Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, that's a very appropriate comment, in terms of responsibilities of government regardless of what political stripe we choose. At the end of the day, we're here to do the best we can for our veterans, and that's really what the bill of rights is all about.
It's not a stand-alone document in isolation of our Charter of Rights or a stand-alone document in isolation of other safeguards we have within the delivery of programs. Within the program delivery, there are certain rights and charter rights that veterans receive today that are not unlike in other government departments--for example, the right to have services in the official language of your choice. That's very important, I know, to the Bloc members. It's very important to any government. So those rights are not stand-alone in a bill of rights. The bill of rights has to be consistent with our charter and has to be consistent with the delivery programs we currently have within Veterans Affairs.
I guess at the end of the day it has to be in that plain language, so you'll have a veteran who's 80 years old and he'll know clearly where Veterans Affairs stands in terms of his rights as a veteran or the rights of his family. Again, I think the language is very important, but I think the intent of the bill of rights is something we can all take some level of satisfaction from, because the work you have done on the ombudsman will work hand in glove along with the new charter.
If you look at the Veterans Charter in isolation, alone, and compare it to that of other jurisdictions, for example, the GI bill in the United States of America, you'll see that basically, the GI bill in the United States is a bill of rights and their charter combined into one unit, if you will. Ours will be somewhat different. If you take a look at some of the other countries as well, it's somewhat the same.
Canada will be like a forerunner in terms of a stand-alone bill of rights for veterans. It'll be unlike in any other jurisdiction. I think it's refreshing that we want to do that, and I think at the end of the day it'll be embraced by veterans organizations, because in our consultations, we've listened to them and we've listened to you. So some of your concerns and those of your colleagues you'll see reflected in the bill of rights.
I think at the end of the day it'll be something that veterans will take an awful lot of comfort in. I think at the end of the day we can all be very proud as parliamentarians that we did the right thing for veterans.