Veterans Affairs Committee on May 16th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Well, is it that simple? It sounds good to me. Are there any other considerations here? All right. I hear people calling for the question.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now, wasn't that sweet and easy?

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

You should have just started with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

That's right. There we go, we have that dealt with.

I am assuming that what we're going on to here is the feedback that people have given the clerks when they sent around the question asking what people wanted to deal with. Does everybody have copies of that? All right.

Maybe the way to work this is for me to go ahead and read these in. I have one here addressed “Dear Colleague”. That is from the minister. Do people want that read in?

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

No, we all have a copy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. You all have a copy. Fair enough. And it's bilingual as well. We'll put that aside.

I have responses here from, I believe, Monsieur Perron, Mr. St. Denis, Monsieur Thibault, Mr. Shipley, and Mrs. Hinton. Let's read through those then.

Monsieur Perron, I won't try to butcher your French, sir. I will do my best. I believe your first issue is talking about the Veterans Affairs ombudsman, the second is Agent Orange, your third issue is post-traumatic stress disorder, and your fourth was the awarding of disability pensions. That's a fair representation.

For Mr. St. Denis, the first was the veterans charter review process, the second was Agent Orange, the third was media, the Peace Tower flag regarding fallen soldiers issue--that's up in the House, I guess--and the fourth would be the Legion cenotaph support program.

Monsieur Thibault, your suggestions were, one, sustainability of the legions; two, veterans independence program, VIP, benefits for widows of war veterans; and three was medical leave.

The other submission from Mr. Shipley was the veterans bill of rights; the Veterans Review and Appeal Board; and the Veterans Affairs ombudsman.

Then Mrs. Hinton had veterans bill of rights; ombudsman for the department; and the veterans independence program, VIP.

Now, if we were to tally those up.... I'm going to do a separate chart here. I'll call it bill of rights, and the bill of rights has—

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I passed on my preferences to you verbally, but I didn't hear them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Let me record these, and then maybe we'll go through the other members who happen to....

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Can we get copies of that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I wish you could. I think we only have one.

[A voice]

It was just in various e-mails. It's not translated.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

If we're going to look at what we'll be doing as the work plan for the group, wouldn't it make sense for us all to see what the others are thinking? I have heard them and heard them read, but I'd like to have them in front of me.

What I would suggest is that we start grouping these items together on the basis of similarity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

That's exactly what I was about to do, Mr. Thibault.

If you were going to wait for us all to have copies of this, we'd have to wait for them to be reproduced, and then this would have to wait for a subsequent meeting. If I go about creating the groups or categories now—record with check marks how many marks are under each given person, and then ask those who haven't already sent in their list—I think we can skin the cat now.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

That's fine, but I'd ask the clerk to send the original list to our offices after this meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Sure.

Is everybody agreeable to that? All right.

This helps. Why don't we circulate it? Does that sound like a plan?

Let's send some around and decide here. These lists will be circulated. Am I to understand that this list has all the suggestions?

[A voice]

Yes, except for Mr. Perron's.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Except for Mr. Perron's.

Mr. Gaudet.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I'd like the committee to review the veterans charter approved during the last Parliament. Approval was given rather quickly, as everyone supported this initiative. I'd like to see the regulations that go along with the veterans charters and review them to see if they are consistent with the provisions of the new charter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay.

Please bear with us for a second before we get into discussion.

I'd like to tally these up, if that's all right, and put check marks by these issues so we have a sense of where we are heading. What I'm doing right now is taking the list and checking off the ones that Mr. Perron sent in. Then I'll be going through the other ones, and we'll get to the ones who haven't sent theirs in.

Please bear with us for a few minutes.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Perhaps you could tell us what Mr. Perron's additions were.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Yes, of course

Mr. Perron had the ombudsman, Agent Orange, post traumatic stress disorder—which is not on the list, so you'll have to add that. I put “PTSD” down toward the bottom. As well, there's awarding of disability pensions, which I had as new as well.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

On post traumatic stress disorder, I see Mr. Perron is in line with the thinking of the minister.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I don't know, but I've been fighting that for a long time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now I'm moving onto Mr. St Denis.

[Robert Thibault, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Mr. St. Denis suggestions aren't on this list either. I just wanted to add those of Mr. Perron that weren't on the list.