I want to speak to the motion, but I'm very happy to see my colleague, MP Fillmore, bringing his amendment forward.
Before entering politics in 2014, I had the privilege of working with seniors and veterans in retirement residences. I saw first-hand the significant impact of, I would say, the lack of respect by the former Conservative government for our veterans and the impact of their having to live through the financial hardship that it caused and their willingness to stay home as long as possible.
Certainly, I have the utmost appreciation for our veterans. What we're experiencing right now, as Mr. Scott's testimony today reflected, has been the case since 2008. Many of our witnesses did speak about the fact the backlog has been part of our system for far too long. I agree with all of you that we are disappointed by that, but we have to put into context that this is not something that has just arrived upon us. I want to reiterate the fact that the issue we are seeing also goes two ways. Because we've invested billions of dollars into the system since 2015, repairing the damage caused by the previous Conservative government—and, I have to say, by the former minister for veterans, Mr. O'Toole—this is a situation where at this point we need to collaborate, and this study right now is bringing that perspective. I agree that the process needs to be conveyed.
I'm also very happy to see there is an acknowledgement within the department that this is unacceptable. The minister, the deputy minister and many officials came forward to share this with us, so I think MP Fillmore's amendment to the motion is extremely relevant to the case we are speaking of today. Mr. Brassard's motion originally was almost out of order, because in my view we are studying the backlog currently.
Thank you to my colleague.