Really, at the end of the day, we just want to do the best we can for our veterans, working within all the budgetary restraints that all governments are subjected to.
When I go to the veterans hospitals and meet veterans.... I was down to Ste. Anne's. I will get on to the Ste. Anne's story.
I could actually talk about Ridgewood. In my opening remarks I talked about shaking the hands of veterans when they don't want to let go. I can remember one of the administrators said “See, they really like you”, and I said, “No, it's more than that. It's not me. It's you. You know, it's the men and women, the nurses that make up those veterans hospitals, and the janitor keeping the floors clean, and the men and women that just make the institution work.” Because if the institution wasn't working and I was in there, they wouldn't want to shake my hand.
It provides comfort to me, just seeing that we're doing a good job. And we can do better, and we know that. We always have little problems here and there popping up. I think for the most part we deal with them quite nicely, and always work to resolve them. I guess that's the most rewarding thing.
Most of the issues we've talked about here today we have to deal with incrementally. We can't do them all tomorrow. But I think at the end of the day, we do give it our best shot. I know that this is a line that I often use, but we do know that our men and women in uniform, when they take on a mission, give it 100%. Our Canadian soldiers, men and women in the field, are the best in the world. They are the best soldiers in the world, and they deserve the best treatment in the world when they come back home, when they really need us. We could argue that they've done their job, and now it's up to us to do our job to the best of our ability.
So I guess at the end of the day, I just want to see an improvement of services, knowing that Canada is very blessed to have men and women who will put on the uniform, who devote themselves to the freedoms and to all of the things that we take for granted in a democracy, like the rule of law, and the right to gather like this and debate issues. We sometimes take that for granted in the House of Commons when we're back and forth in debate.
The truth is we'll just keep doing what we're doing, and we're going to do our best to get over those little challenges that we see along the way, and surpass them.
I'm very pleased to be Minister of Veterans Affairs, and I thank you for your support here today.
Mr. Chairman, we'll work with the committee to achieve some of those good things for our men and women.
Thank you.