The smart way for me to answer is to say it is a note to yourself, but it's not. You're quite correct.
The government had a choice to make on this one, and the choice we made was to ask the Gerontological Advisory Council--and they worked nearly for a year on this--to solicit views from the best and brightest in this country and internationally on what would make the most sense, given the complex eligibility rules we had, the fact that we aren't able to help 60% of war veterans, the fact that there are Canadian Forces veterans out there who need help when they're younger and older, and the fact there are primary caregivers who need help. We asked them to have a look at what we do and to give us advice.
The six major veterans organizations are on the Gerontological Advisory Council, but that isn't necessarily to restrict their advocacy; it is to ensure that they have the advantage of the best and brightest in this country on the questions that we asked. Their report is in the public domain. It's on our website. We submitted it to you, we'll submit it to anybody who wants to see it, and we solicit comments on that. We're getting quite a few.
I think the veterans community knows that we're doing it. We've had a process of talking to provinces about the policy basis for this--not to share views, because with a large cohort of baby boomers coming through, the lessons we've now learned about proper care of the elderly will pay dividends later on. Although we didn't seek a broad consultation mandate on this, in effect we've had all the benefits of a broad consultation mandate without the time necessary to get a specific mandate in that area. I'm quite confident we got pretty broad-based input, Mr. Valley, into our deliberations.
What we are waiting for, and with enthusiasm, is a report from the standing committee.