Veterans Affairs committee  Right now, half of our members are bilingual and we're counting on several francophones, which is already helping us a lot. However, with the processes we intend to put in place, our goal is to hire many more francophone members to be able to tackle all the cases we have. I don'

Veterans Affairs committee  The time we take between hearing and decision is really due to the fact that we've lost a number of francophone or bilingual employees who are capable of preparing decisions on our quality control team. However, recently we've been able to hire some bilingual people. We've just

Veterans Affairs committee  I couldn't tell you exactly. I can just give you the time between the filing date and the hearing date, which is 57.1 weeks for francophone cases and 49.3 weeks for anglophone cases.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'd like to understand your question. Are you asking me if there is a standard?

Veterans Affairs committee  Our standard is 16 weeks, once the case is entered into our system.

Veterans Affairs committee  After the hearing, the standard for rendering a decision is six to eight weeks.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't really explain why it's difficult to find francophones, but I can certainly say that we're making a lot of effort to attract francophones. In fact, the process we will be announcing very soon, I hope, with the support of the Minister of Veterans Affairs, will focus on hir

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm going to ask my colleague Mr. McNeil to do that because it's really his project and his initiative. He oversaw the first five years of the project, and I'm in the process of carrying out the second phase. So I will ask him to respond, if you don't mind.

Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned, we've simplified some of the processes over the past three years. We're now piloting a new process for early resolution of cases where the issue in dispute is fairly narrow. We'll define what that looks like in the next few weeks. We've conducted a pilot project f

Veterans Affairs committee  The simple answer is yes. There's always been a backlog, but unfortunately, it's been longer than it used to be lately.

Veterans Affairs committee  Unfortunately, we sit next to a giant. We're a very small board next to a very large organization that hires francophones. Therefore, it's very hard for us to retain francophones, which means that over the past two years, particularly the last one, we've unfortunately seen an inc

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks, Chris. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. As indicated by Mr. McNeil, we want to take a moment to tell you about a few of the initiatives we have implemented to improve access for veterans. First, we have expanded the board's simplified hearing model, whi

Veterans Affairs committee  I can speak only from the board's perspective and tell you that veterans receive decisions in a timely manner, in both English and French. I completely understand Mr. Thomson's comments and I greatly appreciated Ms. Wagantall's comments. As a former public servant in the admini

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, six of our seven new employees.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. All board staff work at the head office in Charlottetown. Our members are located across the country.