Veterans Affairs committee  I'm glad to hear it.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, we are the advisory council for, basically, the World War I, World War II, and Korean War veterans. The three major organizations of veterans for those traditional veterans groups are all represented on the council. Now, in terms of this report, we met with all the other—I think six—veterans organizations, and they all have endorsed this report, as I mentioned.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think that broadening the eligibility criteria would be the thing to focus on. But if you do that, there would be more people coming into the system. Now, most of these people would be coming in at very low levels of contact with the system. When you have time to read the report more slowly—not speed-reading it—you'll know we're advocating a single point of entry to the system.

Veterans Affairs committee  It was a good thing. The VIP is sort of like a flagship program. It is a wonderful program. It's really a model program, I would say, a service program that Veterans Affairs Canada organizes. It used to be, of course, that if the veteran and his or her spouse were receiving those benefits and the veteran died, they would continue for one year.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's a very good question. The term “war veterans” is in common usage at Veterans Affairs to refer to this group for which our council is mandated to give advice: World War I veterans—I think there are still three remaining—World War II veterans, and the Korean War veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  The council did not do an analysis of post-traumatic stress disorder or operational stress injuries for the young veterans, because that would have taken us beyond our mandate. Again, there is this other council, the Canadian Forces Advisory Council, and we would have been going beyond our mandate if we had explicitly done that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think if we're not moving to a needs-based principle right away, then somehow trying to simplify the table of eligibility would help. To be very specific, for the spousal benefit for the VIP I don't see a reason to wait to do away with that restriction, which is that you have to have been enrolled in the program from 1981 before a spouse can become eligible on the death of the recipient.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I will try to answer some aspects of your questions, which are good ones. When it comes to implementation, that is something the department itself would have to grapple with. I don't have the expertise on the timetabling of moving through the legislative process. I could just say that the recommendations in our report are being considered in the current exercise that's going on.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, you do. Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I am.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much for inviting me to address this special committee. I'll make some brief remarks. I'm quite sure I won't take 20 minutes, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. I thought you might, in the first place, wonder why you're speaking with someone from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so I'd just like to give you a little background on myself.