If we take as a starting point—and I know economists and two hands and all the rest—this idea of the Canadian economy being well below potential, and in speaking about the choices for our federal government going into a budget cycle, where there is now room either to invest or, as Mr. Thomas and others have argued, there are choices of true investment versus politics—which is always a difficult thing in balancing this—there is the question of where the best investments are.
Mr. Oberg, I want to turn to you for a moment. Do you consider the services and programs offered to our veterans as investments? Or are they sort of—and here I don't want to use an improper term—secondary considerations for a government dealing with other matters, other economic matters, like job creation and job growth? For your members, the folks you represent, with regard to the types of expenditures that you're asking for, now that we appear to be moving into surplus, are they investments in the Canadian economy and in Canada in general?