Thank you very much for the question.
I think homelessness for veterans has probably been an issue since the office was introduced, in the last couple of years. Certainly my predecessor's campaign triggered a lot of projects within Veterans Affairs Canada, and I'll stay away from funding and budget and all that. I'm sure Mr. Hillier can address that aspect of it.
Our biggest concern with the homelessness program at this point in time is the absence of a national strategy for homeless veterans in Canada. There are a lot of individual projects that work with different approaches, and I think all of them have proven to be of some benefit. I just recently went to Vancouver and dropped into the drop-in for homeless veterans in Veterans Memorial Manor, a very good project there as well. But again, we keep talking about projects.
We think that regional inconsistencies in Veterans Affairs Canada are in themselves unfair, because we do have inconsistencies, and veterans should not suffer or be treated unfairly because they have chosen to live in a certain place in our country. It should be the same across the board.
That's the one thing that we see is lacking: a national strategy. The thing is that these projects should now be helping to inform some kind of a national strategy for homeless veterans. Again, I think most of the ones that are in place right now are working, but there is more work to be done at that level.
I would certainly like to take this opportunity to commend the Royal Canadian Legion for the work they do for the homeless population, because I think everywhere we've gone, we've seen that those projects are being helped by the Royal Canadian Legion.