First of all, it's not a small group. I want to make that clear. I did not say “small”. It is not a small group. There is a majority who are well served, and there is a cohort that is not. I want to make that really clear. The number of complaints to my office over the five years that I've been here has gone up significantly.
My understanding of the accommodations and meals calculation is that it's very complex. The bottom line is that the department must consider and look at all of the costs for accommodations and meals for long-term care, and the legislation says “province”. The Interpretation Act says that the word “province”, if not otherwise defined in that act, must include the territories. It so happens that the rate for accommodations and meals for at least the past 20 years or so has been lower in one of the territories, which means that the veterans who are eligible for long-term care paid for by the department—it's not every veteran and there are criteria—have paid more for accommodations and meals than they should have.
This is going over 30 years. We've not done the investigation into the numbers. The department can give you that answer. Over 30 years, there are, I'm sure, thousands of elderly and the most disabled veterans who have paid more for their accommodations and meals than they should have, according to the law. VAC made a mistake in that calculation.