Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to say thank you very much for being here today. I really enjoy the fact that orders are concise, and you're a concise man in what you have presented to us. It's not a lot of flowery speech. It's right to the point, and I really do appreciate that, which is all part of your military background.
Sir, one of the challenges Veterans Affairs Canada has is that we have over 7,000 appeals going to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. What I hear from this committee is that we're looking to this ombudsman to help that out and cut those numbers down.
Do you see that as being realistic, or how would this would be done? Would it be for an ombudsman to take on the veterans issues and be an advocate for the veteran during the appeal process? Or do you see the ombudsman being more involved in some of the systematic issues, in what's happening at ground level when it comes to those decisions not to extend benefits or pensions to veterans? Do you think we need to look beyond the appeal to see what's wrong with the program, with the whole system?