Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hopefully we were helpful.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think, as Larry said, in a perfect world we'd like to have the best, but how much time do we have to get this in place? Maybe the method that Mr. Côté is using is working. Why not put that in place and make it work for the veterans ombudsman? The thing is time and practicality and what's best for the veterans at the end of the day.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I think you have to look at the whole family unit. If you look at the bill of rights that we are looking at, family involvement is on the bill of rights. So yes, if someone is having that issue and is a spouse of a veteran, the mandate should be broad enough to allow for a family member or a dependant to launch a complaint.

Veterans Affairs committee  I've been involved there since 2001. We meet four times per year, unless the ombudsman requests our information. I can't talk about what happens on the committee.

Veterans Affairs committee  Basically we provide advice to the ombudsman on cases, different points of view--a sounding board. That's basically how we work as an advisory committee.

Veterans Affairs committee  You definitely need to do that. You need to have the main veterans organizations on there so that you can get the feel of what's happening on the ground, for both traditional veterans and for modern-day veterans. It's crucial.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think that would be fair to say.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I think that's a way to go, because we do need to move forward on this. As the committee members have said today, to have 53 organizations try to get consensus is going to be difficult. If we move forward and get the right people involved in it, the right organizations, and we have a review, I think that would be a good way to go.

Veterans Affairs committee  When it comes to veterans, we feel a veteran is a veteran. We used the words “traditional” and “modern” just because that separation is out there already. We'd like to see everybody treated the same. My feeling is that a bullet does the same damage, whether it was in World War II or in Afghanistan.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I don't think you do. As we said this afternoon to some of the VAC staff, the DND ombudsman is a good starting point today. His mandate, how he's working today, is a good starting point. It's not rocket science and we don't have time. As Mr. Gollner was saying, we're losing 2,500 veterans a month, according to VAC.

Veterans Affairs committee  You're right, it's a hard position. I have to be careful as an organization not to downgrade any other organization, but let's be real here. There are certain organizations that are at the table involved in the development of policy. Maybe those are the ones that should be involved in the future of this.

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, you're doing this in the committee right now. You have people like ourselves coming forward providing evidence, giving you our input. You're probably going to find a common thread from certain organizations on structure and the like. At the end of the day, the ombudsman is going to have to look after veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  You have to look at who's representing who out in the veterans' world. Who's doing what and who's producing results? Larry.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll take the first part, and I'll let Larry comment on the one about the Legion. I think a structure similar to the advisory committee that the current ombudsman has would be one in which you would have veterans. So, representing modern-day veterans as well as traditional Second World War veterans, you'd have advisers who are in the office daily advising the ombudsman on issues for veterans, as well.