In the various committees we serve on, we have brought that to the attention of Veterans Affairs Canada. They're trying to address an operation that will advise people of what is available to them. I'm under the impression that there are still 220,000 veterans out there who may or may not require assistance. When I go around to speak at the various veterans functions, I bring it to their attention.
We have the older veterans and the new veterans. The new veterans are latching on to programs like Facebook on the Internet, although I haven't been on it, where they talk about various difficulties. It's communication, and I don't know how we're going to address it. Perhaps it's going to be a full-page ad in the The Globe and Mail and the National Post and local newspapers.
Veterans Affairs publishes Salute!, which is a newspaper that goes out to all veterans who are registered with Veterans Affairs Canada. As I've indicated, I'm under the impression that there are 220,000 veterans out there who don't know what's available to them. And for those who know what is available to them, sometimes they have difficulties with Veterans Affairs Canada, and the rumours of the past difficulties with VAC catch up with them and they don't want to bother with VAC. It takes, I gather, a person like me to present an optimistic view of what's taking place in VAC, as opposed to a pessimistic view.
A lot of the comments I hear that are negative in tone, of course, come on November 11 when there are gatherings at various veterans facilities. At the end of the day, not at the beginning of the day, after there has been a lot of camaraderie and perhaps consumption of alcoholic-type beverages, they voice their opinions. Sometimes their opinions are very good and sometimes they're not, but most recently of that nature.