We greatly appreciate that and we wish you and your family and everyone the very best. We look forward to working with the person who will be replacing you. We hope you have a lot of fun.
I have a couple of questions for you. You mentioned that there are 7,000 people being case-managed. You mentioned the number, but the reality is that over two-thirds of our veteran community are not even being serviced now by DVA. They don't have the benefit, or they have never applied, or maybe they were denied or something of that nature. Have you planned for an increase in that regard?
I mentioned to the deputy minister and the minister when they were here that you said that any veteran could have a home visit. That's not necessarily correct. We did 11 case trials in Halifax. Besides getting the response from DVA that they would get back within two to five days, the reality was that a person has to be case-managed before they have a home visit. A lot of veterans thought they wouldn't have to go in and workers would come to their house and help them fill in the forms on their very first call. I said, “I don't think that's the way it works.” So we'd like you to reiterate that for the record.
For Mr. Hayes's and the committee's sake, and for those who may be listening, Bill C-55 was authorized and approved by Parliament in 2011. Section 20.1 refers to a “comprehensive review of the provisions and implementation of this Act”. That's where this study came from originally, and that amendment actually came from this committee. When the bill came before the committee, this is what we unanimously adopted. I just want to put that on the record. That's why we're where we are now.
We thank you again, sir, for your service and I look forward to your response.