Thank you so much, Chair.
I'd like to comment and get your feedback on your final recommendation, which says:
Veterans Affairs Canada should work with central government agencies to establish a sustainable long‑term resourcing plan for processing disability benefit applications in a timely manner. This plan should consider the number of applications the department expects to receive and the efficiency it expects to gain from its process improvement initiatives.
You do a lot of studies, I assume, of different departments. In this case, I thought the response from VAC was very telling. The comment is that between 2015–16 and 2019–20, it “experienced a significant increase in disability benefits applications”. There were 40% more overall, and 75% more first-time applications. It talked about bringing in temporary funding on a number of occasions to hire staff to try to address the issue.
However, I thought this next sentence was important, and I'd like your feedback on it:
[T]he Department was not able to fully assess the impact that would result from the introduction of new programs and other commitments.
That to me, as someone in business, says they're making decisions without fully looking at the potential negatives and the potential positives, the highest cost to them and possibly the lowest. This to me says that as they brought these programs in, there wasn't enough consideration given to what they were going to cost. Clearly, what they have cost is a significant backlog in veterans receiving their reports.