Thank you for being here today.
As I've said in multiple presentations, the decision to join the Canadian Armed Forces is an incredibly proud one for the members serving, to put on that uniform. When a member is involuntarily—I won't say dismissed—from the Canadian Armed Forces due to injury or illness, it is a huge blow. There is no soft landing. We take away their uniform. We take away their identity. We sometimes take away their family, in terms of the colleagues that they serve with.
While I'm happy to see that there's a 3% increase in the budget for Veteran Affairs this year, I'd like to get a sense from you on what support system we are putting in place when there's a decision to release a member of the Canadian Armed Forces because of injury or illness, to ensure that we are not aggravating that injury by making them jump through hoops or retell their story or prove their injury.
These folks have served our country, and we should be bending over backwards to thank them and make it as easy as possible for them to transition out.