Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be back here at your committee to talk about what our government is doing for veterans and their families.
Since I became minister back in 2019, this committee has done important work in helping us reduce wait times, finding ways to support veterans' organizations and making sure my department is running as smoothly as it can.
I want to congratulate you on your election, Mr. Chair. I know you care deeply about the folks who serve our country in uniform.
It's also important to note, Mr. Chair, that today is the first day of Black History Month. From the western front to operations here at home and around the world, for more than a century, Black Canadians have always been there, and we thank them today.
Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to comment on some of the unfortunate things we have seen in the past few days in Ottawa.
Everyone has the right to protest in this country, but the disrespect shown to the National War Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument was completely disgusting. The National War Memorial represents all those who have served, fought and died for our country. A Canadian soldier was murdered on the very spot, and there were people climbing and celebrating on the tomb of another. To see that from the protestors was shocking, disgusting and a slap in the face to every Canadian veteran. I hope we never ever see anything like that again in this country.
Now, before I take questions, I would like to provide a few remarks.
I know, Mr. Chair, that some veterans are frustrated with the amount of time it takes to get a decision on disability benefit applications. I want them and all of you on the committee to know that reducing processing times is our number one priority. Over the past several years we've hired hundreds of staff, made improvements to the application process and simplified decision-making for some medical conditions. We're making more decisions, and the backlog has been getting smaller.
This includes making progress on francophone applications. We've opened an office in Montreal, with 30 people working exclusively on French applications, and we have an additional five bilingual teams.
We've made good progress—