Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of managing cases, I believe that's better directed to Veterans Affairs, because managing cases is their role. As Ms. Vent described, I believe veterans bring their cases to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board and usually have an expert representative work with them, so

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have that information with me today, but they wouldn't be ordered by the Federal Court. It is what we decided was the fair thing to do around the hearing loss cases. We decided to allow the veterans, as a result of that Federal Court decision you're referring to, to have

Veterans Affairs committee  I think you're perhaps referring to the benefits that Veterans Affairs provides. Some of them are linked to a pension or an award decision to which they are entitled. If a favourable decision is rendered at the board to give entitlement, obviously that entitlement would enable t

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm quoting numbers from Veterans Affairs Canada. I believe that when they talk about 20,000, they're referring to first applications, when veterans make their first applications to receive entitlement. However, there are also reassessments and departmental reviews, and all of

Veterans Affairs committee  We don't have statistics or any means to track what you're suggesting. I do know that roughly 30% of our caseload relates to assessments—

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't believe there's a reason. I think it was just information that no one felt needed to be tracked because it's based on entitlement, and we look at what you're entitled to under the law. I—

Veterans Affairs committee  I can look into it and get back to the committee. I'm happy to see if there is a way to do that. Given the way the information is recorded, I'm skeptical that there is, but certainly we can look into it.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have any kind of information like that. Every organization has its own legislative scheme, and it might be difficult to compare to the United States or Australia on the basis of numbers. I don't have those numbers. Also, the base of veterans would make a huge difference—f

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. In 2006 we had a slight adjustment, but it's pretty well been stable since 1995.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Unlike the department, the majority of the applicants who come to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board are Canadian Forces members or former members. About 86% of our applications come from that group; about 8% are traditional veterans, and 7% are RCMP. As you can appreciate

Veterans Affairs committee  They are roughly the same. We have no backlogs of work, so what comes in generally goes out in a year.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have all of the details with me, but I note that since 1998, when I started with the board, we had a peak of between 9,000 and 10,000 decisions a year. It would go down to 7,000, back up to 8,000, down to 6,000, so over time it has decreased. As I said, we're at 4,900 thi

Veterans Affairs committee  Do you mean which vote in Parliament?

Veterans Affairs committee  Oh, I should know that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I have the number of decisions finalized, and I should have the number of cases. I'm sorry, I may not have that right in front of me, but it was roughly the same number or a little bit less. There's a slight variation, but the number of decisions finalized in 2010-11 was about