Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much for the question. It's an essential question. We've seen great progress on the backlog. We won't stop until we get to the service standard. To be clear, the service standard is 16 weeks from application to payment in 80% of the cases. That's a standard that has

Veterans Affairs committee  As indicated before, we have been able to succeed in getting a budgetary allocation for temporary resources. We have those temporary resources in place until the end of this coming fiscal year. We're working hard, within government, to ensure that those resources are there and ar

Veterans Affairs committee  The investigation was actually done in two ways. Yes, we invited veterans to come forward. We also verified, through our files, any indication of where an issue may have been raised inappropriately between a VAC employee and veterans. This was, again, by looking through and analy

Veterans Affairs committee  Just to clarify, do you mean the greater than 400,000 veterans?

Veterans Affairs committee  There was a general invitation for any veteran to come forward. That was made publicly. It was certainly underlined here at committee. It was stated by the minister. It's been stated by me and the department. There was an open invitation, yes, for any veteran to come forward. Aga

Veterans Affairs committee  There are greater than 9,000 who have signed up for that benefit and greater than 2,500 who have actually taken up the benefit directly, which has led to almost 40,000 specific benefits to veterans in less than a year.

Veterans Affairs committee  This is a very important program. We know that it's important to support our veterans where they are, and especially those who are elderly and aging, to ensure they're able to age in place and provide them with some respect in their homes and support in their own homes. I'll ask

Veterans Affairs committee  It's an RCMP investigation, and it's really up to them. They have no obligation to inform us. They're undertaking the investigation, and we'll leave it to them to indicate what has transpired.

Veterans Affairs committee  To our knowledge, there has been no closure on the file, but we don't know that for certain. Again, the RCMP is not obligated to report to us. Our understanding is that it is still an ongoing investigation.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, if I could, there are a few things. First of all, as has been underlined and I'll repeat again, there has been a very significant increase in demand from the veteran community. I think we have to appreciate that there were many veterans serving our country in Afghanis

Veterans Affairs committee  It's very important. We've said...and I think everyone at this committee would underline the importance of getting mental health supports there early for our veterans—to identifying, once they have come forward with a desire for the support, for the service, and to getting access

Veterans Affairs committee  It's greater than 9,000—

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much to honourable member for the question and the opportunity to be clear about this. Let me say that, from the Veterans Affairs Canada perspective, there was no questioning of the validity of the issues as they're coming forward from the veterans. There was a desi

Veterans Affairs committee  None of these veterans have come forward directly to Veterans Affairs Canada nor to the ombud with any information.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, if I could, first of all, it wasn't just a keyword search. It was an analysis of greater than 400,000 files. All of those files are maintained by our professional staff for a reason, which is that it's important to keep a record of the interaction with the veterans the