Mr. Blais, Jerry, and Sylvain, thank you very much for coming. I want to personally thank you, and on behalf of all of us, actually, for your continued advocacy, not just for the men and women who serve our country but for their families as well. It's very much appreciated as well by those families who contact me.
Michael, if I may use your first name, you mentioned—and you are correct—that if a person receives a lump sum and little else after that, then the old system is much better. There's no question about that.
But when the new Veterans Charter was initiated, the lump sum was an initial payment for pain and suffering to assist that person in any initial unforeseen cost that they might have at that specific time. In being disabled, in missing an arm or a leg or whatever, other programs, like the permanent impairment allowance and the earnings loss benefit, were to follow. The problem we're finding is that in many cases for those veterans who applied for those two additional payments, which would have made it better than the old system, they didn't receive those benefits or they had to fight really hard and long in order to receive those types of benefits.
If indeed a recommendation from you or if this committee were to go to the government to push them to move much more generously, as the new Veterans Charter was initially advertised—not sold but advertised—in regard to the fact that the generosity of the additional programs would be in place for those most seriously injured veterans.... Would you agree or like to see that or help us recommend...? What would you suggest to us to put in a report to state very clearly that those additional payments should be made forthwith without much hesitation?