Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for being here and providing us with this background information. It's very important, and we're profoundly concerned about what's happening to modern veterans.
In the brief you indicated that the federal government deemed it appropriate to place the post-Korean members of the Canadian Forces in an inferior category, and you suggest that it's because somehow peacetime operations weren't deemed as significant or important as World War II or Korea. But when we stand back from it, when we look at what's going on, first we've got a report about the VRAB and the incompetence there. We've seen the downloading of long-term care to the provinces. We've seen very clearly, as you say, a removal of Veterans Affairs from the concerns of looking after veterans.
It seems to me that Veterans Affairs has been busy washing its hands of its responsibility. You've suggested that it's because you're not seen to be as significant in terms of your service, but when we hear the government talk about cuts and the essential nature of the cuts and the decimation of Veterans Affairs by 804 people, it would seem to me that maybe the answer is a little simpler than that. Maybe it's just money. Maybe it's just because it's going to be expensive to look after those post-Korean vets, because, as you indicated, many of the injuries are serious. We are not aware of all that's coming.
Are you simply the victims of cost-cutting?