Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct. There is something else I should clarify, though. Some databases can't be shared because of the Access to Information Act. The person's privacy always comes first, and in some cases, they have to provide consent so that we can access their records.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we can, for as long as the individual authorizes us to do so.

Veterans Affairs committee  I agree with you. We try to keep that from happening. If the person has submitted their medical records once, we shouldn't be asking for them again, unless the person is still on active duty and their situation has changed.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the francophones, that was true. Actually, in both cases, it was true. I'm going to rephrase that. On the francophones, it's because we did not have enough bilingual francophone adjudicators. I've studied in pre-med, and the medical terminology in French is very different from medical terminology....

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure I know what you mean by communicate or connected. Our systems communicate with one another, but they certainly don't communicate with those of the Canadian Forces. They aren't integrated because the technologies aren't the same. We have systems that date back to the 1970s, and we've just launched ones that were created in 2019.

Veterans Affairs committee  As the deputy mentioned, we're looking very closely at what the Australians are doing. We don't call it automatic approval. We call it more presumptive because with automatic approval people think they're going to say they're hurt and we're going to say yes. We do have to be a little careful because they need a disability diagnosis.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not necessarily, because there is legislation that dictates how far I can go, and our resources for that are based on that legislation. My default is always care, compassion and respect. In service delivery, my colleague in policy sometimes gives me a hard time because I tend to want to push that as far as I can, because we need to remember that the people who work on the front line in service delivery deal with the veteran day in day out.

Veterans Affairs committee  I may have said it that way, but maybe I want to clarify that, because some people have been refused. We need to realize that we don't approve every condition. It has to be linked to the veteran, to the veteran's condition, and to help the veteran get better. It can't be in their own right.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would have to confirm that. I'm not 100% sure.

Veterans Affairs committee  It is possible, but we need to be clear. It may have been for a new condition that was not related to the previous condition. As an example, if you're going to marriage counselling with a veteran, we would support you with no issue, but you come back for another condition that may not be related to the veteran's issue.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would agree.

Veterans Affairs committee  You're right. I've been here and talked about this before. You all know I'm quite frustrated about this. The volumes have gone through the roof, but it's not an excuse. How can we do it? As I've said to this committee before, adding people is one solution but it's not the solution.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm used to being cut off, Mr. Chair.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. The time frame depends on the person. Sometimes, we are waiting on medical information. For instance, a person might submit their claim and then go to Florida for six months. If they don't have anyone checking their mail, the claim is held up for six months.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's possible, but I must say the system is making things easier. Mr. Christopher hasn't talked about everything we're doing, but we are reviewing each of our documents, given how complex they are. They aren't always that clear. My father is an older veteran, and when my brother called me to explain to him what information he was being asked to provide, I wasn't so sure, myself.