I can. I have to say without hesitation that the most rewarding part of the months I've been minister has been in meeting other veterans helping veterans. As you said, I worked with some great organizations of Canadians: True Patriot Love, Canada Company, Treble Victor, Wounded Warriors, all doing great things. Some of them served; some of them didn't.
In Esquimalt I met a young master seaman who got out from an injury, Bruno Guévremont, and within a year he was already giving back and helping veterans. I met Fraser Holman helping elderly veterans in Sunnybrook. He was a former fighter pilot wearing a smock that says, “Volunteer” and helping veterans he never served with. He is a retired general.
CIMVHR, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research is run at Queen's University and RMC but has a network of, I think, 24 universities across the country. It is also run by a veteran, Alice Aiken. Alice and Stéphanie Bélanger, who run CIMVHR, are pulling together the resources. The University of Alberta is doing some great physical rehabilitation work. Other universities, such as the University of British Columbia with Dr. Marvin Westwood trail-blazed the veterans transition program.
We need to reach out and try a total approach to wellness. On mental health we're really doing that. We recognize there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. With CIMVHR we have a pilot right now on service dogs, which they're helping us lead; 50 dogs are being deployed. We're also working with Paws Fur Thought with Medric Cousineau, a decorated Sea King navigator. So we're reaching out to some of this expertise and exploring pilots to see if we can bring more flexibility into programming to meet the needs of veterans. It's similar with equine therapy with Can Praxis and the guys in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta.
Once we know of programs that offer some support for the veteran and the family, we then try to evaluate and see if we can make this available to more people beyond the pilot. Is it helping not just symptom relief but helping the underlying condition? CIMVHR and the research element is critical, so that we can really learn from these programs and learn how we can help more veterans as a result.