Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to go back, given that the honourable member raised the issue of numbers of case managers and offices that are closing, I knew I had it here,15 is the number.
I think it's important to note that we do not provide clinical services. A veteran is not going into a Veterans Affairs Canada office whether it's one we're closing or one that's open to receive clinical intervention. That is through their physicians and other treating medical professionals, but they do meet in terms of having guidance and what have you.
Our operating model hasn't changed, certainly, for the period of time that I've been with Veterans Affairs, for 19 years. We have gone out to the veteran's home if the veteran needs a home visit. Occupational therapists have to go out and see them if they need home modification and nurses have to go out to see them. The difference is that in some locations the case manager will be getting in his or her car from a different city to go and drive to them. For example, there's been a lot of discussion around Cape Breton. If you live in Cheticamp and you're a veteran who needs a home visit, the difference is that rather than having someone in Sydney get in their car to go to see you, it will be in Halifax.
I might point out that three of the case managers in Sydney are actually relocating to Halifax. So most of the Cape Breton veterans will not have a change in case manager because they're actually relocating. I want to put that on the record.
Mr. Chair, I think what's important to note in this is that we have 7,000 veterans who are case-managed. That's out of a population of 208,000 clients of Veterans Affairs, about 135,000 veterans. Yes, we are closing 8 offices, but in recent years we've opened up 24 integrated personnel support centres and this is because this is where the growing demand is with modern-day veterans. So we've reacted to that. We've put additional case managers in places like Valcartier, Petawawa, and Edmonton garrison because we've seen a higher demand there. And we will continue to meet that demand.
If you look at the totality of our service outlets, if I could call them that, we have 26 Veterans Affairs locations, 24 integrated personnel support centres, and 17 operation stress injury clinics, in cooperation with our colleagues at the Canadian Armed Forces. That's 67 locations where veterans can receive a service for 7,000 case-managed veterans. I submit, Mr. Chair, that if you do the math, that's about 105 case-managed veterans per service location. In addition, to that, there are up to 600 Service Canada locations that can meet the needs of veterans who are in lower needs, i.e., veterans who are not case-managed.