Public Accounts committee  That's part of the process before it actually gets to the buyback. All members must gather the documents. My staff help them do that. They then input it, as the admiral said, into the calculator. From there, there is a very high-level estimate of what they will get and how much it will cost.

Public Accounts committee  I don't believe I have that.

Public Accounts committee  To qualify for the pension plan, a reservist must work for two years. But to get an immediate pension, they would have to work for 25 years. If they retired after the two years, before four years they could get a return of contributions. After the four years, the pension plan is vested.

Public Accounts committee  It currently takes 100 hours. For records that date back to the 1970s it takes roughly 100 hours per file. When we first started we had records going back to the 1960s. Those took about 150 hours per file. As the decades move on and more is automated and less is non-automated, that time shrinks, which is where we see the processing improvements.

Public Accounts committee  The interest is not.

Public Accounts committee  We're currently in the approval process to join the rest of the federal government of Canada, Public Works, and the RCMP with a modern pension solution that has self-service capability, in order to increase service to the members and to fill in the missing automated pieces that we currently don't have.

Public Accounts committee  I think that's going to fall to me as well. The first bit of information they have to submit is their file. Some files can be two inches thick, with all the records of all the time they're requesting to buy back. My staff and the administrative correspondence unit go back and forth with the member to make sure all of their records are complete and that they're happy with the calculations we have provided.

Public Accounts committee  The files are currently processed in four priorities. Obviously, death or injury in theatre is number one, and retirement is priority number two. Those retiring are number three, and those still serving are number four. As the admiral said, there are 871 files that my staff are currently in the process of working on.

Public Accounts committee  We are unable to estimate exactly. In the 9,000 sitting there, for sure every one of them has some non-automated records.

Public Accounts committee  Could you repeat that, please?

Public Accounts committee  As the admiral said, there are roughly 9,000 files of still-serving members that haven't really been moved along. Those people would have records that are more automated than those of the retirees, but because there were no automated records prior to 1999, there are, for sure, still paper files for those years.

Public Accounts committee  I think that's me, Mr. Chair. As mentioned, pre-1999, there are no electronic records. In a lot of cases there are actually no paper records that exist. To verify the validation of records, members would send in their pay records and we would gather archived pay slips. Back then they actually called them pay cards as well.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, since 1999 all records have been electronic. They are audited annually by the OAG in its National Defence audit. So everything has been in line from the date the plan went forward. Most of the difficulties were encountered because the reservists could buy backwards. The electronic records did not exist, and that's where most of the delay is, sir.