You're absolutely right; the minister is very committed to the idea of engaging and consulting with stakeholders. There's no doubt that, as we move forward as a department with our programming, we really need to better understand where the needs of Canada's veterans are, as they see them. The minister has instructed the department to establish six advisory groups dealing with issues like policy, service excellence, families, care and support, commemoration, and so on. Basically, through those strategies, we will sit down with representatives of veterans' organizations, individual veterans, and so on, and get them to help us map the way forward. When it comes to programs or budget commitments, such as the veterans' education benefit that was referred to in the budget, we'll be consulting with stakeholders to ask, “What should that look like? What does that mean to you?” The budget committed to a comprehensive financial benefits review. Going forward, we'll consult with stakeholders to get them to give us a sense of what their needs are, how they see that, and how best the department can meet those needs. That's the context.
On April 12th, 2016. See this statement in context.