My name is Kevin Estabrooks. I'm a retiring warrant officer. I'm being released from the military with PTSD. I have over 30 years' service between reserve and regular force time, and I've had five tours of duty, including three in Afghanistan. I also work as a volunteer peer support adviser.
I do not have any talking points today. However, I have two issues that I'd like to raise. They're both covered under your suggested questions 1 and 6, the first issue being the lifetime pensions versus lump sum payments. Out of all the individuals and veterans I speak with, these are the two issues that come up the most, so I'd like to bring them to your attention. The change in the charter that happened back in 2005, I believe it was, was not coincidental. It happened when we were going into combat. I think with the new Liberal government, there's a nice opportunity now to correct the wrong.
The other issue I'd like to bring up is similar to what Mr. Doucette said; it's staffing versus online services. I realize that we're all cutting costs and we're trying to put everything online. However, there are services that cannot be provided online. Doing the required administration to show up here today was a little challenging, to say the least. Veterans are going through mountains and mountains of paperwork and seeing wrong turns everywhere. I think the whole issue of service officers needs to be looked at again.
Those are the two issues I have. I have nothing further, and I am open to any questions.