Veterans Affairs committee  Let me respond this way. Again, it will be a Government of Canada decision, but I think it's fair to say that the ombudsman is there for the clients of Veterans Affairs Canada, and families, in many cases, are clients of Veterans Affairs Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  Just as a point of clarification, when I referred to number 22, that was the number of district offices. The number of veterans organizations I met with was six. Responding to the second part of your question, no veterans organization expressed that concern to me.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a matter the government will have to decide in the model that comes forward. It will have to decide whether the ombudsman reports to the minister or to Parliament. Once you've made some of those decisions, the other tends to flow.

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, that is a decision the government will have to take through the parliamentary process to finalize what the model is going to be.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  My advice to the minister will be to basically lay out what veterans organizations have said to us. I think if you look at the earlier testimony--and my memory is not perfect--my sense is that this really has not been a large issue with many of the veterans organizations. I think

Veterans Affairs committee  I would just like to reiterate the comments I made earlier. The clear message from veterans organizations is to keep it simple, keep it straightforward, and make sure that people can understand it. I think if you use those guiding principles, as I said to Ms. Hinton, then in fact

Veterans Affairs committee  I want to make sure I understand your question. Are you asking how long it would take to implement, or is the question how long this committee should take to sort out its position? It would be a consensus, I hope.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly, Ms. Hinton, we're prepared to help. This is something we could speak about to the clerk. We don't want to be perceived as interfering with or trying to influence the committee. Having been around some of these things over time, my suggestion is that if the committee w

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm quite prepared to provide any. Obviously there are certain confidentialities and issues of privacy that I have to respect because it is the law. But certainly any information that is permitted to be released will be released.

Veterans Affairs committee  No.

Veterans Affairs committee  My sense is that, as I responded earlier, this is going to be a bit of the trick of trying to use the best professional judgment. If you look at Australia, though, I believe they established their ombudsman around the mid-1970s. My sense is that there's probably been some levelli

Veterans Affairs committee  No. Certainly what I read in the testimony was that the views were fairly divergent, I think it's fair to say, and some were very passionate. But I think at the end of the day we have to boil it down and say what makes sense and what is doable. You could probably pick some things

Veterans Affairs committee  We are a department of 4,000 people. For me to sit here today and say that every one of the 4,000 people are out as cheerleaders of this I think would be an overstatement. I've been around the organization now for about 12 years so I know most of the players, if I could put it i

Veterans Affairs committee  My response to that, Mr. Chair, is the fact that consultations have been ongoing, last week and this week, with veterans organizations. The information that we've gathered will be fed back through to the minister. I have to emphasize that at the end of the day this will be a de