National Defence committee  Yes, sure. I've talked to other insurance groups and the workers' compensation board, through the charity issues and how people are compensated. SISIP offers a value for your limb, but it's not the same value that a typical insurance agency would offer. It's $125,000 per limb, up to a maximum of $250,000.

National Defence committee  I did the same thing; I chose a different path from what was offered. There are programs out there. One of the newer ones is Helmets to Hardhats. That's great, but after sleeping in the forest for months and years, do you really want to go and work in the oil sands? Like, no. I'd rather work at a bank, thanks, and be sitting at a job.

National Defence committee  They bought both, actually. The first wheelchair arrived, and I waited and waited. I did my rehab and all this stuff. It was only about four weeks. Shoppers Home Health Care was asking where their cheque was, or at least a valuation that we're going to pay. Veterans Affairs told them they were not going to pay, and then DND, being the bureaucracy it is...there was no one to report to and ask for these cheques.

National Defence committee  We don't have salamander DNA.

National Defence committee  I don't think he's the right person to ask.

National Defence committee  In 2006 Veterans Affairs offered to purchase wheelchairs for me. I think their cap was $2,200. I was offered a $7,000 wheelchair from Shoppers Home Health Care. I needed one for downstairs and one for upstairs, because you transfer up. DND bought them, and they purchased—

National Defence committee  It changes everything. It's going from black to white. It's going from young to old in an instant. You go from a person who's an Olympian-calibre athlete, who can run marathons, a triathlete, mountain man, you name it. Jody's a good example, with a lot of the stuff he's done, and I've done lots of stuff around the world.

National Defence committee  That goes to the point of where we were.

National Defence committee  I was trying to say it in a good way.

National Defence committee  Steady.

National Defence committee  Oh, with the charities, yes. The War Amps themselves have been doing amazing work, but what they've made a mistake on is that they.... They've raised $8 million, but they buy prostheses for kids under 18, and they spend a lot of that money on the CHAMPs program. It's a great program, but there's no province in the country that would refuse prostheses for kids under 18, so what they've done is set themselves up so that the provinces can kind of walk away from a group of patients and citizens of that province.

National Defence committee  Yes, stick to them. There are like a million ombudsman's reports. I've been in front of the Senate. The senators visited the Glenrose, and I talked to them, and now it's 2008.... We've been dealing with this stuff for years. The key point—and as a medic, I've always said this—is that once the war is over, everything will be in place, and at that point, all the budget cuts will happen and everything that's in place will disappear.

National Defence committee  So there is a disconnect there, obviously, between what Jody has heard and what I have heard, not as a soldier, but as a person from a charitable organization that they might feel is in competition. I think that's where the disconnect is.

National Defence committee  Now that would make sense.

National Defence committee  A service personnel holding unit.