Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct. Of the 43 projects over this past couple of years, 12 have been focused on homelessness, whether it be the Old Brewery Mission, Shepherds of Good Hope in Toronto and so on across the country. Again, it is working in partnership with the communities, because we kno

Veterans Affairs committee  We're going to the side of compassion and flexibility. Across the country, we're relying on the relationship we have with the mental health providers. It is difficult to find consistency when we're dealing with all of these providers coast to coast to coast. The conditions are re

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, the policy remains extant, as it was established in 2010. From the compassion side, we're saying that where the policy says “short term”, we'll interpret that to be a year to two years, as opposed to something that's short of a year. If someone is on a mental health couns

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. The situation of homeless veterans is of the utmost concern to us. They often end up homeless as a result of a mental illness or injury. Providing assistance to all of those veterans is imperative. As the minister said before, we are providing our e

Veterans Affairs committee  I would just give a reminder that prior to the emergency fund, as the minister indicated, we would use, basically, benevolent funds that the department had. People would bequeath money to the department for these kinds of situations, but there were often limitations, whether it b

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks very much for the question. I just want to be absolutely clear here. We work closely with the mental health provider. The mental health provider, who is focused on the well-being of the veteran—because that's where our jurisdiction is—will tell our staff that the veteran's

Veterans Affairs committee  It's the mental health provider. Veterans Affairs does not provide health care. We partner with all the provinces, so all the additional support either comes through any one of the 11 operational stress injury clinics, or our accredited 4,000 mental health providers coast to coas

Veterans Affairs committee  Can I just add—

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, in our context, we partner with every one of the provinces across the country. We are able to provide this additional support through the operational stress injury clinics and by leveraging the mental health providers across the country for veterans and for families, as it

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm responsible for everything.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm responsible. Can I just highlight again that, with regard to mental health treatment for family members, the department is authorized to support the veteran, and all support for mental health focuses on the well-being of—

Veterans Affairs committee  The solution to addressing the backlog is multi-faceted. One area is hiring additional folks, and I'll ask Rick Christopher in a moment to talk about the fact that we're hiring. We've hired hundreds already, and we're continuing to try to hire across the country.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll ask Rick to address that.

Veterans Affairs committee  Can I say that for us to put in additional funding into the well-being fund and the emergency fund is not affecting our solution set for addressing the backlog? We're moving forward on digitization. We're moving forward on integrated teams to make decision-making easier. We're al

Veterans Affairs committee  As the minister indicated, the My VAC Account has been key. The way we've set up the program is that the application must be complete when it's entered into the system. One of the challenges happens when people put in a paper application. Often the application is not fully comple