Veterans Affairs committee  No. It was that individuals in the CF were getting pensions while serving. As of April 1, they get a disability award.

Veterans Affairs committee  In fact, I think we identified that as a barrier in the diagnostique leading up to the change that we implemented with the new Veterans Charter, which--

Veterans Affairs committee  In this case, we've actually eliminated that system.

Veterans Affairs committee  To my knowledge, no, but I'll double-check and get back to you on that, sir.

Veterans Affairs committee  To my knowledge, at this table, I don't believe so. I certainly have never received any direction to do so.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very valid comment on something we constantly have to guard against. I can say that for the new Veterans Charter, the approach we took was to invest hugely in the training of our staff. That was one critical element. The other element we tried, which really worked well, is a self-assessment tool that we put up on the Internet.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly that is an aspect of it, particularly with reference to post-traumatic stress disorder. A continuing concern that we have jointly with our colleagues in DND is the need to increase our capacity in that regard across the country. We've taken active steps. We've created a network of operational stress-injury clinics that operate there, which you've probably heard about.

Veterans Affairs committee  I understand.

Veterans Affairs committee  In an ideal world, and this isn't a facetious comment, it would be yesterday. But in reality, sir, I think the sooner you can get it to us...if you could get input to us in the next few months, that would be exceedingly helpful to us.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. I would say there's no incentive to do that. In fact, all our benefit payments are statutory, so the department is held harmless, in a financial sense. In other words, we have a fixed budget for our operations in terms of our staff and IT systems and things like that, but the payments to veterans are statutory.

Veterans Affairs committee  Is that question still a part of the--

Veterans Affairs committee  I just want to clarify that. Provinces provide their citizens with certain health benefits. If they provide them to veterans, as citizens, that's an expense the provinces incur. But if the services the provinces provide are not in accordance with what the veteran has a right to under the Pension Act and other legislation, we will pay for additional services.

Veterans Affairs committee  You've actually put your finger on one of the great difficulties of the current system, which is to be able to relate the current malady or illness back 50 years to the causal effect, a cause that determined that illness, which is why in the end we have a system that's based on collecting information that would make a connection between the disability and it being caused by service.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a number of systems in place. One of them is to provide free legal service to anyone who wishes to make an appeal against a departmental decision. That free legal service is available to assist veterans in taking their appeals to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. The board is an independent body from the department and in its role can make decisions based on the legal support the veteran receives.

Veterans Affairs committee  Previously, I think we had been doing some preliminary work in this area for about a year prior to the minister's coming into the department.