Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome this afternoon as we continue our study on transformation initiatives at Veterans Affairs Canada.
I want to welcome our witnesses today. The order has been changed slightly. It looks as though we may not be interrupted by votes, which would be a nice change.
Just to briefly tell anybody who is brand new, the routine is that we have the opening statements, and then we have rounds of questions by the members. We try to get everything in that we possibly can before the time wraps up.
Having said that, I will go through the names. From the University of Manitoba, we have Professor Sareen, professor of psychiatry.
From Veterans Affairs, we have David Pedlar, director, policy and research, and Carlos Lourenso, director of treatment benefits and veterans independence programs.
From the Department of National Defence, we have Colonel Gerry Blais, director of casualty support management; Colonel Bernier, deputy surgeon general; and Susan Truscott, director general, military personnel and research analysis. If there is anybody else you want to introduce as we go through, please feel free to do that.
If we are ready to go, we will start. Each one has 10 minutes for opening comments.
Professor Sareen, please go ahead.