First of all, last year we reduced the wait time for disability awards and disability pensions from 24 weeks to 16 weeks, and we're en route to 12 weeks within the next year. What does that really mean to veterans? It means that last year we put an additional $65 million, I believe, in the hands of Canadian veterans. So they got their money faster.
With respect to the various claims they make, you made reference to health-related travel, and these types of claims now can be direct-deposited to a bank account. With regard to people who have injuries for which they will need care for many years, they no longer have to requalify each year for their treatment benefits plan. Once they've been approved, they've been approved unless a physician orders otherwise.
I think it will take a little bit of time for Canadians and veterans to see some of the things we've actually started. For example, in August of this year we started our digital imaging project at Matane, Quebec. So the service health records from archives are now going to Matane, Quebec. We've so far created digital images of more than 500,000 documents. This will take time to work through the system. We're also working with our colleagues at DND to gain access on a very timely basis to the Canadian Forces health information system. These are fundamental projects that will take some time before we actually see their fruition.
The other thing we've done is that we've put in a virtual network of call centres across Canada, using the next available agent, which is the latest Internet-based technology. All in all, I think things have started to move and I think that, as we do further enhancements to our online offerings through the My VAC Account, those will be things about which people can say, yes, it is different from the way it used to be.