Mr. Hillier, you indicated that Canada is one of the few jurisdictions that gives a client a lawyer if they need legal assistance in order to adjudicate their case before the board.
I find that quite sad, to be honest with you. One, it's expensive; two, it's time-consuming; and three, in most cases people just give up after the first or the second denial. It's rather challenging, when someone has to wait almost two years or sometimes three years, get a lawyer, and go through VRAB to get a hearing aid or a stairlift for their home, or VIP services.
This is the type of frustration that I express on behalf of those individuals. If the benefit of the doubt were applied from the very beginning....
For example, Marshall Demetrician of Edmonton has a psychiatrist's report from an individual who studied psychiatry for many years indicating that there is a high probability, in the doctor's opinion, that his concerns have been affected through military service. VRAB denied him.
I know you can't answer that, but that's the type of frustration people have: they go to the doctor, they spend hundreds of dollars of their own money to get a report—which is not reimbursed, by the way—only to be denied, in many cases by people who have never worn the uniform.
That, sir, is the frustration. And those very good people you talked about, those wonderful front-line employees, should have the authority, with peer-reviewed medical evidence, to make the decision, based on the medical evidence and the benefit of the doubt, to immediately grant access to the benefit and services they require.
I believe, sir, that if we worked in that way, not only would you be able to achieve what you really wish to do—and I know you attempt to do it all the time—which is to provide speedier or faster resolution to the services, but many more veterans wouldn't need a veterans ombudsman. When you think about it, when you have an ombudsman, you have a problem. Isn't that right?
I say that just by way of advice and regard. I want to thank you again for your tremendous service over the years, because I know, sir, that on a personal level you do a very good job. You obviously have to abide by the legislation and the regulations that you work under.
But in my personal view, working on this file for over 14 and a half years, there are many ways in which we can streamline the process to make it much faster, give the true benefit of the doubt off the bat, and not let veterans and RCMP members feel that they need to have a lawyer or feel that they're actually begging for something, because in many cases this is what we hear from them. When a veteran gets a benefit right away, they're ecstatic. They love you; they think it's great.