Veterans Affairs committee  We will receive $13.9 million. The Canadian Armed Forces have received an additional amount. What we're doing is that we have a joint steering committee. I co-chair one of the committees. We're working hand in hand to advance this, but we each have our funds. The amount you mentioned is for our initiatives under the direction of some of us, depending on the initiative, but we are working very closely.

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay.

Veterans Affairs committee  They can provide all the information up front.

Veterans Affairs committee  I know of 26 or 28 cases that are no longer receiving it. The reason is that we had put them into the previous program that was prior to this in error. We didn't cut the program for them that year, but they were put there.... It was an administrative error on behalf of my unit. When the new program came in, the guidelines were very similar, which they no longer met.

Veterans Affairs committee  [Inaudible—Editor]

Veterans Affairs committee  We'll have to get you the number of how much it cost. We do have it, but I just don't have it off the top of my head.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I may, though, on the families, we are working with the military resource family centres closest to bases, if we have jobs. We know of that transient.... We do work hand in hand with some of their programming, to assist.

Veterans Affairs committee  Typically, it's a minimum of six months. The more complex the position we're recruiting for, the longer the training. What we're seeing is that, on average, it's six months. Before somebody becomes proficient—and “proficient” may be a big word here—before they're able to do some of the work, it's six months.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not for a child, but we do look for the veterans and, where we can, the spouses of veterans. The veteran still needs to meet the requirements of the job. A case manager is a case manager. It's a social worker. There are qualifications that are necessary. We are working hard to recruit more veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  We don't have a program for spouses, but maybe—

Veterans Affairs committee  It would depend on the location. I think that's the best way I can answer that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll probably never have enough time to deal with all of this.

Veterans Affairs committee  For sure it's a challenge across Canada, especially for people living in the more northern regions. The phone is still there and works quite well. At the NCCN call centre we answer all of the questions we can. We do understand that with dial-up and other issues.... You mentioned My VAC Account, but we also know that with mental health, telehealth and all the stuff that we use on a daily basis, it becomes an issue in certain areas where there are issues with connectivity.

Veterans Affairs committee  It depends on what level. Some are just basic public servant employees, and others are nurses and doctors. There are different challenges for different levels. We do reach out to nursing schools. We do reach out to people. We do have to be careful not to.... In Charlottetown I've been accused of hiring probably everybody I could hire on the island to come and work with us.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's been online for 14 months and 5,100 people have applied. It was favourable for over 2,600, and unfavourable for about 800. The other ones are what I'll call “waiting”. The reason they're waiting is not that they're not approved. It's that they are still in uniform.