Thank you, Mr. Allard and Mr. Edmond.
I'm new to this role and new to this committee.
Perhaps I shouldn't have been, but I have been completely impressed with your presentation. I found it very helpful and thorough, and it's a very good briefing for me as a new critic, so I thank you for the time and the care you've taken on that. Also, thank you for the work you do every day, not just when you come to our committee.
I have several questions, starting with a question on principle and then going to some programs. Perhaps it's my naïveté, but it has been my assumption that the actual foundations of the new veterans charter, which talk about moving from dependence to independence and about trying to move to rehabilitation instead of constant support, are generally accepted as good principles upon which to build, and that the program of Veterans Affairs Canada perhaps has failed in living out the new charter.
But I'm also hearing in your comments that perhaps the new charter has failed. I just want to take a little bit of time on that first question, that principal question about whether the basic foundations of the new charter are there, those basic foundations that I think are noble and were all done in the right spirit of the absolutely appropriate care that we need to give to veterans. I want to start with that first question on the principle, not the programs.