I think we can. I can't answer when any of this will happen, or if it will ever happen. I do think that we can do some of that in incremental steps, where we can bite off smaller pieces, if you will, and address some of the needs, because again at the end of the day, if you're going to Treasury Board for an additional $500 million, that's a fairly significant amount of money.
I believe the last big change, if I'm not mistaken, was in 2005, when the previous government extended the program out somewhat, but not probably enough to make either one of us happy, Anthony, in terms of that widow who is coming into the office. We've all experienced that and we all get into situations.
Some amendments made in 2003 cost the then-government of the day $170 million, and the projected five-year cost of some of the amendments back earlier were something in the order of $67 million. So there is a price tag to all of this. As the Minister of Veterans Affairs, it's something I do think about, because we want to provide those widows and their families with the best care possible, but at the end of the day there is a price tag to it.
I will say this: we do better than most, if not all, of the western countries in the world in terms of our right to appeal. We give our veterans one of the best support systems in the world, and again, it would have to be just a critical look in terms of what is affordable by the Government of Canada. Those are real numbers that I'm throwing at you, and those are real people who you see going into your office as well. So we're going to try to make the two meet in terms of how we better deliver some of those programs.