Thank you, Chair.
I think all of us here in this committee were quite astounded by some of the numbers and the percentages of the report. We're sending some of our best from Canada into a very dangerous area to fight a war, and they go knowing that they may pay the ultimate cost, but we're also sometimes unaware of the other costs.
It's well noted when someone dies--it just happened again this past weekend, and those sacrifices are always well noted. But the study seemed to indicate that there were very many who were suffering in silence. In fact, 75% of the soldiers reporting mental health problems said they weren't receiving the health care they needed.
I think it's up to public accounts to ask the Auditor General to do a performance analysis on this particular issue, especially when you consider that 27%, one of every four soldiers returning, are suffering some sort of mental health issues. Of that number, about 10% are suffering post-traumatic stress, so I believe this is something we should pay particular attention to. We should have the Auditor General go in there.
I noted that the defence department is doing its own review, but it's always good to have that oversight that an Auditor General can provide to really get into some of the numbers and see what in fact are the current things. We really do want the best for our men and women in uniform serving in a war zone.