Veterans Affairs committee  Really, this is the question that's at the heart of the issue and at the heart of your concerns. In the department, we feel the same way. We have the same frustrated conversations about it. In large part, it's due to the fact that delivering a service dog to a person who is willing and able and in a position to use it requires such a patchwork of partnerships through the process, from the supply of the dogs themselves to the schools that are going to train them, to the jurisdiction in which they are being trained, to the mental health service provider, from whichever jurisdiction, who needs to provide a prescription or a recommendation for the use.

Veterans Affairs committee  Three years.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Wounded Warriors has developed its own criteria for the organizations that want to become registered providers through the Wounded Warriors program, as well as standards for instructors for training programs, and guidelines for prescribers too. They are doing their best to actively fill this space right now, while we don't have national standards.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's interesting that for each of the studies that have taken place in the different countries, in order for them to study the effects, they essentially have to come up with their own mini-set of standards to make sure that the measurements they collect are consistent. We can look at some of the aspects of the U.S. study.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure thing. This study was launched in 2015 in collaboration with the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. It was led by Université Laval. The purpose of the study, as was mentioned, was to investigate the potential effectiveness of psychiatric service dogs for veterans, specifically those suffering from PTSD.

Veterans Affairs committee  Some of the limitations that were in that study have been overcome and addressed in the study in the United States, so that's something we could go into, but as a general point, in the United States, Australia and other areas that have adopted their own standards and created policies around this, they are the ones delivering health care directly to veterans, whereas in Canada we rely on agreement across provinces.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have any confirmation that there would be agreement today where there wasn't then.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll start by noting that the Canadian General Standards Board made a concerted effort to establish a consensus on this issue. They struck a technical committee with more than 15 members, including representatives from veteran groups, guide dog associations, government regulators and trainers themselves.