Okay.
In 3.68, Mr. Berthelette, your conclusion—let me just read it—says:
We concluded that Veterans Affairs Canada is facilitating timely access for veterans to the Rehabilitation Program.
Kudos, Mr. Doiron. We should point that out.
But unfortunately that's the smallest component of your overall program. It runs to about a total of 18%. Therefore, 82% is in the other part of that statement, which says:
Access to the Disability Benefits Program, through which the majority of veterans receive long-term mental health support, is not timely.
That's a bit of a failing grade, unfortunately
But I want to turn specifically, Mr. Berthelette, to the issue of folks who actually went into the appeal process. My colleague has already pointed out the fact that a number of folks decided not to, for whatever reason. Either they were fed up with the system or they just felt, “Well, perhaps I don't need the services so I'm not going to bother.” We don't know. I don't think the department knows. I don't think you probably track those. I see Mr. Doiron saying no. I'm not asking you to track them, by the way. If folks don't do things, they don't do things.
What's interesting in this is the length of time that a denied veteran ended up having to wait to get service unless, of course, they went and got private service. Now, they may have done that. I'm not suggesting that may not have happened. In some cases they may have gone into the public system and said, “I need some help,” or they went and paid for it, or did whatever. They may have done that.
But the dilemma here is that the Auditor General's report talked about the fact that the wait times exceeded your benchmark, and for those who were successful, the length of time it took at the outside was up to seven years. That appeal was successful. That is a catastrophic amount of time to wait to be told, “You're successful.” How does that happen, Mr. Doiron? How does it happen that we end up with a system that takes seven years potentially for a veteran to actually get through the appeals process to get what turns out to be a “yes”?