Thank you very much for joining us today, Jenifer and Claude. It's a very poignant story you've told.
I had an opportunity at the beginning of this meeting to speak to you about happier times and better issues, and I was delighted to hear that you had served at Mount Lolo in my riding of Kamloops. I would invite you to come and visit another time; that would be wonderful.
I've been writing notes madly here, trying to put things down as you said them.
What this committee is currently in the process of doing is looking to improve the veterans independence program, as well as reviewing health care, which is part and parcel of that. So your testimony today is extremely helpful in terms of building on the health care review.
I did hear one very constructive piece of advice from you today, that veterans must be made aware of the services available. I was under the impression we were doing that, but perhaps we're not doing it well enough. Your point about advertising the available benefits in the correspondence going out to veterans is a tremendous idea. That will certainly go forward.
On some of the other things I've listened to, I'm very happy to hear you received some help this summer. I share your view of Ste. Anne's. They do a fantastic job.
In terms of what this government is trying to do, we are trying very hard to respond to the needs of our veterans. We value them highly, and we appreciate the fact that we enjoy the democracy we have today because of their service.
So we've put in place $10 million for OSI, or operational stress injury, clinics, which will help many soldiers, and we've put in place an ombudsman. It was $10 million for the first, and $5 million for the second. Now the ombudsman is going to be in a position to help people who are in the circumstances you've been in, too. This is going to be beneficial.
If I heard you correctly, you said that no PTSD victim should have to attend alone, because the paperwork is overwhelming. I think that's another very constructive point. I'm very surprised, though....
You did say—I think I heard you correctly—that the department offered to help, but you didn't feel there was going to be help one-on-one. There was an offer for help—