Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, we have a scenario up there. We're beyond the allotted time by a couple of minutes. I don't know whether you want to go through those or just have them there for members to look at as the questions go. I'll leave that to your guidance.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Chair and committee members, for having us here. My colleagues, Brenda and Doug, will provide an introductory briefing on the new Veterans Charter, as you begin your examination of this. The briefing will be about the policy foundation of the charter, its content, the outcomes we've had to date, and possibly the future.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll offer a comment, and, Ken, you can certainly amplify. I just read the history of the Legion; it's called Branching Out, The Story of the Royal Canadian Legion. It's a remarkable organization. I've worked in Veterans Affairs for a long time, so I probably should have known this.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, I think the Walter Reed hospital would be one place, but we can certainly arrange for that through the Veterans Affairs liaison officer and DND here. We can arrange for that to occur if the committee wishes. It would be very good for you to see it.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. I may have mentioned earlier that terms of reference per se were not given out, and there's no reason why they would have been, but what was put out was sort of the diagnostic of what the problems were. Mr. Stoffer and others have referred to complex eligibility. The point is taken.

Veterans Affairs committee  I guess my sense would be that it is a report to government, and by that I think I mean to cabinet. Certainly, the release of that or all parts of it to the committee or others would be at the minister's discretion, I think, so that's where the question should be directed.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly, preparation for such an engagement requires a certain mental outlook. You must have it or you won't survive in that environment. When you step back out of that environment into an environment where that's not required, that's one of the real challenges to transition.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, it's fair for a person of that age. One thing I will say, which we couldn't do beforehand, is that you'd have to have had that pension in your hand before we could have helped that person, before the new veterans charter. Right now, we can provide a rehabilitation program and income support to that individual whether they have a pension or not.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure I heard a question there, but I'll assume the question was why the government picked this relatively small group of widows--

Veterans Affairs committee  I can explain what would happen had successive governments since 1946 not added these eligibility groups; a whole bunch of people, more now, wouldn't be eligible than are. I'm sympathetic to the idea that when you have eligibility with all kinds of conditions on it, it gets rather difficult to navigate the system.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are two ways, sir.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are two ways. One is where it's service-related, in which case the grant is made and the service is provided. The other is where there's a lack of means. There is an asset ceiling involved there. I don't have the exact detail for it, but I can certainly get it for you, and I will.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have it with me, sir, but it's quite old. This fund is a very old agency. It works on our behalf; it's been around for a while. Needless to say, with the age of the World War II veterans, it's an area that gets a lot of business lately.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can give you some examples of that now. For a rehabilitation program, and we're trying to get this down, it's 41 days. I think that's too long, and I think our colleagues think it's too long. A vocational rehabilitation plan is not something you do overnight, but we're trying to shorten that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll start. My colleague, Ken, can add something. Service to remote areas, whether to veterans or others, is always a challenge—and you would know this better than I. What we can try to do, and have increasingly tried to do, is use electronic access better in remote areas. But you have to have someone there who can actually use it.