Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, to clarify, perhaps I'll note that we take our lead from the Federal Court. The Federal Court is always making rulings, on everything from the benefit of the doubt, and under judicial review sends cases back to us to rehear them. We have hundreds of cases from the...th

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I would point out that we have 25 members, and 12 of them are in Charlottetown. They work mostly on appeals. I would point out to Mr. Vincent that the 3 members on the appeal panel are not the same individuals who sat on the review panel. We make sure that there is no

Veterans Affairs committee  No, it is not the same group of 12 people. Most of the cases heard by the 12 people in Charlottetown are appeals. Most of the cases heard by the 13 other members, who are spread throughout the country, are reviews. That said, there is a lot of sharing. The members in Charlottetow

Veterans Affairs committee  Our approval rate is 59%, review, and 36% on appeal.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's to the end of February. It's not a complete fiscal year.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct. They were successful.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to talk briefly about the law, if I may. The presumption of doubt in favour of the client is always there; it is in the legislation and is applied in every case. But before the panel can apply that benefit of the doubt, the client has to provide evidence o

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, if I may, I would first like to explain to Mr. Vincent.... I want to correct you. It is the Department of Veterans Affairs that provides free legal services to individuals who apply to the department for disability pension benefits. Clients have the right to hire thei

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I was not aware of that. I don't have any difficulty answering, but I don't know if—

Veterans Affairs committee  No, it doesn't, because all our members, whether they come from military, legal, or medical backgrounds, had previous lives. But they make a commitment, when they are appointed to our board by Governor in Council appointment, that they are joining a quasi-judicial body and they h

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to individual cases?

Veterans Affairs committee  We do not publish our decisions, out of privacy considerations, and that is the present state. We provide on our website and through our reports, both to Parliament and in communications in our brochures, information about our process and our statistics on a regular basis.

Veterans Affairs committee  The change in volume in decisions, and I think you're referring to the number of operational stress....

Veterans Affairs committee  No. With respect to that question, Mr. Chair, it's the changing dynamics of the applicants to the redress system of our board. It's that there are fewer and fewer of the traditional veterans and more of the Canadian Forces members and veterans that has made that change in the num

Veterans Affairs committee  If you want short answers, sir, let me ask Ms. Sharkey, Mr. Chair, to address those numbers.