Veterans Affairs committee  If it's a service-related injury, I think VAC pays for it completely.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure of that. I'll have to pass on that one.

Veterans Affairs committee  At this point in time, we have 32 people.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll change that to ten, then, who are involved.

Veterans Affairs committee  Ten people are involved in the office. That's the full complement of the office, but there is an operational division that looks after the cases. Again, without simplifying the process, the information is not always available to the person who answers the phone. So there is a res

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure, excellent.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the question of suicide, we have talked about that already: we don't consider the issue to be a real problem now. It may be different later. On the question of post-traumatic stress, we are currently concerned about the problem of access to specialized clinics. That process i

Veterans Affairs committee  Not that I know of. We haven't done research in that area specifically. I think we've concentrated on the transition problems and the tracking problems here in Canada. Having had the experience with National Defence when I was with the ombudsman's office there, and having been in

Veterans Affairs committee  What is in place now is certainly effective. There's always room for improvement. I think they're short on resources. The relationship between district offices, for instance, and an OSISS coordinator might be a little bit better so that they're known as a resource, certainly as a

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly. One area is the self-representation aspect. The onus is on the individual to come forward and tell us what he's suffering from, whereas in fact the onus should be on the department in saying “We used you; we hurt you. Now we'll keep track of you until you are gone.” Th

Veterans Affairs committee  I think I mentioned in my presentation my concern is that there are a lot of representative groups that identify people by their service where and when. Certainly my objective could be to communicate with these groups and make them realize the value of speaking with one voice. Al

Veterans Affairs committee  I certainly would agree that the decision letters, for instance, are not very well drafted or explained, the reasons why or why not, and that's something the department has been working on, to simplify the correspondence to clients so they do understand where they stand as far as

Veterans Affairs committee  I think one of the aspects that could be looked at, especially by Veterans Affairs Canada, is again a matter of education. The more time people have to tell their stories, the harder it becomes for them. So there is certainly a requirement for the initial contact to be well docum

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it's a good concept. It's something like the American USO types of institutions or buildings, where people congregate. In fact, they do the same thing in Quebec City, at Place-Laurier, I think. All the veterans congregate there for coffee and they tell their stories and t

Veterans Affairs committee  I go back, I think, to the concept of dealing with immediate needs, and then dealing with subsequent or ongoing needs afterwards, because again, the complexity of the process doesn't allow for a response to immediate needs. It takes 20 weeks to get a decision, but in the meantime