Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not aware of that information, but we will provide a response to the committee.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have specific eligibility criteria or the knowledge to analyze the differences between how VAC and how DND assess those, so we'll need to provide a response back to the committee.

Veterans Affairs committee  Because we don't do health care administration as part of the department's mandate, the services we provide are fundamentally different. During military service, the CAF health service provides care directly, so the types of services and interactions they would have with their serving members would be different from what we're dealing with now, because we're not having conversations with veterans as a health care provider.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have research priorities identified for women veterans that, for us, are shaping the direction we're taking going forward with research. We're finding that there are many more opportunities and directions we can go now, following the identification of veterans in Canada through the 2021 census.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a women veterans research plan focusing on specific areas, such as aging, sex-specific cancers, occupational exposures, health care access and opioid use. We don't publish the specific initiatives coming up, partly—

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we can certainly share our research priorities with the committee.

Veterans Affairs committee  There were a few different pieces in there. I'll start with the breast cancer item. All of the cancer prevalence or cancer incidence-type studies require a large population set in order to have reportable results with any confidence. The cohort of veterans who served in the Persian Gulf, for example, was a fairly small number.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think a few new opportunities have been presented to Veterans Affairs on how we can engage with the women veteran community and subpopulations within that community. One of the key takeaways for me from the most recent women veterans' forum in February 2023—just last month—was the need for inclusion of under-represented voices in research.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say we need to be careful when we're working with the kind of data we have available. It's not data that supports easily establishing relationships between cause and effect. While we can measure differences and determine differences and the prevalence of many different conditions, it's difficult to tie that back to specific experiences unless we have a full history of their military occupation.

Veterans Affairs committee  The majority of our research does not try to establish causality of the conditions or trends we see.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think we have a very strong relationship. As Colonel Jardine mentioned, there is a joint steering committee that brings the two departments together in a very deliberate way so that we can solve problems we encounter, including on the research front. We're working with the Department of National Defence and their multiple research groups.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the concept of maintaining a purpose in life is a theme, at least, that's common across men and women veterans. I would say that it's one of the more difficult aspects to cover in quantitative research, and this is a reason, an argument, for including more qualitative research to better understand the individual stories and experiences of veterans where the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll turn the question over to Dr. Garland Baird.

Veterans Affairs committee  The objective of that office is to address some of the underlying challenges faced by women veterans who are coming to the department—and those who aren't—and ensuring that the access to services is equitable across the department. The office has a very broad scope. They consult with areas and every function across the department at every level to ensure that when each area is administering its own responsibilities, it is keeping in mind the needs and concerns of women and LGBTQ2 veterans who might otherwise be experiencing barriers to access or barriers to programs and services.

Veterans Affairs committee  The first women veterans' forum was held in 2019. I was there. It was a wonderful experience and full of energy. It was the first of its kind in Canada to discuss the specific challenges women face in their lives after service. From my perspective, I was listening for the research opportunities and the research gaps that were raised.