National Defence committee  I'm just getting into the details of what's being used with Defence. I can give you the Coast Guard example—it's very similar. We use third-party metrics on the efficiency of shipyards. We have a significant amount of oversight. We ask, for example, what should the level of pro

National Defence committee  Thank you. I absolutely have read the report and I find it very interesting. I'm meeting with VAC officials starting next week. Deputy minister Natynczyk set that up for me. We have to do a line by line of what has been recommended there, what's in the chief of military personne

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely.

National Defence committee  I'm from Victoria.

National Defence committee  Associate deputy ministers in most departments are two in a box. You shadow the deputy. You do whatever the deputy assigns to you. Defence is a massive department so the deputy minister and I have gone through ADMs, branches within the department, and particular files. The ADM ma

National Defence committee  I should have that piece of paper with me.

National Defence committee  I have the ADM materiel. That includes procurement, science and technology, human resources, civilian human resources. I think that's it for the direct reports. Then I'll be working with the vice chief on a number of things where he has the role as the chief operating officer of

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. I can't say that today. No, I don't have a solution. I've been with the Department of National Defence now for 17 days. I would say that 10 of those days have been spent on that issue.

National Defence committee  I'm certainly going to try to find solutions. It's a complex issue. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to say after only 17 days that I have the solution that the two departments have been working on for quite some time. I've spoken to Deputy Minister Natynczyk about

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. I think the role of the ombudsman is critical. There has to be a route for employees and CAF members to bring forward problems and concerns that they have. I've read now, in the time I've been there, several of his reports. I think they're very usefu

National Defence committee  I know that [Technical difficulty--Editor] today in particular. I don't think that there are any impediments to the ombudsman's independence at all. The FAA, the Financial Administration Act, affects everybody who works in government. There are controls on everybody's budget to e

National Defence committee  I was very junior. I was a lieutenant.

National Defence committee  I'm not a reservist. I still hold a commission, but between a full-time job, a husband at sea, and two babies, something had to go.

National Defence committee  I think, if I were still serving, it's something that I would have to step away from in this current job.

National Defence committee  I don't know the date, so I can't comment on that. My job, as the senior associate, is the implementation of major initiatives. This would be one of them. We're starting to look at how we would do that, but I don't have a date.