Veterans Affairs committee  What is unique to our service to the RCMP is that we have a memorandum of understanding, which we provide to the RCMP under the RCMP Act. The RCMP leadership have decided to continue with the pension scheme, so we administer the pension scheme for them. We include the RCMP, stake

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. Thanks very much for that. Right from when the pandemic hit on March 13 last year the department went to a remote working environment. I'm pleased to say that within a month we were back up to over 90% effective; that is, people had the right IT equipment and secure acces

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much. The veterans independence program is a best practice globally. We know for certain that it is keeping our veterans alive and healthy much longer as a result of their being able to be as close as possible to home and family through their years of aging. We ha

Veterans Affairs committee  Early in the pandemic, Mr. Chair, the uptake from the emergency fund had increased slightly but right now, and over the last few months, it's actually been tracking similar to the way it has been in the last two years that it has existed. Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks, minister.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sir, the answer to your question is yes. The centre of excellence for mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder is really paying huge dividends. Again, the notion is of a hub-in-spoke approach, wherein the centre of excellence is really a hub for research. It is looking fo

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much, Minister, and thanks, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to comment. As the minister indicated, we have expedited the process across the board. Any file that is waiting for a prolonged period—years, as you mentioned—that's where we've often lacked information and

Veterans Affairs committee  It's five and a half years.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll just say that we'll put the plan together and see what we can do in terms of digitizing and working on integrated.... We are absolutely pleased with the hard work of our employees across the board. We will develop the plan. Again, I've been responsible from back in 2015, 2

Veterans Affairs committee  When I began my tenure we saw this notion of what I called a perfect storm. We had a very high operational tempo in the Canadian Armed Forces and the combat mission was coming to a close. Many more veterans were presenting, and the challenge was that there was a latency. They pre

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, sir, what we don't want to do is create frustration for veterans when they finally come forward, when they overcome the stigma that is tied to mental health injuries or illnesses. When they finally come forward, we want to get them into treatment right away. We're workin

Veterans Affairs committee  That is correct, sir. Again, it is one of the myriad of things we need to do in order to have this multi-faceted approach to supporting our veterans and addressing the backlog. I would really like to get to the point that, like your taxes, if you file your taxes electronically,

Veterans Affairs committee  I really appreciate the question. Again, from a military culture, turning around something into a plan makes absolute sense. We will turn that around as quickly as we can. Within the month, we should be able to take these four domains that I talked about—the idea of not only st

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Again, going back to Madam Wagantall's point, we want to be transparent.