Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I do have to admit that I find it disconcerting that the veterans' perception of the VRAB is virtually all negative. I just got appointed to the committee. It was a highly publicized event in my riding of Sault Ste. Marie. Thus far, I've had only two calls about concerns with the VRAB.
That said, I will be hosting a town hall meeting in January with my Legion members to get a sense of their perception of things. An operative word here is “perception”. In Sault Ste. Marie there are 1,100 members. I'm hoping that if a poll were done at this point today, the perception might not be quite so negative.
Mr. Kokkonen, can you outline for the committee how the process for the Veterans Review and Appeal Board has improved over the past few years? We're hearing a number of negative things, but I'm hoping you can identify some improvements that have occurred recently.