Veterans Affairs committee  The table of disabilities is a regulatory instrument that is adopted pursuant to either the new Veterans Charter or the Pension Act. The 2006 table is the table that guides us now. It is promulgated through the normal regulatory process, and we are bound by law to apply it.

Veterans Affairs committee  We report it in our annual report. We are going to be doing another one in about six or eight weeks' time, which will report our 2015 survey and some of the general themes as well.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know what the Department of Veterans Affairs is doing with respect to their surveying or their review of applicants. When a decision is overturned, we do ask members to categorize why. We communicate that information to the department on a regular basis. Right now, the department is granting benefits in about 85% of the applications that are made, so we are looking at about 15% as the eligible portion that can come to the board.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the difference between the stage that I am talking about and previous one is that they are actually sitting in a room with a human being across the table from them, looking them in the face and talking to them, as opposed to doing it on the phone or writing out a statement or sending in an email.

Veterans Affairs committee  I guess I can operate by exclusion. PTSD is our sixth case. It is about 8% of our work. Major depressive disorder is our seventh level of case, and it is probably about 5% or 6% of the work. I would say that in excess of 80% of the cases we deal with are some form of physical ailment, and I count hearing loss as being a physical ailment—tinnitus, sleep apnea, the osteoarthritic claims, those sorts of things.

Veterans Affairs committee  The entitlement eligibility guidelines that are prepared by the Department of Veterans Affairs actually do address the questions you've raised. The first level adjudicators have those guidelines. They're also publicly available on the Internet. The adjudicators actually ask—at least to my understanding, and I'm stepping a little bit outside my lane here—these sorts of questions.

Veterans Affairs committee  I understand that the adjudicators do ask those questions before they render the decision. There is an adjudicator. I understand, and I think the department would be better to clarify this than I, that before a decision is rendered by an adjudicator, they call the veteran and ask them these questions.

Veterans Affairs committee  At the review level, in the past year, 52% of review participants received further or greater benefits from the board. The survey is of the review population. But the survey questions were asked before they have the decision. They're asked these questions shortly after their hearing experience, with respect to their experience in the process.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, we're not.

Veterans Affairs committee  We had this discussion, but the question is whether the fairness of a process is really determined by its outcome, or whether it is determined by your view of the process before you know whether or not you've succeeded or failed?

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. One of the common ones is the opportunity to tell their story, the importance people see in actually being able to sit down and tell their story in their own words. A number of people have said, “Well, I didn't know I was going to be given the opportunity to have a closing statement”.

Veterans Affairs committee  The chair.

Veterans Affairs committee  No.