Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good point. I referred to a report in my opening address from McInnes Cooper. It actually reviewed the adjudication process from start to finish. It found three reasons for the high favourability rate at the first review from VRAB. It had to do with the personal presenc

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. I go back to the same key words: transparency and culture The fact is it shouldn't be a secret the way the board operates, the way board members are selected, the way decisions are made and if they're published. When everything is transparent, there are n

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. I'll start from why we did the Veterans Review and Appeal Board report, and why we did the first report, which had to do with the reasons for decisions. That actually covers the whole spectrum of adjudication from start to finish. As I said before, we'll

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a big issue. In a sense, it's the key issue. You cannot access any benefits or programs in Veterans Affairs Canada unless you go through this application process. Definitely it's the key issue. That's why I said we decided to do that in the second year of my mandate. The f

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a good question. I alluded to that earlier. What's important is not necessarily the numbers, but if cases are returned for the same reasons over a period of time, that means there are no mechanisms in place to recognize what are the weaknesses or the challenges of the boar

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, that's a good question. What's important here, again, is that there needs to be a presumptive judgment that anybody who serves in the Canadian Forces or the RCMP is subject to being hurt by their service; it's the type of work that they do, and that we do, because I was pa

Veterans Affairs committee  If I may add something, I did mention already that there will be upcoming reports that will fill the void between the Veterans Review and Appeal Board and the adjudication decision letter. Some of those reports have to do with process and with the rules of evidence. In those repo

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very good question. It goes back to not having an instrument to actually have some lessons learned from the process. There are no mechanisms in place. There haven't been, to date, mechanisms in place that review the decisions all the way down and back to adjudication,

Veterans Affairs committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. Mr. Chairman, committee members, good morning. Since my team members have already been introduced— and I would like to add that Retired Colonel Denys Guérin is the head of the team tasked with reviewing the New Veterans Charter A

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. You are correct. We focused on those veterans who are totally and permanently incapacitated. If they are not entitled to a pension from the Canadian Forces because they served for less than 10 years then they may receive a permanent impairment allowan

Veterans Affairs committee  Correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Many of our recommendations would solve this situation, such as, for example, providing better access to impairment allowances, as we stated in our report. Even though Bill C-55, the Enhanced New Veterans Charter Act made improvements to the impairment allowance, access is still

Veterans Affairs committee  Could you please repeat the question?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, of course.