In our audit, we observed that on average, veterans waited 39 weeks before getting a decision on their applications for benefits; women waited 47 weeks and francophones waited 46 weeks. There are different reasons why these two groups waited longer for an answer.
If we look first at francophone applications, the veterans ombudsman identified this disparity in his report. We did an audit to see whether there had been any improvement. There had been an improvement, but francophone veterans were still waiting longer for an answer than other veterans.
A francophone unit has been created to process francophone applications, and this has improved the situation. After that, a bilingual group was also created, and this also improved things. Nonetheless, there are not enough staff who are able to process francophone applications. That is why the wait time is longer.
Wait times for applications by women are attributable to several things. On the application form, there is nowhere to give the woman's name before or after marriage. Women will very probably change their name if they marry or divorce over the course of their career. Because there is nowhere to enter both their names, a search has to be done and that causes delays in the processing.