Veterans Affairs committee  It provides veterans with an alternative as well. Let's say they come to us first and we give them our advice and they don't like it, or they'd like a second opinion. They would confer with the service bureau of the Legion. It's an excellent marriage or complementary system.

Veterans Affairs committee  With regard to conflict, nothing comes to mind. We work in cooperation with the Legion. We consult with each other on things we have in common. Of course, the service bureau of the Legion is only one aspect of its mandate and the many things it does on behalf of veterans. In providing the services such as we do, my experience has been that we're complementary organizations.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll try to do it rather quickly. In order for a claim to be successful, essentially it has be a disability related to service. We have the passage of time and the compilation of records, which as Anthony has mentioned is getting a lot better. I will give two examples of the type of claims we call departmental reviews, using the service and the medical aspect.

Veterans Affairs committee  Or more.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a very recent initiative and—

Veterans Affairs committee  —we're at about a two-year differential between the time a claim is initiated with Veterans Affairs and it ends up on our desk.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. Perhaps if you look at the claims completed column and use round figures, you'll see that the figures VRAB gave you come to about 5,000. Ours come to about 7,000. Also, we do about 2,000 departmental reviews a year, which Mr. Saez referred to, where we don't go to VRAB and we divert the case back to the department.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, indeed.