First of all, the Department of Veterans Affairs does have an appeal process. If a veteran has exhausted the appeal process, right now all he can do is go to the Supreme Court. This is the sort of thing that a veteran is not willing to do. There is the expense, the trouble, and that sort of thing. I think this is one case, for instance, where an ombudsman can step in. I realize we can't change the law, but we can change regulations. From my days as a bureaucrat, I believe that a minister or a department does have the authority to change regulations. I know, for instance, mine were constantly being changed when I was with the Department of Employment and Immigration.
This is one thing that the ombudsman probably could do. There are changing situations. For instance, let's talk about chemicals, if I may, briefly. Back in the 1950s, we didn't realize what DDT was like. I now have some stuff from DuPont, amongst other things, and now we know what DDT is like. We can change our regulations; we can change our instructions to our adjudication officers in the Department of Veterans Affairs, to allow for this. We're constantly discovering new perils and all that sort of thing. Depleted uranium and Agent Orange are other examples. All these things can be taken into consideration. This may be where the ombudsman comes in. If there is something that is obviously a threat and that is not yet being covered or compensated for or treated, perhaps one of his jobs could be to ensure that this is done.