Veterans Affairs committee  In fact, when the Honourable Greg Thompson first appeared in front of this committee, as well as the Senate committee in May and June of 2006, he said that he was uncomfortable with portions of the charter and that things would change. He said that “openness and transparency” would be the case under his leadership.

Veterans Affairs committee  Like Lieutenant Richard, I supported the modernization task force. What should have happened was that the department should have looked at the Pension Act and modernized it to take into account the changes that have occurred in Canada, because there should have been a continuation, not a revolution.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'd like to answer that question for you. The then minister, Albina Guarnieri, stated that the reason for the drastic rewrite of the Pension Act was that the disabled veterans had become too dependent on Pension Act benefits. First of all, it was supposed to be a rewrite of the Pension Act, not the creation of new legislation.

Veterans Affairs committee  In fact, the special needs advisory group reported to the same people who said the charter was perfect. What hope is there for VAC accepting changes to the charter if the people who created it do not see that it needs to be changed?

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm here representing VeteranVoice.info. It's a website that is open to all veterans. We provide information about all things that concern the veterans' community. I'm also the co-author of the report that was presented to this committee and also other organizations. It talked about what we needed in a veterans ombudsman.

Veterans Affairs committee  The one step that most concerns me is in the making of the first assessment within the department, and that was what I was addressing in my comment. When a person is released from the military they go through a process of review, and it's determined whether or not they should be retained, retrained, or released.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I may, I would just like to touch on another reason why the ombudsman is important. The Bureau of Pensions Advocates was set up so that any veteran or client of the Department of Veterans Affairs would have access to a legal advocate. The problem is that like the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, it is seen to be part of VAC.

Veterans Affairs committee  Ms. Hinton, I'd also like to remind the committee of what the minister said last week, and this echoes what Sean was talking about. The minister said last week that time is on our side, that there is a 29- or 30-year period to fix the glitches within the new Veterans Charter.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I may, I'd like to read a quote. This is a quote from Deputy Minister Jack Stagg to the parliamentary subcommittee, this august body's predecessor, and this is what he said: What we found in the pension system was it was a kind of perverse system, in effect, because we had quite a large number....