Veterans Affairs committee  I'll begin to answer the question, and then maybe someone can add to it Across the country, indeed, the provision of services differs at times. VAC ensures that to the extent possible there is uniform provision of services to the veterans who need it. We would adjust, for instan

Veterans Affairs committee  Krista.

Veterans Affairs committee  We do indeed, on behalf of the RCMP, provide certain programs and benefits to that community, and they are one of our major client groups, so they are important.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for that question. With respect to the best practices with DND, I think the starting point for those would be the VAC-DND steering committee, a high level committee that meets regularly and that has established a very strong agenda of partnership

Veterans Affairs committee  It is indeed a critical point in a releasing member's experience. The experience that they have in the Canadian Forces is not the same as having a career in many other walks of life. For those who are leaving the Forces, they feel a loss of their connection to their careers. We r

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay. With respect to the Service Canada partnership, there's one point that I'd like to add to Krista's comments, Mr. Chair. We have indeed entered into a partnership with Service Canada. Our objective is to enhance access to information for veterans. Service Canada provides g

Veterans Affairs committee  I'd have to refer that to Service Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I will answer the first part of that question, and then I'll ask my colleague, Bernard Butler, to speak to stakeholder engagement. On the empowerment of our front-line staff, that's part of our vision statement for 2015, but it does not reflect an end state only for t

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon. As noted, my name is Charlotte Stewart. I, as well, will not go through our respective titles. I'm pleased to be here with Krista Locke and Bernard Butler. I am pleased to be here again today to talk about transformation and b

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much. As we look to our transformation agenda and the main priorities around it, there are some that really stand out. We've spoken about streamlining and reducing complexity, and I want to speak a little about what that means. You mentioned the letters. I guess

Veterans Affairs committee  Let me begin the answer, and if my colleague would like to add to it, then I'll turn it over to Heather. During any very significant change, managing risk is key. Right now at Veterans Affairs Canada our transformation agenda is about reducing complexity. But there are many thin

Veterans Affairs committee  It's been less than six months, for sure.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, one of the cornerstones of the transformation is reducing complexity, which came about because many of our processes, programs, letters and forms were too complex. We've spoken about this before, that as we expanded or changed our programs over the years we didn't necessaril

Veterans Affairs committee  The first letters that impact a number of clients have already been improved, and our minister has spoken about that. The intention is to proceed as rapidly as possible through the coming months to complete this.

Veterans Affairs committee  First of all, it is a very dynamic process in the sense that our case managers, as we've spoken about, are the front line for the department. They have to make a determination when they have a new client as to whether the person needs case management.