Sure.
We asked Veterans Affairs Canada for the information that formed the basis of our report. We started from data that was provided by the department itself, so in that sense there should be no major difference in the state of the backlog as of March 31, 2020.
We also used the same assumptions that they used regarding improvements in productivity for employees at Veterans Affairs. In fact, we used the highest point of productivity that employees reached in 2015-16, so from that point I think we have a very similar approach when it comes to productivity.
What our report does not take into consideration is policy changes—for example, should the department decide to change the process by which it assesses applications—because that would not have been known to us when we submitted an information request.
For all intents and purposes, our conclusions should be the same. If Veterans Affairs has new information that they did not disclose to us when we made the information request, well, so much the better for veterans, but we were not provided with that information.