Departmental Hardship and Risk Committee (DHRC) Procedures

Topic

Departmental Hardship and Risk Committee (DHRC) Procedures

Case number

• 2015-072 (F&R Date: 2015–10–27)

Description

In order to ensure a fair process, personnel must be aware of what guidelines are used to evaluate the submissions that they are preparing. Therefore, it is essential that the relevant assessment tool be shared to assist CAF personnel in focusing their hardship and risk submissions on the right areas. This assessment tool should be made available to Task Force Commanders or personnel preparing the submissions. Also, in order to display transparency, hardship and risk determinations should be explained and shared with the CAF personnel who prepared the submission. This could be done in the minutes of the Departmental Hardship and Risk Committee (DHRC) meeting.

Recommendation

The Committee recommended that the minutes of the DHRC meetings provide more detail and be made available to the Canadian Armed Forces members. 

Final Authority Decision

The CDS disagreed with the Committee that the DHRC lacked transparency, stating the CAF personnel have access to the questionnaire that is used, they are aware of the those who are involved in the assessment and the DHRC's meeting minutes are available. The CDS agreed with the DHRC that if the exact metrics of assessment were released, CAF personnel could answer their questionnaire in a manner to reach their own objectives on the levels they feel they should receive, which would not allow for a proper and objective assessment.