Thank you, Mr. Chair, for an important question.
This was, of course, an unfortunate situation. It was totally unacceptable. As you know, when I was informed about the MAID issue, I did this: I immediately asked my deputy to conduct an investigation, and then we saw fit to bring in the RCMP.
The fact is, we wanted to do this for the investigation, and perhaps this will help answer the first question. We made sure that anybody who had a problem in this area contacted the deputy, the department, the ombud or the RCMP eventually. We wanted to make sure we got to the bottom of this and investigated it as thoroughly as we could. It was one individual who conducted the conversation with veterans four times, which was totally unacceptable. It caused an awful lot of difficulties, I think, for our great staff at Veterans Affairs Canada.
I've been around for a while, in a few departments. I don't know a more dedicated staff than that of the Department of Veterans Affairs. They truly care about veterans. Of course, this hurt them. They have great pride in what they do. If you had my job, you would see this. If you go to the Department of Veterans Affairs.... It's good to do that, as a committee, in order to see exactly what kind of effort they truly put into it. Not only that, but they also volunteer their time. They're very dedicated to the veterans. What happened hurt dedicated employees.
I want to say that we probably have the best public servants in the government, and I want to publicly thank them so much for what they've done and continue to do: making sure veterans receive the proper remuneration. It's our job to put that together, and it's their job to deliver it. They're doing that in fine form.
Thank you.