Veterans Affairs committee  I think, again, that's a good question, and Mr. Chair, the best way to answer that is that it's a transition issue. There needs to be facilitation and harmonizing between what DND does and what Veterans Affairs Canada and the provincial health care programs do. There certainly ne

Veterans Affairs committee  MacKinnon, sorry. I'm not sure which paperwork in particular she was talking about.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think homelessness for veterans has probably been an issue since the office was introduced, in the last couple of years. Certainly my predecessor's campaign triggered a lot of projects within Veterans Affairs Canada, and I'll stay away fr

Veterans Affairs committee  Those are good questions. Thank you very much. Certainly, that's the way to go. The difficulty, the concern right now, is that the spectrum of care within the Canadian Forces and the spectrum of care provided by the provinces and Veterans Affairs Canada are completely different.

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

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  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  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—