Madam Chair, veterans trust Veterans Affairs Canada to deliver the benefits and services that Parliament has put in place for them.
Most veterans are well served by the department. I've been all across this country and they say to me, “I'm good.” Very quietly, they come up to me afterwards and say, “I'm good. I couldn't be more satisfied with what I receive from Veterans Affairs Canada.” They're happy.
However, there is a group of veterans who have been affected by these decisions in the past and who are deeply concerned about this particular decision, which would essentially go against the rule of law and wipe out the mistake that the department has made.
I can tell you that there are veterans who so deeply distrust the department and are so angry about this. It makes me sad because I know the good that the department is doing. These are good people. I believe them, and I have faith in this department to deliver, but these kinds of things just destroy that trust. For military and RCMP, trust is what we base our service on. If I can't trust my buddy to do his part of the mission, then we can't complete the mission. What the government asks us to do is, quite frankly, nasty business. Trust is everything.
This is a small thing. Just say that we made a mistake, correct the mistake, make it clear going forward, absolutely, but don't wipe out 30 years of having made that mistake and just pretend it never happened.