I noted three questions. Thank you, Mr. Stoffer.
Maybe I'll start at the bottom and work up. I'll ask Anne-Marie to talk to you a little about outreach as well.
I accept the points you made. Obviously it's very important to have the views of not just veterans who are clients, but veterans who are not clients. There are various outreach strategies that Anne-Marie can speak to, but I'll leave that to her.
On the comparison between the disability pension and the disability award, one can make scenarios for ever and ever. There are many scenarios I could present to you that show very positive outcomes, and many of them are based on actual case examples where we've realized those outcomes. I could also present to you scenarios where, at least from the financial perspective, over the long term someone would appear to be better off under the old program, and we acknowledge that.
You had testimony before that in some measure the new Veterans Charter is a recalibration of how money is used. It follows the philosophy that those with greater need should get greater support. So are there areas where someone might get less money? If it's the money you're focused on, absolutely, and I'd be happy to share those scenarios with you.
Next week our colleagues are coming with scenarios, and I encourage you to take the opportunity to ask them to walk you through them, because I think scenarios can be a very good way of getting some useful information.
You made the point on career progression. You're quite right that the earnings loss program does not factor that in, as I acknowledged earlier. In some measure the permanent impairment allowance does, although somewhat indirectly. It makes certain assumptions, it assumes there will be some impacts, and it provides a level of money based on sort of functional levels the individual may have.
I'd like to share with you--and certain of our advisory forums have shared this sort of information with us--that there are models out there one can look at and compare, where career progression is a factor. Now it's not within our authority, so there is an implication to that. But those models do exist. We know, for example, that the Canadian Forces can tell you what an average career progression would be. Everybody is not going to be the CDS, but typically if people start at a certain level and they're in it for a career, they will rise to a certain level. So there is information available that you can consider if you wish. But my point is that it is not within the authority we have today.