Veterans Affairs committee  Just a quick one to add, the ombudsman came forward in a recent proposal that as soon as a member joins the forces a VAC file is opened up on him. That medical file becomes shared between the two departments. I would add to that—here's another wish list—rather than us fighting f

Veterans Affairs committee  You're absolutely right, Mr. Stoffer. In terms of dignity, non-taxable would be better. However, that does cause a problem. We do have fiscal realities that if it's earnings lost, and we have to deduct other earnings against it, it's hard to deduct taxable earnings from non-taxab

Veterans Affairs committee  So I would compromise and say, 100% taxable, and that way we can see taxes to the government, which is what they're looking for right now.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I've asked—

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Super. So, yes, I've got my query into Veterans Affairs. I'm sure they'll be providing me with those cost estimates shortly. You're absolutely right. Access is a huge problem. What I tried to do in my report was provide, basically, existing programs, that all we had to do

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. In terms of tangible doable things now, we're not too far off from that, but the problem is that we have many practitioners operating independently; there's no coordination between the two; and those practitioners are not dedicated to those particular clients. So what

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly. As I said in my original presentation, psychosocial rehabilitation, as we understand it now, exists as a set of principles but is not actually consistently practised. However, I believe that if a working group could be set forward between Veterans Affairs, with vetera

Veterans Affairs committee  Harold's perspective is correct. If, of course, we had a wish and a dream that we could go back and rewrite this whole thing and recreate the original Veterans Charter for modern Canadian Forces' veterans, absolutely. However, the reality is right here and I know that you guys ar

Veterans Affairs committee  Would you like me to go first? Monsieur Chicoine, that's an excellent question. In my report I have some very specific recommendations. First of all, let's treat them as equals. Give veterans and family members their own identification card so that they can access programs inde

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, Harold has thrown me to the dogs first. Thank you, Harold. Thank you most sincerely, everyone here, for the invitation to speak today. It's a privilege. Nine years ago Parliament passed the legislation we now know as the new Veterans Charter, or NVC. The elected members of

Veterans Affairs committee  There were over 300 recommendations.

Veterans Affairs committee  I just want to really thank the committee for looking at this. I think it's really important that the committee look at the fact that the reason the new Veterans Charter was created was that there had been 10 to 15 years of slightly negligent behaviour, abandoning the veterans. T

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay. The recommendations there are all excellent, by the way. They did great work. I'm really happy that Muriel Westmorland was made chair. I had recommended her to be part of SNAG, and my 13,000 documents show that VAC then took that recommendation and put her in as chair of

Veterans Affairs committee  Super, and thank you, Mr. Kerr. I'm really encouraged that you guys are willing to not only consider those 16 or 85 recommendations from the new Veterans Charter advisory group, but also look at adding in from the 200 recommendations from SNAG, as well as my 55 recommendations th

Veterans Affairs committee  There are now 55. In terms of the ombudsman, I don't know Mr. Stogran personally. There's always the problem in any organization that one individual may see himself as perhaps independent, as he does, but the functioning of the office severely hampers any independence he can ha