Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Let me extend a welcome to the minister, and certainly a hearty welcome to the new deputy minister, and offer a note of nostalgia as I fondly recall the civil servants who made the department, VAC, the most respected of all government departments.
I know the minister is blessed to have a department that brims with the enthusiasm of volunteers and certainly the professionalism of the soldiers and veterans they serve. I do know the minister will continue to convey the committee's high regard for the work they do every day.
But that work continues to change. When I was the minister, we were seized with the challenges of operational stress injuries, and that was actually before we suffered 36 fatalities in 2006, dozens of life and physically changing injuries, and probably hundreds more individuals who will have to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. I wonder if the minister can tell the committee what new measures the department is taking to meet the challenges faced by the veterans of Afghanistan suffering from operational stress injuries.