Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we are looking at a number of things. I won't go any further this afternoon. I'm sure that once we finalize things, the minister will announce in due course further streamlining and further red tape initiatives, which staff are working on as we speak.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, with the wait-time reductions—and I'll tell you a little bit of a story of when I visited bases, and when I visit bases now, the changing—if it doesn't make a difference to the veteran, it's really not important. On disability awards and disability pensions, a couple of ye

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, maybe I'll start with regard to the universality of service. As to whether someone should stay in DND, I would really defer that question to them. On your broader question related to the public service, you are correct. DND certainly has hired significant numbers and Veter

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, I think I need to first explain to you why we're doing it. First of all, what we want to do is for very routine questions—people who may want an information kit or a brochure or something—we don't want to use the valuable time of our skilled and trained employees to handl

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here with you this afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here with Mr. Parent, the veterans ombudsman, to support this committee's study on transformation at Veterans Affairs Canada. l thank the ombudsman for his remarks.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's correct. Before I toss to my colleague, Raymond, who is responsible for this, one of the things I want to point out is that quite often people will ask me, are you going to be ready for the modern-day veterans or are you going to be ready for some of the occupationa

Veterans Affairs committee  On the figure I quoted, the 73%, we have to be careful that we don't get into mathematical gymnastics here, because not everybody who in fact is denied a benefit actually proceeds to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. Again, I just want to reiterate, Mr. Chair, for the benefi

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, certainly. There were changes made, probably about three years ago now, specifically to do with VIP for widows. The analysis of some of the work we'd done showed that there were widows who were having some difficulty. They were people who maybe had some disabilities themse

Veterans Affairs committee  Exactly, those are the things—

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, exactly. What we found is that in some particular cases it was difficult for the widow—it was generally the widow, in some cases the widower, but generally the widow—to stay in the house. So by providing the services that you mentioned—groundskeeping, the snow clearing, the

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to respond, because I think there are some clarifications that are really important here for the benefit of all members. First of all with regard to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, they do not hear any appeals for health: issues of health services,

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't want to speak on behalf of the VRAB. I'm not part of that institution.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not that I'm aware of. I don't know if in fact the judge in a ruling might assign costs.