As I said, Madam Chair, yes, there have been improvements but there was a four and a half year silence from the government. It was only after we in the Liberal Party began a conversation with Canadians that there was actually any movement on any of these issues. It was only after the veterans affairs committee issued a report, which was almost unanimous except for one issue that the Bloc Québécois would not support. The report had 18 recommendations that the government began to move on. It was only after we started to inspire veterans to take up, as it were, arms again to fight a second battle with the government that those actual improvements were made. We had seen tremendous improvement, yes, but not enough.
I want to remind the minister not to rewrite history too much. The new veterans charter was enacted after 2006. It was obviously an all party agreement that was worked out with the previous minister in the last Liberal government, but it was, just to get the record straight, the present government that actually put it into legislation with the commitment to revise it regularly. It was meant to be a living charter but it has not been a living charter until we revived it.
This is the party of the resuscitation of the new veterans charter. This is the party of resurrection. This is the party that is saying that it will actually bring life into the charter again and we thank the government for waking up, but we will be continually in this conversation to ensure that the government does not fall asleep again.
I do want to mention that some disparaging remarks were made about my colleague in the New Democratic Party, the member for Sackville—Eastern Shore. He is not always right and sometimes he is rather over the top, but to doubt his integrity on these issues and his obvious passion for veterans is unfair. I congratulate him because, frankly, he helped wake me up, and that, I think, has helped the whole cause of veterans. I am glad the government has seen a little bit of this. It was asleep at the switch and I ask that it not fall asleep again, please.