Thank you so much for that question, Mr. Tolmie.
First of all, for the past three months, as the Minister of Veterans Affairs, I've certainly had an opportunity to meet with stakeholders from coast to coast to coast and to hear their of experiences first-hand. I've also met with many stakeholders. Again, as I indicated, we certainly heard many positive stories of individuals who have received services from Veterans Affairs. I also met with individuals who indicated there are some challenges there.
One challenge is the backlog. I believe my colleague Minister MacAulay, when he was here, reported back with respect to the work that's being done on that backlog. We certainly recognize that over the past number of years, we've had a 61% increase in the number of applications that have come to Veterans Affairs Canada. We're seeing an increase in numbers—