Veterans Affairs committee  Not quite. The 518 employees are on top of the existing disability adjudication staff. I don't have the number of existing disability adjudication staff in front of me. One of my colleagues might be able to help me. It's 518 additional staff to disability adjudication. The 476 ca

Veterans Affairs committee  We are projecting that we'll be down to about 5,000 files beyond our 16-week service standard at the end of this fiscal year. What we'd like to be able to do is make sure that we can maintain the 16-week service standard 80% of the time, which is the service standard, for at leas

Veterans Affairs committee  I can take that question to start and then maybe my colleague, Sara Lantz, would like to join in. Obviously, the offices have been closed as a result of the COVID pandemic for the safety of veterans and for the safety of Veterans Affairs employees. What I would offer is that eve

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know that opening the offices specifically has an impact on the ability of the department to meet the backlog. What it does allow us to do is provide another opportunity to provide in-person service to veterans to be able to meet them. We've been doing that virtually thro

Veterans Affairs committee  Sara, did you want to take that question?

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a really great question. I'm happy to reassure you and the committee as a whole, Mr. Chair, that's exactly what we're doing. We're working through innovation and automation in all aspects of the disability adjudication process to make sure that if there are system change

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, may I add a comment?

Veterans Affairs committee  I'd like to make a quick clarification. There aren't just 2,000 applications that are ready for assignment. At the moment, there are 11,000 applications that are overdue, but there are others that are ready for assignment so we can make a decision. That is what we're working on.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not specifically clear on the standards of care. The new contract is not yet in place. It will only go into place in November. We're in an interim period whereby the existing contract is still being used, and there will be a transitional element to the new contract that was p

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll I try to answer as quickly as I can. There were a couple of questions. Very quickly, in terms of a conclusion, what we want to see is if the veteran has successfully met his or her rehabilitation goals and if they are in a good place, that their well-being is assured. It do

Veterans Affairs committee  I wouldn't say there is specific research. In this case there is a lot of evidence, as you've noted, that people can become frustrated having to respond or tell their story again. It's known, and so that's why we try to minimize it and ensure that there is consistency in terms of

Veterans Affairs committee  I could answer those question, yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't think I have the date that it was established right with me, but it's been up for about 10 years.

Veterans Affairs committee  It was actually a pilot project from the veterans ombudsperson's office. They had originally set up and started to do work on a benefits navigator. It was slightly different at the time. It's been enhanced by the department. The ombudsperson's office asked if we could take it o

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the only reason we've been taken off-line would be for maintenance or upgrades.