Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I think the most important thing, which we touched on, as did other members, is we implemented the new Veterans Charter. As you all know, the charter was passed in the House of Commons in May 2005. We went almost an entire year under the previous government without its implementation. So that was one of the first things we did within two months of taking office. We implemented it very quickly.
As the deputy attested, it's basically on target and working according to plan. The interesting thing is that it's an open charter. As needs arise and changes occur we can adapt the charter to meet the needs of our veterans. That's the refreshing part of the charter. In addition to that, we spent $352 million more on veterans than the year before--$250 million on the implementation of the new charter.
I'm really pleased about the small announcement we made last week with the Prime Minister on National Flag of Canada Day about the commitment we made to the Juno Beach Centre. As you all know, the invasion of Normandy was one of the pivotal events in the history of World War II. It changed the whole complexion of the outcome of World War II; in other words, we won and the Nazis lost. Canada never had a lasting memorial to those veterans, where we landed on the shore at great sacrifice. Veterans stood up and took it upon themselves to build this centre without assistance from the Government of Canada. They just simply did it themselves, as veterans often do. When the job has to be done, they just go out and do it.
So they've sort of struggled over the last number of years. They've had some corporate sponsors. The government, on an intermittent and unpredictable basis, has stood up to help them marginally. So the announcement last week will basically guarantee them success of that centre in perpetuity. With corporate sponsors, I think it will be there for many years to come. In fact, 18,000 individual Canadians stood up to help these veterans build this centre, in addition to some corporate sponsors. It's a good-news story that has gone largely untold over the last little while. Our hats go off to Garth Webb and those veterans who took it upon themselves to build that lasting memorial. We're now there as a lasting partner.
The other one was the ex gratia payment we extended to widows--those individuals and dependants who basically fell through the cracks between the passage of the Veterans Charter and the failure to implement it by the previous government. We extended $250,000 tax-free to widows who otherwise were ineligible simply because of the lack of implementation of the Veterans Charter. It was passed in the House but never implemented quickly. We quickly implemented it and made up for the failure to implement it by the previous government by extending those ex gratia payments to those widows. It was very gratifying personally to do that, with the help of many of my colleagues in cabinet and the Prime Minister.
The other one was the process we put in place for the VRAB. I think it's a very professional board now, with certain standards and criteria. You have to be qualified to be appointed to that board. I think that's very gratifying. The board is pretty much at a full contingent now, to catch up on the backlog that existed simply because the board was not up to a full contingent when we took office.
I think we've made a lot of progress on the Agent Orange file. As I say in this business, you never brag about anything or assume that anything is completed until it's finally completed and delivered. But it's one that I've worked very hard on. My colleagues, many of you around this table, have been very helpful to me on both sides of the House on that file.
The department has worked extremely hard on this file, and I've driven myself fairly hard on it. They've risen to every task that's been asked of them. They have devoted many hours to this, knowing we had to deal with 40 or 50 years of failure to act on it. I'm very pleased with the progress we're making, and I think at the end of the day it's going to be done. We're talking today about a veterans bill of rights and an ombudsman, so we're making progress on that as well.
I feel pretty good about our first year. I guess in the course of a normal mandate of four to five years...considering that we've done quite a bit in one year, I feel pretty good about it. But there's more to do, Mr. Chairman. We're committed to the mission, and we're going to continue to do more for our veterans.