I'm not aware of that situation. But to emphasize more what you said before when you talked about services in the language of your choice, the Government of Canada and the Société Santé en français have a good program going on. There is the development of professionals, for example. And one example out of that is the medical school that we now have in Moncton, a French medical school, which will train people in all kinds of professions to serve the community.
This is a means that the government has implemented to help train professionals and then ensure the presence of French services throughout the country. This agreement will expire in the spring, if I remember correctly, and it will have to be renegotiated. This is where the government should be aware of the success of Société Santé en français throughout the country and that it must be renewed in order to answer the questions you asked earlier.
As for veterans, I have made an effort in the past few days to obtain more information, because we were not necessarily aware of their situation. I have been told that the red tape is considerable. These people get discouraged and professionals are required to fill out the applications and help them in their quest for services. I remember the work done by Ms. Bradshaw when she was an MP, to set up the Centre de santé des anciens combattants in Moncton. I think it took three or four years for a decision to be made, and the veterans were on the fifth floor of an old hospital. Now, the service is excellent, but too much time has to be spent on paperwork for the provincial and federal governments.
In New Brunswick, we too have what is called a new government. In January, it eliminated all income from its list of eligibility criteria for admission into a nursing home, even veterans' income. Before January 1, when a veteran was obliged to go into a long-term care centre, this took up all his income, and his wife remained poor. I was told yesterday before leaving that in New Brunswick, this problem has been partly solved. But I think that your committee will have to see how these veterans' wives are treated when their husbands are admitted into a long-term care centre. Do they become poor? If you look at all women who did not work outside the home and who raised large families, whether they be the wives of veterans, fishermen or farmers, those are the poor women in Canada.
We have just learned that over 200,000 people are entitled to the Guaranteed Income Supplement but do not receive it because they were not aware that they were entitled to it. This is why we are urging the government to give us the means to go door-to-door and to make people aware of these things. This takes human resources. To date, the provincial government has made efforts in the area of social services and we have added many names to these lists, but there are still some 200,000 people who are entitled to the GIS. We have no way of contacting them. It seems to me that in the federal government's data base, they must be somewhere and we should be able to determine their circumstances. All we have to do is find a technological means of giving them this supplement, without their having to hire a lawyer in order to claim their benefits. I just wanted to add that comment.