Veterans Affairs committee  I was appointed in October 2003 and my term is up in December 2008. I was a board member first for three years and then was promoted to deputy chair. I was then acting chair and was appointed full-time chair in October 2003 until December 2008.

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay. It has always been an operational requirement of the board to maintain the best balanced complement of board members. By that, we mean a variety of backgrounds, gender, language, as being the most important, and then finally geographical distribution. It is our experience that if you ensure a variety of backgrounds, you ensure an open and complete view or culture installing itself at the board.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, I really don't share your view of this. For example, as of April 1, 2006, I believe the Department had received some 30,000 claims. However, when you look at the situation as a whole, it is clear that only a small percentage of those cases are appealed. Considering the number of applications we process, I can easily say that of those 30,000 claims, for example, not more than 20% were appealed to the VRAB.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can tell you that within the Department, as a general rule, the favourability rate varies from 60% to 70%, at the first level. For example, in relation to a nominal figure of 30,000 claims filed with the Department at any given time, 60% or 70% are resolved. That leaves between 10,000 and 12,000 cases, and they are brought to the attention of the Bureau of Pension Advocates.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. What you have to do is prepare a table comparing all the current systems for compensating individuals for bodily injuries, including Lloyds, in England, or the various workmen's compensation boards in Canada, which fall within provincial jurisdiction. That will allow you to assess the performance of all these systems.

Veterans Affairs committee  The system in my mind is functioning and performing correctly. There are some improvements that can be made in the time it takes between the registration of a claim to the board and the actual hearing of the case. We'll be working over that very specific part of the process. So the waiting time between someone registering with us and getting their hearing will be worked on.

Veterans Affairs committee  I cannot hear you, but I can hear the interpreter speaking the language of Shakespeare.

Veterans Affairs committee  The chair, as a rule, to my knowledge, has always been chosen from among Board members. By definition, I imagine that the chairman has experience and knowledge of the organization and the field of work that he will be directing for the years to come. I personally was asked whether I was interested in my name being put on a list—before anything was decided, I assume—and eventually I was told that I would be invited to be appointed as chair of the board.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I answer you in French, I hear the interpreter speaking English, which makes things somewhat more complicated. I will answer you anyway, and just try to ignore the interpretation. In my case, as was the case for my predecessors, the Chair of the Board is selected from among the members.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are 33.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, indeed.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, as a general rule, but not necessarily. We've held appeal hearings on occasion outside of Charlottetown, for instance, to accommodate the Legion in Ottawa. We will be initiating a new process, and this is BPA's initiative. They will be fanning out some of their appeal work to their regional lawyers.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have all our people in place. I think there was, just at the beginning of the implementation period of modernization, back in April 2006, a sudden increase in claims and applications being filed at that time. That bubble of cases has been processed, and that was in fact the reason for which we were extremely busy over the past year, year and a half.

Veterans Affairs committee  There was a bubble and we were short of members, so it was the worst-case scenario for us at that time. We initiated a very--how shall I call it--courageous program of asking our board members to sit alone all throughout last fall, which not only helped us to process our regular work, but it allowed us to process 500 more files at that time.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, in conclusion…