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. V

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, ther

Veterans Affairs committee  Not in front of me.

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

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 nu

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 g

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-lang

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks, Deputy. I'll try to keep it brief, as I know you have limited time. It is really a two-track system. One is our being able to get additional human resources in a short-term period of time while we do the work on the back end to make sure we can improve and sustain the fr

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, there are a variety of timelines, depending on the initiative. What I would say in terms of the volume of pending applications is that it includes applications we may have received yesterday or last week that are within our service standard now. The backlog, as you've indi

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, for example, the veteran benefit teams were implemented as of June 1. On June 1 of this year, we made the transition, even in the COVID environment, to working from this point of view. The work we're doing in trying to resolve medical issues at the earliest possible stage w

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks, Deputy. It really depends on the condition, of course, what the wait time might be for any individual case, and whether or not there are multiple conditions and which conditions. It might be that it's more complicated, or other.... There are a variety of times, but what

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll keep my remarks brief in case there are additional questions. We started to talk a little before about some of the additional pieces we're doing. We've been in touch with other jurisdictions as well—our Australian counterparts and others in the Five Eyes countries—to look a

Veterans Affairs committee  I can answer that. There are actually two obstacles. On one hand, the number of claims Veterans Affairs Canada receives has been rising rapidly since 2016. On the other hand, the system we use to review and approve claims is complex. When a claim involves medical issues, it's a

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the deputy is quite right. In addition to the folks we just identified whom we're bringing on, there are 168 individuals from budget 2018 whom we've been able to keep. These folks are fully trained. They've been working since the start of this fiscal year to continue to m