Veterans Affairs committee  No, sir. I am so thrilled with our employees, wherever they are across the country, doing amazing work. From a P.E.I. standpoint, a Maritimes standpoint, a Canadian standpoint, for us to launch the Pension for Life and the innovation and the learning and the dedication.... I have to tell you, sir, that we have an extraordinarily committed workforce.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Desilets. I'm sorry; because of this translation function, I have to remain on the English channel here for the time being. We appreciate that the work of the ombudsperson found this situation and we have worked diligently to correct it so that we don't just have bilingual staff who can adjudicate; we have also found, especially in the medical profession, that we need staff who have studied medicine in French so they totally understand the diagnoses in all the French medical terminology, which is so important in understanding the ramifications.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, sir. It's great to see you again. The adjudication process involves membership from several unions. The vast majority of our employees at Veterans Affairs come from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and in Veterans Affairs they are referred to as the Union of Veteran Affairs Employees, and that's who Virginia Vaillancourt represents.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll ask Steven to chime in here, but to achieve better efficiency, as laid out in the plan, we have put together veteran benefit teams that match administrative decision-makers and medical professionals into teams, so you're dealing with both unions in this regard. The other aspect is that very rarely does a veteran have a single condition that might be simple.

Veterans Affairs committee  At this point in time we are following the guidance of the Treasury Board, which is the employer. Our employees are encouraged to remain working remotely during this period of time and to abide by the public health guidance. In Veterans Affairs we kept all of our buildings accessible.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sir, thank you very much for the question, and it's great to see you again as well. I would say that we agree with the report and that we need to have additional staff horsepower to assist us here over the next while as we continue innovating, changing our processes and using all of the digital technology we can, while at the same time ensuring that we can exercise the whole aspect of giving the benefit of the doubt and also of ensuring compassion for the needs of our veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  This is the real value of our outreach to the stakeholder groups, especially the COVID-19 working group, through which we had the co-chairs of all of the advisory committees come together. This is an aspect they have told us about throughout. We have adjusted the kinds of documentation veterans do require.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be back with you again. I recall that it was on March 10 that I attended this meeting. I went back to Charlottetown for the retirement of Michel Doiron, who retired that Friday, March 13, and so the pandemic began.