Just for the benefit of the new members, the study actually would have been very good to compare, because we always hear our soldiers and airmen and sailors who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with other countries--in NATO conflicts and with the Americans in that--saying shouldn't benefits be sort of similar? If you look at Britain, for example, Britain now offers almost $1 million in the event of loss of life and the ultimate sacrifice. And if you're severely injured, you get a lump-sum payment plus a life-long pension; whereas our veterans charter here offers you a lump-sum payment and there is no pension after that. So these are some of the comparisons we wanted to see.
Also, we had the Australian high commissioner here, who indicated that Australia has 20 million people, and a client base of 440,000 individuals in their DVA. They have an administrative workforce of 2,300 people and they have a DVA budget of $10.5 billion Canadian. Ours is 33 million people, a $3.5-billion budget, 217,000 clients, and a workforce of 3,800. And it was a good comparison to see where we could streamline the processes, because you know Minister Thompson himself said they're looking at departmental reviews to speed up this process. And he said 29 days. That's in an exceptional circumstance. We have hearing loss cases that are up to five years, of people appealing back and forth, and I'm sure you have it on your files as well.
So I would highly recommend that this committee continue that review of the department to see where we can then advise the minister or the government how to streamline processes in order to get more bang for your buck for the veteran and their family.