Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would agree with my colleague. I haven't met one DVA person yet in all the years I've been a member of Parliament who doesn't treat the veterans with respect and dignity.
The problem is the system: “You're 85 years old, now go apply for a benefit”, and they have to fill out the forms and appeal, and get a legal counsel and appeal, and go to VRAB and appeal. It's mind-boggling for people who have never done it. At my age, I could fight the system and maybe be successful or not if I had a personal issue. But for those who are disabled, those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and those who are elderly, it is quite a challenge to even attempt it. We know that many of them try for the first time, maybe are denied, and just say, “well, that's it”, and give up. That is most unfortunate. It's not you; it's the levels they have to get through. You had indicated earlier, sir, that within the mandate you have, to streamline that process and get rid of, as you said, the nonsense, would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure many veterans would appreciate that.
I have a couple of questions for you on the earnings loss benefit. If you're a lieutenant in the navy and you're medically released for something serious, you get 75% of your income at the salary you're earning at that time. But if you're a lieutenant in the navy, and say you served 11 years, there's a high probability that you were going up the ladder. You could have been a commander, a lieutenant commander, or even an admiral. You could even have been the Chief of Defence Staff, maybe. The problem is that 75% stays at the level you earned when you left. There's no allowance for the possibility that you might have made more of an income as you progressed down the road. I know that's not been taken into consideration, but that's one of the recommendations that we have received from various people. I'm just wondering if you could comment on that, if indeed you have heard that, and what you would think about that.
The second thing of course is that we had the old Pension Act system, and we have the new Veterans Charter. Now you've had that for almost four years. I think that's enough time to make a financial analysis of the benefits and the amount paid out under the new Veterans Charter compared to those under the old Pension Act. Has your department had an opportunity to compare the two in that regard in the overall dollar sense?
I have one last question for you, and this is about something outside the charter. Mr. Ferguson—Brian Ferguson's a great guy—has just announced that they're doing a survey involving 1,200 of the over 217,000 DVA clients. They're asking the 1,200 clients, “What do you think of DVA's services? Have they been done appropriately? What do you think of the staff?”, etc. It's a good thing to do. The problem is they're not asking people who are not clients of DVA, of whom there are twice as many as there are clients. They're not being asked their opinion of DVA. What do they think about being denied a pension plan? What do they think of taking months and months and months to get through the system? Mr. Ferguson had indicated to some people who asked him that they can't get hold of those people. My advice is, if you get a chance to speak to Mr. Ferguson, you can put it on the website. There are six major veterans organizations in the country representing 90% of the veterans. Ask them. It can be done through newspaper ads, through television, or whatever.
Every single veteran and/or their spouse should have the opportunity to comment on what they perceive are the services of DVA. Then I think you'll get a true reflection of where you may need some slight improvements or something. If you're talking only to people who get a benefit, obviously if I'm 85 years old, get VIP and get treated well, I love you guys. But if I'm 85 years old and was denied VIP and couldn't get the service, I'm not going to be very happy. If you want a careful analysis of how you're doing, I think you should ask both people to see what they think. If you're speaking to him, and he could do that, that would be great.
Thank you.