National Defence committee  They don't want to admit that in front of me.

National Defence committee  It comes from the Department of National Defence, Canadian Forces C108. That's my responsibility.

National Defence committee  Exclusively for these services.

National Defence committee  For my office, it's targeted funding. So for those service categories that I provided to the committee, that's what I'm funding them to provide. There are a series of outcome measures that are associated with those.

National Defence committee  I think what we're starting to see across the country are some very dedicated people who have been working very hard for a really long time. I think we've counted on these staff members and other volunteers working very hard for a very long time. This operational tempo is hard on families, but I would suggest it's hard on staff as well.

National Defence committee  So when I'm being tasked to transform the program in the next three months or so, I believe that's the full range of what they want me to look at. They want me to take care of it.

National Defence committee  I believe what you're saying is exactly being echoed by the CF leadership currently. They know and have been very clear in their direction to me: we need to take care of—

National Defence committee  I think the funds being raised by the military family services program are to augment programs and services for families. I don't think you'll get a lot of disagreement, certainly from the panel here, that it's time to transform those programs and services and to bolster them. By the same token, this isn't a financial question for families.

National Defence committee  I wouldn't say so. My rule of thumb is that if there are 20 families, I'll fund it. As a result, we have those organizations overseas. One of those locations is Naples, Italy, for example, where I think the last count of families was 26. But the isolation and some of the frustration, as well as the deployability of our families there, mean that I have an obligation to ensure they have resources to set up a core of support there.

National Defence committee  I've seen those touching stories as well. It's absolutely heartbreaking, watching the babies being born and having their dads see them for the first time on camera. I believe all of these organizations have video terminals, so I'll turn that question over to them. They'll know more than I will about family usage.

National Defence committee  Everything gets paid out of the same pot. It's about $20.5 million currently.

National Defence committee  We have 32 incorporated, not-for-profit organizations in Canada. Those individual entities don't count sites. A number of them will have outreach offices as well, but there are 32 bona fide corporations. We have five centres in Europe and the United Kingdom. We also have three centres in the United States and three outreach offices in the United States.

National Defence committee  My apologies.

National Defence committee  It is in both.

National Defence committee  The core funding comes from DND, my office. We fund what we characterize as mandated services. In addition, the MFRC will receive some funding locally from their base commander. As well, because they're not-for-profit organizations as well as, in the main, charitable organizations, they secure funding from the local provincial authorities as well as from fundraising.