Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know how I ended up in the middle of you three. I guess it's a bit of an honour. I did bring copies of my presentations. Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of our translator, they're only available in English. I notice you have copies of theirs.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I have given them to the clerk.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to appear in front of your committee. I am pleased to be able to speak to you this afternoon on behalf of our dominion president of the Royal Canadian Legion, Mr. Gordon Moore, and our over 330,000 members and their families. The Royal Canadian Legion is well situated to provide advice regarding recommendations that could improve the current Veterans Review and Appeal Board.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a very structured training program for all of our service officers at the branch level. Every branch has a service officer. They act as a referral agent because of the complexity and the privacy issues. All of the branches in each province receive training at least on an annual basis and the frequency of the training is mandated.

Veterans Affairs committee  For the veterans independence program, one of the primary gateways for access is that you must have a disability entitlement. For a World War II veteran or their surviving spouse, there's a huge process to go through to get that access. We typically try to get a hearing loss disability entitlement.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. There needs to be more work done to stress the work and life balance issues that women face, particularly from the operational taskings and the competition with the support for their own families. In 1983, when I joined the Canadian Forces, there were 10% women in the Canadian Forces.

Veterans Affairs committee  Very quickly, we're working very closely with the director of military family services in the Canadian Forces, who has responsibility for all of the military family resource centres across the country. We're working to establish an understanding of the resources that are available either through the Canadian Forces or in the community, so that when we have these calls from family members about spouses and children we can refer them to the community resources, to DND resources, or to Veterans Affairs resources, depending on their need.

Veterans Affairs committee  The Legion's advocacy program is core to our mission. The Legion provides representation to assist veterans and their families with obtaining their disability benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada. Disability entitlement is key to accessing the various programs and health benefits, as well as to receiving financial compensation.