Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And Minister and Deputy Minister, thank you for coming today.
I'm going to start by saying that if the government does plan to move ahead to make Beechwood a national cemetery--a national site--then we would definitely support that initiative. I think that would be very helpful.
Also, thank you to the department for the Dominion Institute's funding to bring veterans to the schools. I think that's very important, and you should be thanked for that as well.
Okay, that's me being the nice guy.
Minister, I've noticed a trend within the Conservative Party.... And not all of these comments are attributed to you; in fact just one is, but it's rather disturbing.
You're right when you say we owe them a great debt of gratitude, but when platitudes or words are said, you expect them to be fulfilled. In June 2005, you asked Minister Graham, the Minister of Defence, when the government was going to compensate all the victims of Agent Orange. Later on that month you asked whether the public would not best be served by an independent and public inquiry on Agent Orange. The Prime Minister said in 2006 that the Conservatives would stand up for full compensation for persons exposed to defoliant spraying from 1956 to 1984. We know that a package looked at those who qualified and applied prior to April of this year, for 1966 and 1967 only, which is what the Liberals had offered.
You also indicated the Prime Minister said that Joyce Carter--in fact all widows of World War II and Korean veterans, regardless of when the veteran passed away--would receive the VIP immediately upon your forming government. Two years later, money came into the budget that would have offered it to less than 30% of those, and even then under new criteria of a disability tax credit or certain income. That's not what was said.
Also, recently it was indicated that the Conservative Party, in its 2007 platform, said it would disband the Veterans Review and Appeal Board and replace it with qualified medical and military members capable of adjudicating appeals on an informed basis. We notice that Angela Vautour, former member of Parliament--one of ours, who jumped to the PC--is now a member of that board.
Lastly, in September Mr. Harper said to a bunch of Polish veterans--and you have a copy of it--that if elected, they would make sure that allied and Commonwealth veterans who fought with us and have been here for ten years will receive the Canadian war allowance. In my conversations with those Polish veterans, and the average age is 86.... It wasn't in the economic statement, in the budget, and it's not in the estimates, that I can find. So my question to you, first of all, is where is the promise for the allied veterans? They're 86. We already know that several of them have passed away.
Number two, how many total veterans do we actually have in the country--not what DVA serves, but the total number of veterans, their spouses, and RCMP veterans? When we had the Australian government here, they said they serviced 440,000 individuals, with 2,300 people in their administration. We have over 3,800 in our administration serving close to 212,000 people. I just wanted to get that in.
My last question is on the advisory group. Sean Bruyea asked me to ask you this. Is it possible to get the names of that group?
Thank you, sir. There's more, but I don't have much time.