Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to the delivery of medical care services to veterans, excluding mental health services, in general, veterans' claims for medical services are not approved in a timely manner. Delays are prevalent.

Veterans Affairs committee  There is satisfaction expressed in the delivery of VAC medical services by our older World War II and Korean War veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to delivery of mental health services, it is our understanding that VAC is responding to veterans' mental health needs when asked and is providing appointments to OSI clinics and other mental health care facilities. Complaints about VAC information voids and slow re

Veterans Affairs committee  We were deeply affected by that. On Christmas Day, as mentioned, she was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at a health care facility. She was allowed to leave for a trip home, and on the way she intentionally drove her car into an oncoming transport truck on the Tr

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to rehabilitation programs under the new Veterans Charter, veterans' suitability criteria for physical rehabilitation programs appear to be working. Problems do arise when there are gaps in the treatment cycle caused by permission delays by VAC. Quite often they'll c

Veterans Affairs committee  The VAC transformation plan, launched to reduce the complexity of service delivery, has made progress over the years. One example is the reduction in form length, and the simplification of forms. It also includes the establishment of the online My VAC Account, and the new use of

Veterans Affairs committee  In our experience to date, we are not aware of any new initiatives to ensure that a veteran's application is fully filled out and correct. There remains the standard method of filling out a claim—the veteran himself, with help from various sources, such as Royal Canadian Legion s

Veterans Affairs committee  Regarding a 16-week service standard, in our view the response time of four months is totally ridiculous in an age of computers and fibre optics. There is no business plan that we have been made aware of at stakeholders' summits or statements by the minister as to how and when th

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to the VAC partnership with the Department of National Defence, the VAC has been a consistent advocate for Veterans Affairs to be merged with the Department of National Defence to produce a flat line of communications between DND and VAC where veterans' records could

Veterans Affairs committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and honourable members of the committee. My name is Richard Blackwolf. I am the CAV national president and a Royal Canadian Navy Cold War veteran. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you and to present our positions and experiences on the q

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we're advocates for the family as we brought forward in our presentation before. A family benefit and a child benefit are missing in this particular enactment. We will pursue those. We have a veterans services page where we list all the resources we're aware of. If we'd been

Veterans Affairs committee  As we've mentioned, we do support this legislation, but there are some tweaks, if you want to call them that. We've asked for changes to the wording, and also I think it's within the power of the committee to make those recommendations. I think a small thing like changing the res

Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned in the presentation, this is the covenant we're making for our service in Canada. It's a covenant between the people, the government, and those that will volunteer. The documents and the legislation have to reflect that care. They did this in 1942 with all the meas

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, we are in contact with our veterans across the country. I personally phone our senior elders, the World War II veterans, on a regular basis. We contact our—

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, that's what we ask. We ensure their care by asking them directly, the World War II veterans particularly and also the Korean War veterans who are all now in their eighties. Then there are the other ones that are in their...Cold War veterans like myself in their seventies. W