Mr. Chair, I first want to thank the hon. member not only for his 30 years of service to the armed forces but also for his service as a member of Parliament. Yes, indeed, he is a proud veteran not just of this country but also of the House of Commons and he should be congratulated for his service to Canada.
He is right when he says that no government is perfect and no government has ever gotten it right. However, I want to clarify something he said. He is right about there being only 760,000 veterans in the country, but DVA only has a client base of around 215,000 to 220,000, which means that roughly 540,000 veterans and/or their families and RCMP members are not covered under DVA.
He himself is a veteran and I assume he does not receive any DVA benefits, so he would not be considered a DVA client. Yes, there are that many veterans and RCMP members and their families in the country, but only roughly one-third of them actually qualify under DVA.
He knows and I know, and as a Conservative he would probably appreciate this better than I would, the Gordian knot that was in DVA in terms of veterans applying for benefits, being denied, denied again, getting a legal advocate and going to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. Does he not think that is a cumbersome process in the way veterans should be treated?
If the benefit of the doubt should surely be applied, should it not be applied earlier in the benefit application process so that veterans do not have to go through two to six years of appeal processes in order to be adjudicated in a fair and proper manner?