Greetings. We are back at it again, ladies and gentlemen, with the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
Today I think we're just going to be talking about some of the business we'll be conducting over the next little while, just so everybody knows what the itinerary is and where we're going with things.
I'm briefly going to go over some of the things we have here for future business. One is, of course, that we determined prior to our summer break that we were going to be looking into the veterans bill of rights, the veterans independence program, and kind of fleshing out the veterans ombudsman and the role there. As well, we do have some issues with regard to upcoming travel. I know you talked previously about St. Anne's Hospital, for example, in Montreal, and some other locations, possibly, within Canada. As well, I believe there is something that will be coming up in France.
Lastly, I want to remind everybody that we did get a request from people in the Russian Federation, our counterparts with veterans affairs there, to come and present to us.
As well, we have a list of witnesses who have indicated they would like to appear, and some potential witnesses. I have a copy, but it has not been translated, so we'll have to present that list of witnesses at a subsequent meeting, next week, unless the committee members wish to discuss those things now.
I'm going to open it up, then, if people want to have any discussion with regard to some of these items at all or any things they want to introduce into the agenda, aside from that, for future discussion.
One of the things we want to make sure everybody understands is that the Russian delegation will be appearing on October 4. I imagine it's not dissimilar to situations where sometimes, when our parliamentary committees go on travel, we look to meet with our counterparts in other countries. They've requested that of us. I'm trying to remember exactly when it was--prior to the summer, anyhow. So I think that explains that.
Mr. St. Denis.