Thank you, Minister Thompson, for coming in to be with us this afternoon. Let me say at the outset how pleased I am to be a member of this particular committee. Being from Newfoundland and Labrador, we have had our share--in fact, more than our share--of people who have served in various wars. We know, in fact, what it's like to have many, many veterans in our province, and we certainly try to do everything we can to ensure that they are treated fairly and remembered for the part they played in trying to secure the freedom of so many throughout the world.
I have a question for the minister about the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. It's been said that they have a very busy workload, with some 7,000 claims. I'm wondering if you can give me some sense of what the backlog is and how long it is taking for a claim to be processed.