Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much, Mr. Gordon, Mr. McInnis and Deb Lowther, for being here today.
I'm going to quote something from another individual who was testifying. Mr. Robert Tomljenovic, area director, Department of Veterans Affairs, was explaining, similar to what you're saying, that veterans, “like the general population, become homeless as a result of complex and interrelated issues such as health status, personal problems, employment instability, poverty, lack of affordable housing, addiction issues and others.” In addition, they have also experienced traumatic scenarios.
I can't help but think that homelessness and all of these things that are mentioned are symptoms of a traumatic experience. Whether you're a veteran or not, something has caused you to go down these paths that make life less positive.
Ms. Lowther, your program, Boots on the Ground, says to me that the majority of people with these traumatic experiences in our armed forces are the people who are the boots on the ground, the ones who face the fire, the explosions and all these kinds of issues. I'm so thankful for what you guys do, all of you, in what is really a crisis management scenario. I'm sure you would love to see circumstances change so that there is no homelessness. That's the ideal. I understand that it's not possible, but we could get much closer to it than we are.
Mr. McInnis, I believe you mentioned something around the issue of their needing to be fit to be transitioned. Our goal here has been to help create this seamless transition from National Defence through VAC to a healthy life as a civilian. Would you say that this area.... I know that VAC is not anxious to allow National Defence to be the ones to determine when you leave—and if you leave with an injury, whether it's service-related or not—in order to not have to go through that whole system again in going through VAC.
You were talking about needing more case managers. Can you talk a bit about that? If those circumstances were different, would those symptoms that our veterans face be different, the ones who are truly injured and struggle with these issues, with PTSD and whatnot?