Veterans Affairs committee  That includes reserves and regular force.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Honourable members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to say a few words today. I know that you have a very full agenda, so I will be brief. I have followed with great interest the discussions in the House of Commons pertaining to Bill C-55, the a

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I'd like to first start by introducing my director general of operations, Gary Walbourne, who of course is here to answer all the hard questions. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before you and to contribute to the great

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very good question. That's exactly why I chose the theme "One Veteran" for the duration of my mandate. In fact, over the years, we have created these different groups because the programs have been developed directly following missions, deployments and wars. After almos

Veterans Affairs committee  That's another good question. I would say that, of all the programs for veterans, it's probably the most complicated. It contains a lot of sub-programs and benefits related to health care, but others that are not necessarily related to heath care itself. So it's very complicated

Veterans Affairs committee  Exactly: it's military service.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's exactly why, in my opening presentation, I spoke about the complexity of the programs as a very important factor when it comes to fairness. All the systematic reviews of certain benefits programs that we currently do are done from this perspective: we ask ourselves whether

Veterans Affairs committee  Right now we are in the process of looking at the options, at what other countries are doing, and at what that card would be like. Should it be a card with a chip? Should it be a card with a memory? We're just at the very basis right now of looking at those aspects of it. People

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll leave that question to my director general of operations. He handles the funding, so I'm sure he can answer that.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a good question. My first one would be the complexity of programs, to work with the department to try to simplify that as much as we can, and I think the “one veteran” concept would eliminate the majority of the complexity. There will always be some. Obviously, when you're

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't really speak for the minister, but I made a statement publicly a few months back expressing my concern that Canada didn't look at their veteran population the same as other countries do. We are an evidence-based organization, so what impact the budget is going to have on

Veterans Affairs committee  We have assurances from the minister that the benefits will not be affected. However, as an evidence-based organization, we have to wait. We have mechanisms in place to gauge whether there will be an impact on veterans and their benefits. I go back to our pillars of fairness. Eff

Veterans Affairs committee  If this had an effect on the accessibility, the length of time it takes to get benefits, or the amount of time it takes to get somebody at the call centres, it would be something we'd be worried about.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's positive.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I'm advocating for fairness for veterans and their families, and always for more fairness, easier access, and easier services and benefits.