Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not able to speak on behalf of the minister herself. What I can say is that we continue to work to ensure that the transition for every Canadian Armed Forces member is handled efficiently and effectively.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. I can—

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm happy to jump in. It's nice to see you, even though I feel like a leftover. The answer to the question is that we actually already do what you've indicated in terms of communicating back and forth and working with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues on anything we see as a

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. What I was talking about from a high-level perspective is that the groups work together to share any information. If we see trends that are different between men and women veterans—

Veterans Affairs committee  I can share information with you. Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I might start, and then I might ask Mr. Tessier to talk a little bit about research from that point of view. We are consistently looking at the testimony that appears here. We look forward to the recommendations and to the report that comes back from the committee on this very e

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  In this case, I might ask Mr. Tessier to respond to the kinds of research that VAC undertakes and is able to do.

Veterans Affairs committee  Unfortunately, I can't answer that kind of question. I was not part of the discussion.

Veterans Affairs committee  I follow the progress of the file, because I want to get good results for our veterans. Unfortunately, I'm not privy to everything. I'm personally responsible for a rather important file, and I must devote my full attention to it.

Veterans Affairs committee  I didn't create this system. I want to make sure veterans can get answers as quickly as possible. Steps can be taken to improve the system, to increase capacity and to respond to all requests.

Veterans Affairs committee  We're well on our way to achieving our service targets. As I said earlier, nearly 70% of decisions are made in 16 weeks or less, in the case of the additional pain and suffering benefit and other benefits. We can certainly take steps to ensure that we respond to claims within a r

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, certainly. For the current fiscal year, so far, processing times for requests in French are less than those for requests made in English. We have responded to more requests made by French speakers, and the gap is now 0.4%. When it comes to requests made by men and women, t

Veterans Affairs committee  These results will soon be published on our website. There is always a delay.

Veterans Affairs committee  When it comes to claims made by women, the gap is currently three weeks. Last year, the gap was one week. Since the number of claims made by female veterans is smaller, at 15% to 17% of the total claims received by Veterans Affairs, this varies a little from year to year. However