Veterans Affairs committee  I have no comments at this time.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not too sure if you were asking the question in relation to the advocacy done by the Legion and its service bureau or by Veterans Affairs Canada and their officials.

Veterans Affairs committee  I will reply in two ways, if I may. On the level of representation provided by the Legion as advocates or as service officers, I guess our model is really that of having service officers at the branch level who refer. They refer cases to the provincial command service officers o

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to the ombudsman and the Veterans Charter, the six veterans' organizations that met this morning are of the same opinion. They must simply define what is meant by the term ombudsman. Once we have done that...

Veterans Affairs committee  We have just shared with you our views about what the Veterans Charter should contain. I can reread that to you. We also said that we have achieved some consensus on a draft, not necessarily the final draft, because we will not be adopting the Veterans Charter. That will be done

Veterans Affairs committee  Will you give me an opportunity to speak? I cannot speak while I'm listening. A good model would be one where the ombudsman could be involved in administrative decisions regarding the various health programs provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. We are not sure that an

Veterans Affairs committee  We did get some proposed amendments, because it is only a draft, a living draft. We got some feedback from branches and commands and we amend it as we get those drafts.

Veterans Affairs committee  When we represent veterans and their families, which we do, we do that for free, and we do that whether or not they are Legion members.

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to a statement of veterans' rights, Mary Ann Burdett just told you the important point in our view. The priority would probably be just and equitable treatment from the department and the appeal mechanisms. As regards the ombudsman...

Veterans Affairs committee  I would agree that the principle of equity is not easy to define. It may be somewhat clearer in our draft declaration of veterans' rights. The difficulty with these theoretical statements appears when it comes time to implement them. This is where the ombudsman could play a usefu

Veterans Affairs committee  I do not understand exactly what you mean.

Veterans Affairs committee  While you are looking for it, I would like to answer one of Mr. Perron's questions. He spoke about his father. I am well aware that some civilians have suffered as well, and that they do not have access to a program like the VIP. That is why the Legion recently decided to argue f

Veterans Affairs committee  The VIP makes it possible to save money at the moment by postponing the time when people have to move to long-term care or home care. We think the same could be true of a similar program for seniors.

Veterans Affairs committee  That may be so.

Veterans Affairs committee  We prepared for our appearance before the committee based on the three priorities you determined. However, if you have specific questions to ask us, we would be pleased to answer them.