Veterans Affairs committee  There may be issues around degrees of entitlement or there may be unhappiness. A veteran may say, “The department says I should get a 20% assessment for my bad knee, but I think it should be 25%.” He or she may then choose to appeal that ruling. It's a process that's actually v

Veterans Affairs committee  If I might, Mr. Casey, you're absolutely right. I think that what Mr. Christopher was saying essentially is that in the normal course, once the matter goes to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, the board becomes seized of the jurisdiction of the case. There is the provision th

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I will go first. It may well be inappropriate, Mr. Casey, for us to comment on the Veterans Review and Appeal Board at that level, given the nature of its work. It would obviously be very difficult for us to weigh in on that as public servants. It's an independent, quas

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I am not. To our knowledge, Canada is unique in this respect, in providing free legal services to veterans who are seeking redress before an administrative body dealing with their issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll make a stab at that, Ms. Adams. Other than those statistics quoted in the ombudsman's report, we would not track cases necessarily going to the Federal Court, because they are not sent to the Federal Court; these are cases of veterans who are unhappy with the decision of th

Veterans Affairs committee  If they choose to do that, that's absolutely right. Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we can.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here again in front of this committee. My name is Bernard Butler. I am the director general for policy in the policy, communications, and commemoration branch at Veterans Affairs Canada. I am joined here today by my colleague, Rick Ch

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Chair. It's a very important issue for Veterans Affairs and, undoubtedly, for the Canadian Forces. What I might do is assure you that for reservists who have the type of service that you've categorized—service in Afghanistan—those folks do have a

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I'll let my colleague, Charlotte, speak to the issue around the service delivery piece in terms of the transitioning of those folks from the military to civilian life and to Veterans Affairs. I think maybe that's what you're getting at, so maybe I'll turn to Charlotte to

Veterans Affairs committee  How it works is this way. The department is very sensitive to the needs and the concerns of Canadians, of still-serving members, of veterans. Over time, the department has used a number of methods such as establishing committees like the New Veterans Charter Advisory Group or the

Veterans Affairs committee  On the issue of redress, in our programming on the disability benefits side we have a fairly multi-layered structure for reviews and appeals up to and including the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. On the health benefits side, we basically have two levels of redress. So if an in

Veterans Affairs committee  I will just check that for you, Mr. Storseth.

Veterans Affairs committee  Maybe we could table that with you because we do have the performance statistics on all of these elements.

Veterans Affairs committee  I believe the committee has had three meetings to this point in time.