Thank you for the question.
I'm not sure that I would quantify the Privacy Act as a detriment to the service. I'd be careful saying that because it's there for a reason as you've highlighted, sir. But we have seen that in the exchange of information between DND and VAC, we have to comply with the Privacy Act. When we do, it does create additional challenges to getting the information, especially when reviewing the personal file of a veteran where there's some good recent, third party information. We have to comply.
The Privacy Act says you can only share for the reason that you've taken the information. Therefore, we do need releases and we do need permission to share that information. It therefore adds, I don't want to say a delay, but it does add a step in the process where my partners at CAF have to redact a file prior to providing it to Veterans Affairs to process a disability claim, or anything else that we may do with the file.
We work with it. We comply with the Privacy Act. We feel very strongly that it's important, but it does sometimes cause us some additional steps in the process.