Veterans Affairs committee  First of all, we'll make sure that the workload for each of them is managed appropriately so that it stays within 40:1. The department has a commitment to 40:1. Because there's a natural turnover of case managers, our managers on the ground do anticipatory staffing. They run pr

Veterans Affairs committee  I can give you a candid response: It depends on the availability of that skill set in the area. In our high-demand areas, we've been running processes to make sure that we can have people ready to come into the department at fairly short notice. In Quebec, for instance, through t

Veterans Affairs committee  I was just going to mention when you asked if we had removed or streamlined the number of management levels that we indeed have streamlined our decision-making in the department. I think this is important. It's a bit of a different angle on your question, but what we've done is w

Veterans Affairs committee  Those partners are very important to us and veterans. But on the ground, we work very hard through our district offices and our areas to provide outreach and to make sure that there are stakeholder committees set up outside of major areas as well, and that there's representation

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much. As we look to preparing for the returning veterans from Afghanistan, it's very important that we consider what's going to happen on the ground and our relationship with some of our partners. We want to make sure our case managers are ready. Let me just mov

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a national call centre network, as you know. We have four centres right now, and we answer between 900,000 and a million calls a year, so the volume is quite high. However, with the transformation, and as we work on reducing the complexity of our programs and services and

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll begin, and Heather may want to add something from a human resource perspective. First of all, you're speaking about a group in the department, the client service agents. There are approximately 250 client service agents. Over the last year and more...and certainly as we loo

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll answer that. Thank you very much for that question. Of those reductions, none are case managers. We remain very committed to this core ability of the department. We have a very highly specialized cadre of case managers. We have just under 250 located across the country. In

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, thank you. I just wanted to add to Heather's comments that the Government of Canada and VAC remain committed to providing long-term care, and with respect to veterans who need long-term care as a result of a service-related disability, the department will continue to provi

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely—

Veterans Affairs committee  I mentioned that we've tackled each of our programs. As I said, our programs are very cumbersome. Some are procedures. You mentioned the letters. We're taking each of them and reducing the application process to simpler forms and fewer steps. That's one way of reducing red tape.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  They're the ones who make the determination, in consultation with the veteran, about what their path will be. They will discuss together their medical needs or training needs. The case manager is key to that whole relationship, and now they have the autonomy to make those decisio

Veterans Affairs committee  The Integrated Personnel Support Centres began to be established about two years ago. As the military would say, “We stood them up very quickly”. It was a commitment, and we moved very rapidly to do it. We gradually added employees to those locations. At this point, I can say tha

Veterans Affairs committee  Do we have a report right now that we can provide to you on our progress...? I think I understood that question correctly. We have reports on every element of transformation. I know that David's team has milestones and targets and is the owner of our reporting on that. David,