Veterans Affairs committee  I'll be quick. In the end, we talk about dissatisfied or unhappy veterans. I hear that. I've heard that from individuals. But as I would say—and I've done this myself—here's my number, give me a call. I've talked to reporters. I've talked to many individuals. And when you finall

Veterans Affairs committee  What I'm hearing in that question is that the new Veterans Charter is better than the old system, and I'm happy you acknowledge that. Remember, veterans had a choice in 2005-06 to see where they wanted to go on this. You're right; some wanted to stay with the older system, and th

Veterans Affairs committee  It's in the area of mental health. What we're now seeing is that those veterans from the Bosnia era and before, particularly from Quebec, are now coming to our mental health clinics. After 2005-06, we put in place an outstanding mental health system that they are now realizing is

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, when we talk about the 75%, I think it's important, again, to stress that aside from the 75%, it's also a vocational rehabilitation program that provides up to $75,000, a program that allows you, as we've just made the changes, to be more pragmatic. In the old progra

Veterans Affairs committee  Clearly I would say that transition is an area you should focus on, to better understand it. If you agree that the new Veterans Charter is strong and is providing support, and while it needs improvements we're going to work on those, and this committee will provide advice, and

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say we need to look at the report in a little bit more detail. What the report says, in the end, is that it's only 406 veterans—not 40,000 or 400,000—who might live their twilight years in some financial distress. That's 406 out of 200,000. But it doesn't matter. Even if

Veterans Affairs committee  Looking at it from the perspective of our men and women leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, when they're either an individual who has been injured in the forces or leaving non-injured—you have to understand there are two groups—what is available to all men and women in uniform to

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, that's fair. Again, that's what I think the minister asked the committee to do. On the issue of respect, I think it's a fair comment and it's a fair question from both sides. But it takes me back to the one issue I would throw out to all of you, and that is that what we nee

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  What we could do for the committee, if the committee would like, is actually provide you with our sense of what that means. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I would say it's something the committee should look at, given that the minister asked the committee to focus on it.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we can provide the committee with the entire range of all of the amounts and the definitions for each of those and what you're entitled to, what you would have to suffer to receive the $298,000. And just as a reminder, the SISIP, a totally separate program, is also going to

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, access has always been an issue, and it's something that as we're going ahead we need to get focused on to a greater degree.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I did hear the question. In the end, if they're deaf they can have someone else give them a hand to provide the support they might need to get hold of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Chair, I apologize, I did hear the question. Clearly, the issue is to have someone there to h

Veterans Affairs committee  That's something I have to get back to you on, whether it's two or five days. When you say immediate help, what type of immediate help do you mean? If we're talking about mental health and immediate help, that's available, not from Veterans Affairs but it will and could be availa

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it's a fair question. It's something you may want to pose to the Canadian Armed Forces, because I work at Veterans Affairs, in terms of whether or not there actually will be an impact in CA reduction in recruitment, which we didn't see from 2006 to 2010 and 2011. There ac