Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to information-sharing in individual cases, I can recall no complaints about resolving issues—level 1, level 2. Information-sharing, however, has in the past been problematic in the areas of policy development, cabinet confidences, and things of that nature. I think

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to the public consultation process, we embarked on what I'll refer to as an omnibus investigation into red tape. The impact it has on the veterans' community is very broad. We've been experimenting with a public consultation approach. We hang out information on our w

Veterans Affairs committee  The short answer, Mr. Chair, is yes. I have to qualify that, in that for every contact we make, we don't take notes on the individual. In the United States, for example, ombudsmen actually destroy their files to prevent the possibility that confidentiality will be breached. So i

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, yes, we do. When a case is opened, we are as rigorous in terms of notes as the department is.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I do as much as humanly possible. I would say I haven't for the last six or eight months, as we have been in the process of changing over to a new system. Having said that, we do have a process within the office, a series of filters. When there are compelling cases tha

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I have access to the VAC file base on all of the clients, so all of the notes to file that they make in dealing with issues. I don't know if I understand the question. For example, the Veterans Review and Appeal Board does not provide us their files or their judgmen

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I have.

Veterans Affairs committee  As a matter of fact, Mr. Chair, we've submitted an access to information request to do with homelessness to find out what exactly we are missing in this. It was suggested to us that we should be taking this course. It's an extremely onerous way of doing it. It is time-consuming.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I did read it.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's how I would characterize that particular document. I know of no other documents within the department in terms of studies that have been done.

Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of the numbers, health care in general is number one, but that's a very broad field. Number two is the veterans independence program, which, to give credit where it's due, is groundbreaking. It's an excellent system, but people are falling through the cracks, and we are

Veterans Affairs committee  I would like to clarify my definition of “independent” because I've seen it in no documentation anywhere. My definition of “independent” is really that my employees, my staff, my team, can make decisions free from influence or from being misled in any way, shape, or form. It is t

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, if I can clarify that point, it's included in one of the prohibitions. I do not have the right to review decisions of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, but I can say we have stacks of them provided to us by veterans themselves. We read them all the time. We have ac

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, the short answer is that we haven't had the resources to look into it in any sort of detail. Certainly, we're aware of the idea of a card, but at this point in time we haven't actually delved into a study of that type of thing. It could get into the types of administr

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not aware of a study that has been done on such things as the causes of homelessness. The strategy I have seen from the department assesses the situation to the degree of suggesting some “coulds” and “shoulds” that the department might do in the future. In terms of