Thank you again, Mr. Chairman.
I will just put a concluding aspect to my VIP crusade, as we say...still working with the widows and the veterans. They can only go by what they're being told, and what they were told by the now Prime Minister is that it would be immediately. The letter doesn't say there would be a review. It doesn't say we'd look at it. It doesn't say we would consciously think about it and we'll get back to you. It says immediately, and that's all I can go on.
If it sounds impatient, then it is, but the fact is these widows are getting older. They don't have much time. We'll lose about 40,000 Second World War and Korean War veterans this year. They'll leave behind...two-thirds of those will be widows, and most of them will not be eligible for VIP, and that is unacceptable in my term.
So I just put that one to rest right now. I know that's not for you, but if you can take it back to whomever and tell them to get their butt in gear on this one, it will be greatly appreciated, because it saves money. It saves money. The longer we wait, the more it costs us. If you do it for anything, do it for fiscal responsibility than for anything else.
My concern is Louise Richards. You probably saw her article in The Hill Times this week. I'm just wondering if you have an ability to respond to that, regarding her access to care at the Perley.
Also, we're getting a fair number of calls from across the country. There was one, a Harvey Friesen, which you're probably aware of, with asbestos. He was paid posthumously $100,000 for that. We're getting more and more people coming up, suffering from the effects of asbestosis, from their exposure to the ships and various buildings and plants they worked at during the forties and fifties, and that's coming back to haunt them now.
I'm just wondering what the department is doing in order to ascertain their concerns, to give the benefit of the doubt, to ensure that these aged civilians and veterans are able to be cared for as soon as possible.