Finance committee  In regard to your question, sir, we're very distinctly aware of one thing. Take, for example, how many times I've had to listen to “there's $5 billion of new spending in the budget”, and that just keeps getting flogged back and forth, but when you study it, you realize it's sprea

Finance committee  I'll take that one. I agree with you. One of the things that we've encountered, sir, is that giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a 21-year-old who may have severe depression or perhaps is missing a limb.... Think back to when you were 21. What did young people do with mo

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  How much time do I have, Chair?

Finance committee  I can. I'll cut down to halfway, because that's where the good stuff is.

Finance committee  Okay, I'll skip the salutation, and I'll go right here. Don't try to repackage already failing policy as new policy. Don't try another series of expensive half measures. We've already seen the Department of Veterans Affairs try to sell their plan to us at the stakeholders meetin

Veterans Affairs committee  In answer to the the lady's question, I would second what Mr. White just said. Being released by the military is not the same as moving on. Someone else has decided that you're leaving, not necessarily yourself, and there's a certain feeling of being robbed of not necessarily dig

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll follow up on that. One of the issues we have with homelessness, first of all, is that homeless people, whether they're veterans or not, can be transient in nature. They can be hard to find. They're at one shelter one day, and they're out on the road the next. That's where

Veterans Affairs committee  Sir, we need to take into account a term we call the cost of being crippled, if I could briefly put that out there. If today you go home and you want a new ceiling fan, you'll just go buy it and put it in, but if we have an amputee, there's the cost of a ceiling fan and now $40

Veterans Affairs committee  Continuing on with the question, one of the things that the Veteran Affairs Department often says is that veterans have the benefit of the doubt. I really ask that the committee look into that to see whose definition we're going with. I would say that the level of evidence is t

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll take the first shot at that. I don't have any problem telling the entire group that I've been diagnosed with PTSD. It's been something else to try to work through it. I think it's being addressed, but I think we're playing catch-up. There is a lot of history of not address

Veterans Affairs committee  You brought up a very interesting point about the urban and rural divide. I'll let the Legion have their comments on that. I do agree with them, by the way. In terms of service delivery, you just brought up a very important point, which I'd like to talk about for 10 or 20 second

Veterans Affairs committee  In answer to your question, madam, when a soldier comes forward and they're dealing with an injury and it's not known which stream they're in—that is, whether they're going to be retained or going to be released—they're often maintained into a JPSU, joint personnel support unit.

Veterans Affairs committee  One of the things that would be helpful, and not just from government but from our more traditional veterans' groups that are out there, is that we have to see that not just the technology has changed but that the culture has changed with it. Another thing is we have a lot of v

Veterans Affairs committee  We have nothing to add on that point. Thank you.