Veterans Affairs committee  There is a lot that can be done in addition to providing income support. They would get full treatment under the public service health plan. Their kids would get treatment coverage. We could provide counselling to the spouse and to the children. Under the VIP we can provide all manner of home adaptations and home improvements that an individual needs, especially a quadriplegic.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, yes and no. The yes is that they are residents of the province and have insured care, as do the veterans in Colonel Belcher.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, if the care is needed for the pension disability, it's paid for by the federal government.

Veterans Affairs committee  If it's not, it's part of the insurance system that a person has as a resident of a province.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, some of what they are recommending requires authority of resource, so that would be a new change, such as this catastrophic injury payment that they have raised with us. That's a decision to be made by politicians when the evidence is put in front of them. The others are in the case management review that we have just undergone, which is now finished and is being implemented.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are some major themes in there. We've talked about early intervention. We have, on the new veterans charter advisory committee, a chap named Wolfgang Zimmermann, president and CEO of the National Institute of Disability Management and Research. He's a worldwide expert on return to work, and this is what he said to us: If there's nothing else you do, make sure that some organization that has all the authority to act intervenes immediately, because you create more opportunity for an individual who needs rehabilitation by doing early intervention and early planning than by doing anything else.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, you did look at practices and principles in an earlier version of this in this committee. That was helpful, and that's what we've done. To look at the new Veterans Charter equivalent for the U.K. and New Zealand and France and Italy—those people who serve in, for instance, Afghanistan, which is the current but by no means the only deployment—would be useful.

Veterans Affairs committee  The only thing I would add is that what you as politicians focus on is going to be very important. It adds evidence. If, for instance, findings of this group on notion A, B, and C were the same as the veterans organizations on A, B, and C—the special needs advisory group, the new veterans charter, the research, and the international evidence that's there—that just adds weight to moving forward in those three areas, and in my view, it can do nothing but good.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm talking from memory here, but one major one was what happens to individuals who have disabilities that are so severe, maybe no table of disabilities can compensate for them? Their position there is that perhaps there is some merit in considering something like a catastrophic injury allowance or a payment, something that goes beyond, that recognizes terribly disfiguring injuries--quadriplegia, missing four limbs, horrible things that none of us would ever want our children or anyone to have to face--where no amount of court award, if you use court awards as a basis, or table of disability can compensate.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think one needs to remember that when there's a post-traumatic stress disorder or an operational stress injury involved, if you want to set people up for failure, as the rehab specialist will tell you, put them in vocational rehab before they're ready. They'll be worse off than if you hadn't done anything at all.

Veterans Affairs committee  For my part, we're kind of stumped on that one. We're not finding the same example in the material we have that you have in the material in front of you. Maybe to generalize here, what can happen.... There may be an error in the French-language version. In one case, there may be a fair delay between the time an individual leaves the military and the time he or she gets a benefit, because the individual didn't come to our attention or was in psycho-social rehabilitation for quite a period of time and wasn't ready to take on a vocational role.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't really comment, as you know, on the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. I understand that there can be frustrations with the pension system. That's one of the reasons you don't have to have a pension or an award in your hand to get access to the new Veterans Charter. If an individual has a rehab need, on the day we know about it he doesn't have to have his pension or disability award card in his hand before we can help him.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. You've raised a really important point. As was mentioned earlier, not all the psychological illnesses conveniently arrive at our door when individuals leave the military, or even when they get back. They're late onset. Sometimes situations arise that no one can control. So the one thing about the new Veterans Charter, you may not get a lump sum at all, you may not need it, but it's like medicare: it's always there if it's needed.

Veterans Affairs committee  When the soldier has died in service or as a result of service, the assisting officer from National Defence would be the first one there, as you would expect. But the individual, when they're ready.... And you don't want to rush on the bereavement process, but they need to know they will have 75%.

Veterans Affairs committee  The children can get counselling and support through the health services provision under the Public Service Health Care Plan, and that's available to the survivors as well.