Mr. Chair, last Saturday was Canadian Armed Forces Day, which annually honours current and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I'd like to recognize the courage and sacrifice of these women and men who work every day to protect our democracy and our values.
I would add that the current crisis has accelerated the need to review the Veterans Affairs disability claims system. Indeed, the complexity and administrative burden means that, as of today, 20,233 files exceed the normal response time of 12 weeks, which corresponds to 19,223 veterans. This is a 17% increase from March 31.
I therefore call on the government to provide a war effort for our veterans by pre-approving all backlogged files. They fought for us, and now it is up to us to fight for them.