Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Desilets. Research gaps definitely exist, as they do in other fields. Canada isn't the biggest country in the world, so the pool we have to draw on for research can be very small in some areas. Even though Canada clearly has research gaps, that does not mean our c

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I could start. When I was the chief pensions advocate at Veterans Affairs back in the nineties, we were dealing with backlogs back then, so it doesn't surprise me that we were dealing with backlogs in the twenties as well. Basically, if you want to talk about a normal c

Veterans Affairs committee  In the nineties, when I was at Veterans Affairs Canada, that was more or less the practice. Veterans were granted disability pensions according to the extent of their impairment expressed as a percentage. The department also determined the extent to which the impairment was attri

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Desilets. As a matter of principle, we are in favour of a process to automatically approve benefit claims, which would certainly have advantages, but also drawbacks. Keep in mind that the first goal is to help veterans reintegrate into civilian life, so every effo

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The National Association of Federal Retirees is the largest national advocacy organization representing active and retired members of the federal public service, Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and retired federally appointed judges

Human Resources committee  I think it's probably premature to say with any great degree of certainty, although entries into long-term care have been restricted in many instances over the last little while, and perhaps the doctor would be in a better place to speak specifically to that. I think the whole

Human Resources committee  I think it would be up to ESDC and the provinces to come up with those standards, informed, obviously, by health care experts. We do not pretend to be health care experts, but we would support national standards. We represent seniors from coast to coast to coast, and it's very di

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for giving me your time. Thank you for permitting me to speak on this important subject. I don't think I should take the six minutes. As Mr. Soulière has noted, the consequences we have seen in many health care settings, particularly in long-term