Thank you, Chair.
I have to say that I am feeling concerned. It does feel like we're stuck on this issue, and the debate just keeps happening and happening. I want to put on the record that I'm concerned, because I do feel quite passionately.... One study in particular that I really want to get to is regarding the Persian Gulf veterans. Some of their challenges are top of mind for me and are growing more concerning. I'm encouraging everyone to just get to a place that we can get through this and get to the other side.
I agree there must be a process, and I don't want to focus again on who is doing the monument. The problem for me, and I've been consistent on this, is that the process wasn't clear. There was no verification in the process to make sure that the people who were responding were veterans. My VAC Account is not the best way to connect with veterans. That's been said in this committee numerous times.
There's something there that really concerns me. I appreciate what Mr. Casey said. I don't think we should be adjudicating it in our place. It is not our job in committee to do that. Our job is to look at process and figure out how we can fix the process moving forward. To me, that's the heart of the issue.
I hope we can get to a place so we can move forward. If we can't, I'm going to have to have some serious inner dialogue, because I am the one representative of my caucus here, about what's more important to veterans. I need to figure this out, and I hope to see a commitment to fix a process that is obviously flawed and concerning, or to work on things that really matter to veterans like the Persian Gulf veterans.
I want to put on the record that I'm in that place of indecisiveness. I'm encouraging everybody to please stop the games and just get to the point where we find a way to work together to redirect the process. Having a debate about what government was better for veterans is pointless.
We've seen terrible things from all sides in this place, so I would just encourage that we get there, and if not, we need to adjourn this debate and move on to what's next, because we're obviously not getting anywhere. We should perhaps examine other ways we can do that. I'm not moving that. I just want to be clear, but we need to discuss this, because how many committee meetings have we spent doing this? It's getting too long.
I'm disappointed in both sides, because it feels like the Liberals aren't saying, “Yes, the process is flawed. There should be a better process. Here's our commitment to make a better process.” They're saying, “We didn't do anything wrong. We don't want to talk about it anymore.” There was something wrong with that process. It wasn't a clear process, and it left us in a position where we were made to feel as a committee that we had to choose a side.
We should be able to say, “This is the process. The process was clearly followed, and let's move on.” We couldn't say that in this situation, so let's get somewhere, please.