I think first, internally in Defence, although it is not the case, we have argued, and I have argued--and they are moving slowly--to change the culture with regard to PTSD as an injury. The macho dimension still has to be cleaned up, and that is ongoing. I think an absolute effort still has to be committed to doing that.
Secondly, the full realization of the scale is dawning on this committee and Veterans Affairs Canada. I've been hearing rumours that maybe there's talk of scaling down some of the demands within Defence at a time when we should be scaling up. The five new veterans clinics are absolutely essential and have to come on-line rapidly, but I'm not sure whether they're structured to handle the volume, and that's the failing so far. The volume is often beyond what people want to accept.
Before Afghanistan, when I was an ADM at the end of the nineties, and then following, we were estimating at least 3,000 casualties. Interestingly enough, in that same militia regiment, I went to the supper for preparing...for saying goodbye to the families. Three reservists were there--two ex-regular force, now reserve, and one reservist; three of them, of the veterans who were there, of about 40 who had served. One was in Ste. Anne's part-time and the other was getting treatment at Ste. Anne's. The other one was being treated at Triquet, but was not....
The scale is just not recognized. You have the backlog, where a dedicated effort has to made, not just
for the 26 individuals in Montreal and Quebec City.
and so on. A whole backlog is sitting out there that hasn't come to the fore, starting with the Gulf War veterans all the way through. You can even include Agent Orange in that. The backlog gang has to get a dedicated task force committed to solving that. That's off-line.
Then on-line is recognizing the scale of the casualties. Although Afghanistan will bring PTSD casualties, I think if we found ourselves in Darfur, we'd probably end up with a higher scale, because the humanitarian side of that will blow a lot of the circuitry apart.
It is the realization that the ten clinics have to come on-line. Those ten clinics need dedicated beds in different hospitals across the country. They simply can't keep sending the guy home because there's no place, and so on. They had another suicide at Ste. Anne's last week. The guy ended up killing himself.
There has to be an escalation of availability of committed resources across the country. That doesn't need another study. That needs cash. Just throw it at it. The solutions are there. It's just that the availability of the funds to implement them seems difficult.
I think that's the primary one, the full realization that you have to take all the backlog gang, set up a separate task force, and launch into it. The ones who are still serving and are coming off-line now have enhanced those clinics to become full-fledged. Give them the capabilities. They are there. I went to brief them two years ago on the first five clinics. They already had a whole bunch there. They just needed somebody to give them some cash to open up some beds and some capabilities in Winnipeg and all over.
That's my short answer on that one.