Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here to testify before us today.
Upon reading the report of the Auditor General, Mr. Ferguson, and the analysts' findings, I am extremely shocked to see that a service that is supposed to be provided to Canadians effectively, quickly, and very humanely has taken a terrible turn. What shocks me the most is not so much the Tribunal—it is fairly new and we need to give it time to iron out any wrinkles—but very much the disability program itself.
As you said, Mr. Shugart, the program is 50 years old. How did we get here? How did we get to some of the observations that Mr. Ferguson is raising with us? I find it absolutely incomprehensible that so many cases were rejected, but in the end, upon review or when the complainants took their cases to this tribunal, you see that they should have been granted the disability pension after all. You have not even started processing these types of requests. How is it that in 2016, we are still processing such onerous files in paper format? I cannot fathom why a person with a terminal illness still has to fill out an 11-page questionnaire.
I would very much like to have answers to these questions because I am really astounded by this.