Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of the vision.... Poor Michel and his team. I said to them that I want to try to meet the best standards of what Canadians have across the board. Whether that is within provinces or how folks do their taxes, how quickly can we turn around a decision? That's why I came up

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I'm going to let Mr. Doiron answer that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll start off and then I'll ask Rick Christopher, who commands, to use that term.... He is the director of our central operations division. He basically has a battalion's worth of adjudicators under his command moving this forward. There are a number of veterans as part of his o

Veterans Affairs committee  Also, from the moment we decide we're going to hire someone, we need to get cabinet and Treasury Board approvals. Then Michel and his team have to find these folks down east or across the country. Then for the first time there's a training program. Again, this didn't exist in 201

Veterans Affairs committee  The answer to the question is yes. We have seen over time.... I still remember poor Michel. When I asked him in 2015 to do a projection of how many case-managed veterans we would have by about 2019-20, he said it would be about 9,700 case-managed veterans. Right now we have in

Veterans Affairs committee  We've been able to hire additional.... He might have the number on the tip of his tongue, but again, we are working hard to try to attain—

Veterans Affairs committee  Madam, thank you very much for the question. Again, as I said in my comments, we have not changed the policy over time, and the key over this entire period—and I'm sure that you've scrutinized the policy—is that we are focused on the well-being of the veteran. Services to the fam

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, sir.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, thank you. I hope my voice will project in the room. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, good morning. I would like to highlight that Captain Navy (Retired) Dr. Cyd Courchesne, who is Veterans Affairs' chief medical officer, and Lieutenant-Colonel (Retired

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, as the minister indicated, when a veteran serves, the family serves too, but the minister's accountability and responsibility is the health and well-being of the veteran. We know that, in the case where the veteran has a mental health injury, often it is compounded when a

Veterans Affairs committee  The service to family members and the service we are providing today to family members—to those who are supporting that veteran—is focused on the well-being of the veteran. Moreover, again, by policy we are not able to duplicate any other services that are provided by any other s

Veterans Affairs committee  First of all, I just want to say how much we appreciate the ombudsman's work. Much of the minister's mandate that came out in 2015 we've been working on as a result of the ombudsman's report of June 2013, so we have worked on each one these things and we're continuing going for

Veterans Affairs committee  First of all, with regard to case managers, as I mentioned before, we're onboarding them as quickly as we can. We're also again trying to change the triage system as to who needs case management and who needs guided support. As the minister indicated, we received surge funding a

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I can approach this in two ways. One, in terms of the Canadian Armed Forces, what you're talking about is the prior learning and the certification—

Veterans Affairs committee  —of the various trades and qualifications across the Canadian Armed Forces. That question really is in the domain of the Canadian Armed Forces. Even though I know a lot about that, I would be very cautious about going down that path. I can just say the Canadian Armed Forces has m