cases. From a procedural

Status of Women committee  I report to the deputy minister.

Status of Women committee  The deputy minister received the complaint and I was asked to look into it.

Status of Women committee  Once I receive it, it's part of my duty, so I looked into the nature of the complaint. I checked in with our legal counsel and provided options to go forward in how it would proceed.

Status of Women committee  After we went through a review of the process and—

Status of Women committee  I believe technically it's not whether or not it was dismissed; it was whether or not it was founded or not founded, and in this case it was not founded.

Status of Women committee  While I am the functional authority, I exercise that functional authority with the support of both my staff, who are professionals in labour relations, as well as legal counsel.