Veterans Affairs committee  I completely understand your concern. That's why we've taken tangible steps to hire and train francophone decision-makers. We focus on looking for people, first, whose mother tongue is French and, second, who are bilingual so they can process both English-language and French-language claims.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. It is true that the processing of claims submitted by French speakers has been delayed for a while now. We've taken steps to increase our French-speaking staff to ensure decisions are rendered in the same amount of time for all the claims we receive.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. It's a pleasure to see you as well. The changes we've made have started paying off. We are on the road towards equal processing times for claims from French-speaking and English-speaking veterans. The people we've hired still need training, so it's going to take a bit more time.

Veterans Affairs committee  Just to build on that point, the reality is there's a mixture of these kinds of disability files and disability decisions that are waiting in the volume of pending applications we have. Some of them are much more complex and require reference to a health professional, likely a nurse, but they may also be referred to a doctor for further consultation as well in the case of multiple disabilities or complex files.

Veterans Affairs committee  In 30 seconds, what I'd add is that the disability program is one of those in which we are able to very easily measure output in terms of the kinds of decisions and the amounts of payments that are going out the door to our veteran clients. With the adaptation at the onset, there were some early changes that we needed to make in terms of ensuring that everybody was set up to work remotely.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not in front of me.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm based here in Charlottetown, yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Deputy. We've continued to do a number of things over this period of time. Of course, there are a number of files with us already, which we continue to work on and process as additional veterans may come forward and look to apply during this period of time as well. Veterans can continue to apply to the program.