National Defence committee  At that time, I decided this was a matter of GIC conduct. I gave the task to Ms. Sherman.

National Defence committee  The economic increases wouldn't have been a matter for Minister Sajjan to get involved in. As I said, all GICs—and there are 160 full-time GIC appointments and about 1,000 part-timers—got an economic increase, a pay raise, in the spring of 2019. It was held for three years becaus

National Defence committee  We would have needed some written version of agreement to that. Executive orders are authorized or recommended by ministers.

National Defence committee  During the time I was there, cabinet meetings were typically Tuesday morning in the weeks that the House was sitting, and not during House breaks.

National Defence committee  No. Not all orders in council executive orders go before cabinet. Many do, but a large number of them actually go to Treasury Board. Treasury Board has delegated authority to make all kinds of executive orders, orders in council. It's a large part of the Treasury Board agenda as

National Defence committee  That seems to be the saying of 2021. I apologize. I stand to be corrected, but my understanding is exactly yours: that the appointment made by the Harper government in 2015 was open-ended. In other words, there never was a question of extending it. He would continue in office un

National Defence committee  That was our judgment, and this was not the only issue—and I would like to come back to that at some point. We had other preoccupations about the senior ranks of the military at the time, and I concede in hindsight that they probably caused us to lose focus on the issue around se

National Defence committee  It's an excellent question, and if you bear with me, I think there are a few layers to the answer. Part of it is to recognize that it's a big problem and a challenge that goes beyond any one individual, and that lopping off the dandelions and changing the leadership at the top

National Defence committee  Sure.

National Defence committee  I think Mr. Lick raised a very important issue. Are you going to entrench the requirement that you need the consent of a complainant to move forward, or would you give the investigating body some discretion to proceed without that consent? That's a huge issue, and I don't have a

National Defence committee  Yes. I spoke to Minister Sajjan on two occasions, in May and in June—I think around May 18 and June 25—about issues in the armed forces, how long General Vance's tenure should be, when there should be a change of command, and issues about the turnover and the senior ranks. I can

National Defence committee  I want to make it clear that this was in May and June of 2018.

National Defence committee  No, the file was open, in the sense that had any new information come in after mid-March, we would have taken it into account. In neither conversation that I had with Minister Sajjan do I recall raising conduct issues, nor did he raise conduct issues with us. Conversations were a

National Defence committee  There had not been an investigation. The only person who knew about the seriousness of the allegations at the time was Mr. Walbourne.

National Defence committee  Yes.