There are lots of service officers out there, I can tell you. I'm not sure. I'm going to hook up with Tina later to make sure that we do have.... A service officer and an effective service are two different things. There are lots of organizations that have service officers out there. Typically what they do is take the answer from VAC, give it to the veteran and say, “I'm sorry, but I've looked into it and you don't qualify” or “That only applies on days that end in a y” and different things like that.
If the service officer is committed, the service officer is going to make sure—and I've said this to VAC for a long time.... I'm the guy who is going to help you get to “yes”. Mr. Natynczyk said to me many, many years ago, “I'm the guy who's going to help you get to yes.” I said, “Good. I'm going to hold you to that. I'm going to be the guy who, when I come to you, is not going to waste your time. I'm not going to ask for silly things that people aren't entitled too. I'm going to put facts before you that will allow you and your organization to get to a very easy yes.”
In Mr. Bruyea's case, I put it before them. I got an unsolicited letter from the minister saying that they had examined all of the things, and the answer was still going to be no, even though it wasn't supported in policy. It wasn't supported in any of the case management notes or records, which, unfortunately weren't kept very well.
The service officer has to be able to have compassion and has to understand the system enough to say to, for example, to Ms. Fitzpatrick, “We're going to make sure we get you some resolution. We're going to put a timeline on it. Eight years is not acceptable. For you to have to come forward and testify now to say that the system is just...”. The system is working for the bureaucracy. As Mr. Bruyea said, statistics are being kept, but are we keeping our veterans alive? Are we keeping them in a state where it's okay for them to be at home?
I have a veteran right now who said to me that they couldn't go home right now because they just got an answer from Veterans Affairs and they were terrified that they were going to go home and take it out on their family.