Staff at the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman were the original idea-generators and creators of a tool for their staff. I can't speak in great detail because I don't work with that office, but my understanding is that it was based on questions that they mostly got from veterans and the information the staff needed to answer those veterans’ questions. Definitely that feedback and that kind of service between veterans and the ombudsman's office was an essential part that drove what information was needed in the original tool. Veterans’ feedback was definitely an important part, but I don't know the whole story because I wasn't working at the office at all.
After that, it was expanded and suggested to the department as a tool of benefit to our department. Once that happened, a decision was made and it was agreed that a pilot be run for a small group of staff. Of course, staff numbers in the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman and in Veterans Affairs are very different, so we started with a small group of staff, the Winnipeg district office. We gradually expanded the scope over the fall of 2001. By the end of the calendar year, we had the majority of VAC staff able to access this tool. It was an internal tool, at this point.