Thank you.
I've got some questions for Colonel Blais.
The context of this, of course, is the some 13.2% of the total deployed to Afghanistan who were predicted to suffer from OSI or PTSD, according to the department's Report on Cumulative Incidence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Other Mental Disorders, a sample that took place of people deployed from 2001 to 2008.
With the JPSU, I'm going to just lay out a set of questions, if you don't mind.
How many forces members are currently posted to the JPSU? Do you have numbers for what you anticipate will come forward for posting over the coming three years? What are the number of service providers currently employed? I know that management, administration, and logistical support are also important, but I just want the number for service providers directly dealing with people being posted.
There were staffing shortages that we are aware of. In terms of those staffing shortages how many medical professionals have been hired since the hiring freeze was lifted last fall? Would you recommend increasing the number of service providers, given the estimate of need for the JPSU, if increased budget were available to you? In other words, is budget a constraint? I'm not just talking about medical, I'm talking about service providers.
Lastly, the fall report from the Auditor General of Canada recommended improvements to performance measuring and reporting by the JPSU and the IPSCs. Have you implemented that recommendation? If not yet, how do you plan to move forward and do that?
I'm trying to get a handle on what's going on with the JPSU.