Thank you for the service you've given over the years. The respect you've received from your troops is outstanding. The fact that it's stellar really is apparent when you speak to the men and women of the armed forces.
I just want to make a few comments on how it has been clear, right throughout the military forces, that an illness is an illness, regardless of whether it's physical or mental. That's something that starts at the top. It's not just something that appears. There's been a real effort there. You've been building a base as far as medical treatment goes with the Rx2000.
There is one area I'd like to concentrate on, though. It seems that a lot of the medical treatment and a lot of the medical resources are concentrated in large urban areas, or areas where you have major bases. I know you're from Newfoundland, and I'm from rural Ontario; we probably have a lot more in common with each other than with a lot of the big cities out there, so I'm sure you'll appreciate this.
What I'm hearing from a lot of the people who are coming before us is that it's almost like a two-tiered system. You touched on that earlier. It seems that if you're in one of the larger areas--Edmonton, for instance, or even Ottawa--you get first-class service. If you're in Petawawa or northern Ontario, or a rural area, it's almost like there's second-class service there. That bothers me, because a lot of my constituents who are in the forces are from rural settings, and they deserve the same level of service as everyone else. When they go back home, they don't always receive that.
From your level, where are you going, and what are you doing to change things and make sure that the level of service available in urban centres is available in rural centres?