Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here.
As we discussed last week, this issue of inviting the minister is an important issue. To be able to discuss the supplementary estimates and for us to scrutinize them before they're presented to the House is a tremendous responsibility on our part, as a committee, to make certain that we've looked at this the best we can for all our veterans.
When the Parliamentary Budget Officer came out with his report the other day, I received numerous phone calls from veterans within my riding, a lot of them concerned about what this meant and the huge implications it has. When I'm able to respond to those constituents of mine.... Actually, some of them are from outside my constituency and I just happen to know them, and they also called and had major concerns. In fact, among them was even one who is presently serving with the forces and about to be medically released. He has some major concerns, especially when he reads documents.... For example, I'll just quote here from the executive summary of the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report.
It says:
As presented below, PBO found that the Pension Act regime is the most generous for the veterans and the most expensive for the federal government. The Pension for Life regime is slightly more generous than the Veterans Well-being Act regime.
These veterans have big concerns about that. They have concerns about the most injured veterans being worse off now than they were before.
It's on my watch, as a new member of Parliament and a member of this committee. When I sit down and meet with veterans in Remembrance Day ceremonies, they say to me, what are you going to do for us? When I hear from an Afghan veteran who's returned, who would have taken a bullet for his colleague and his comrade at any time while serving, and even today, talk about what happened to one of his comrades who had an IED blow up and lost his legs, his statement to me is, “I need to be here”. And I believe we all need to be here, to speak on behalf and to represent these constituents.
I think it's incumbent upon us that we get the chance to talk about these supplementary estimates, and that we, as a committee, have the opportunity to put these questions, these hard questions, to the minister about the impact this is going to have on our veterans.
I thank you for the chance and the opportunity.