Thank you, Mr. Chair, I always appreciate your leadership and your signs keeping us on track. I just want to commend you for that again.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here.
I'm going to start first with a statement, and then I'll move on to a question.
I just want to say, when we're talking about backlogs, I am still very concerned. I don't think these are being addressed the way they should be. I think the fact that these are still temporary workers and not permanent workers should be concerning to all of us.
Just recently I was cc'd in an email to the minister discussing a veteran who heard from VAC that his file had not even been given to an adjudicator after 32 weeks of waiting. He was still in the queue. He was told that he could wait up to another 18 months to even have it adjudicated, and that if he was dying it could be sped up. I want to put that on the record, because I don't believe that veterans are being treated fairly. I don't trust the numbers you're giving me. I'm just telling you this straight up, because I'm hearing too many of these kinds of stories.
My first question is about the consultation process with veterans through Let's Talk Veterans. I'm just wondering if we could hear a little bit about the specific changes that were referred to and if we could have an example of what those changes are.