Veterans Affairs committee  But my office is there, Mr. Chair, to be vigilant and to look at the impact of these changes.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. Mr. Chair, what we're looking at here is the fact that, like many other departments.... I worked at DND for many years. There were these types of layers or silos. It doesn't matter what you call them. That structure affects the capacity of the personnel w

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. That's a good question, Mr. Chair. There is often confusion about the difference between the DND ombudsman and the veterans ombudsman. We have a role to play, both sides, in fact. The DND ombudsman has jurisdiction on the veterans side as well. Any veteran that requir

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very good question, Mr. Chair. The funeral and burial expenses, as you know, were the subject of the first official report of the office by my predecessor. To date, none of the recommendations have been addressed by the department. Some of the recommendations do not req

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that is the national standard cost as identified by the association of funeral directors of Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  I definitely do, and in fact at this point in time the transition interview is mandatory for people who are being released medically and who have to access services or a continuum of services from their service to Veterans Affairs Canada. It is not mandatory for reservists, and m

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't really speak to the programs of today. I can speak of my experience in 38 years in the forces, and then I decided not to make a career out of it. They had programs called the second career assistance network that were geared towards preparing military uniform personnel or

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I believe we have an expert here on the OSI clinic. The national coordinator is here, so I'm sure he'd be able to—

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a very good question, Mr. Chair. The new Veterans Charter, which includes the lump sum, got a lot of reactions from the veterans community in general. What is very important to understand is that the programs in the new charter are not yet very well known. The lump sum is

Veterans Affairs committee  The study was based strictly on the lump sum, which we are comparing with the monthly pension in the former program. It doesn't take into consideration the other programs. It isn't necessarily a true representation of the programs, given that it addresses only one part of the pro

Veterans Affairs committee  We don't have the exact numbers here, but I think the department's statistics should be available. Since there will be a review of the improvements made to the charter in a few months, we are getting ready. The government mandated that exercise following changes made to the act.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question, Mr. Chair. As this point in time, we have a contract out for an organization to look at what is within the realm of the possible, what types of cards exist, what the cost is, and how we could integrate that type of mechanism. Obviously, this is one of th

Veterans Affairs committee  In the context of fairness and equality, we see a change in the veterans community in considering themselves as one veteran. I think Afghanistan has helped a lot because it's a more equal service than the Second World War or the Korean conflict. Recently in an outreach visit we h

Veterans Affairs committee  One of the recommendations we made in the report has to do with access to those burial services and the benefit program for CF veterans. Right now there are strict eligibility criteria. You're eligible by right if you're a World War II or Korea veteran pensioned for injuries rela

Veterans Affairs committee  I am very concerned about the way the RCMP veteran is treated. If you think complexity is a problem for the CF veteran, the RCMP is even worse because they have to deal with two departments. There is no advocacy group for the veterans of the RCMP. There's an association, but they