Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Essex for her important work and for standing up for veterans in her riding. She often comes to me and talks about some of the challenges that veterans are facing in her riding, especially due to the backlog of disability benefits.
Today we are trying to bring forward a solution that will change the lives of veterans and ensure that all money that has lapsed will go specifically towards attacking the 12 failures of the Liberal government to reach their service standards. We know that the Parliamentary Budget Officer says it can be done. It has not been done before. It is a really great opportunity for us to start with the Department of Veterans Affairs, for the very people who put everything on the line for all of us.
Could the member tell us what that could do for the backlog? We know that $372 million could hire not just 475 staff at Veterans Affairs, but over 5,000 employees. I am not saying that that is where all of the money should go. We know we need to do everything we can to get rid of the backlog for disability benefits and address all 12 service standards that we have heard from the veterans' ombudsman the department is failing to address.
Could the member speak about how this will make a difference for veterans in her riding, in the lives of the very people who serve our country and whom we owe all of our respect to?