Veterans Affairs committee  No, generally the case management side of VAC is dealing with other issues unrelated to what we do in the pension and lump sum award disability benefits.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the biggest challenge is the one around the evidence that needs to be collected in order to proceed to the board, and that evidence most often has to do with medical reports. It can be difficult at times, first of all, to find a family doctor to provide that report, and secondly, sometimes the family doctor's medical report isn't sufficient.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I'll give you an example. At the bureau we have four areas in the country: West, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic, and each one of those areas is headed by an area director. Three of those four area directors are former military people, either from the JAG branch or from the regular force.

Veterans Affairs committee  That changes, and it depends, because there are a number of lawyers we keep on two- or three-year terms because we know there is a bubble coming through the system and we're going to need them, and then we won't need them later. Depending on the time and our needs, it fluctuates.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. We did immediately before the Veterans Charter came into effect. Then we started to see a slight decline. The numbers were going down, not significantly but steadily. Curiously though, in the last 12 months, those numbers have started to come up again. We dropped to levels we hadn't been to before, and now we're back up above levels we had been to previously.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, it's for pensions and awards, and you're absolutely right that the name may be a little obsolete now.

Veterans Affairs committee  It depends on the particular circumstances of the case. Some are very simple, very straightforward, and it could be a matter of days. Some may be more complex on the medical front and may require a little more research on behalf of the lawyer. Some may require either a very basic legal argument, which could be done quickly within a matter of days, or they may require a charter argument.

Veterans Affairs committee  Generally, we're not, but that's not to say that occasionally that might not happen.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have what we call legal assistants. They are PM-1 level, and they provide the initial contact with the client to make sure that, as soon as they can after the application comes in or the first contact comes in, they communicate with the client so that they know when the lawyer will be addressing their file.

Veterans Affairs committee  In that case, they come back to us, we go to the board, and then they get our survey.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't think so, simply because in the end, they were able to get what they wanted in the first place through this diverted process much more quickly, much more efficiently than had they gone through the whole redress system.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. It would be helpful if the DND records could arrive more quickly. As I said earlier, it's gotten better, much better than it was in the past. There's probably still a little bit of room for improvement.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know because I wasn't there then, but I think there were a few more than there are now.

Veterans Affairs committee  The department pays their salaries.

Veterans Affairs committee  They stay on for a long time. People tend to stay quite a bit, and in fact, at the moment, we're experiencing a generational change. Shortly after World War II, the government paid for many veterans to go to law school, and many of those were hired in the late forties and early fifties, and they stayed until the 1970s and early 1980s, which is when we hired a whole bunch of new lawyers.