Mr. Speaker, my father was a vet of World War II. He dealt with the medical corps, serving overseas with those who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We are seeing that now. We are seeing, just here in Ottawa, major lineups and wait times for our veterans who are trying to get services.
I hear the language. I hear “600 points of contact” and “streamlined”. “Plain language” was the one that jumped out at me. My colleague was talking about plain language, and the plain language that we need to talk about today is the fact that tomorrow, services will be shut down. The door will be closed to the vets who need those services.
When I hear that we are going to have online services and we are going to streamline and have “more options and more choices”, I have to ask who they are talking to. I think what we are seeing is an internal kind of structure within the department coming up with all these streamlined ideas and “better services”, while on the ground, everyday people who need the service are not being talked to.
Therefore, my question is this: does my colleague not believe the veterans who were here yesterday? They said they do not believe this is going to help them, that they need those services. They said not to shut the offices down tomorrow.