Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned earlier, we are looking at where we're going to put our investigative capacity over the next two years or so, and we're going to prioritize that because, of course, we are limited in the resources that we have, but we have investigations under way. Certainly, from

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. The number of intersectionalities—and certainly we put everything we do through gender-based analysis, as Mr. Schippers pointed out, and we look to pull out all of those intersectionalities and look to find the gaps and the barriers in the programs and benefits t

Veterans Affairs committee  That's an excellent question. I'm not certain that I would have those sorts of statistics at hand. I think it would probably be related to the incidence of how many military members or veterans are single or single parents and the circle of support that they have around them.

Veterans Affairs committee  I am afraid I missed a little portion of your question, Mr. Desilets. Are you talking about the federal-provincial transfers with respect to health?

Veterans Affairs committee  What I as the ombudsman can do is simply point out where we see the gaps. We'd leave it to the department and to the government to determine how to do those things, how to fill those gaps, and how to cost those gaps and then to determine how those things are going to be met. I'm

Veterans Affairs committee  On the delays and the wait time, as you on the committee very well know—we've read your report, and thank you for all the recommendations that you made—delays in approving disability claims for veterans have an impact not only on veterans and their health but also, as we can well

Veterans Affairs committee  My understanding of the definition of family—and Mr. Schippers will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure—is that when a common-law relationship is recognized in law, then it is recognized by the government and obviously by the department. In the research that we did, we didn't fin

Veterans Affairs committee  The privilege is mine.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mrs. Lalonde. There are two things in your question. Our report didn't focus on caregivers because we were focused on family members in their own right, not in their ability to be a caregiver to their veteran, but to seek and to be given access or funded treatment in

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Brassard and Ms. Wagantall, thank you for your kind words. You're absolutely right. This is the point we're trying to make, that the people who are the first responders to veterans are their families. Military service takes a toll on the veteran and their family. We believe

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, unqualifiedly, we're in the middle of doing our strategic planning to set our priorities as we go forward in my mandate. Part of the outcome of that is to determine exactly where we're going and to use our investigative capacity and to see what areas we're going to lo

Veterans Affairs committee  This recommendation speaks directly to the regulatory legislative framework within which the department delivers mental health support to families. I would like to ask my colleague, Mr. Schippers, to respond to you. As our legal counsel, he probably has a better set of words to

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, exactly. I think, from our point of view, from the ombudsman's point of view, anything that can be done to improve the clarity of information and the simplicity of information that is provided by the department to the veterans and their families would be most welcome.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Desilets, thank you for the question. The heart of what we are saying in our report is with respect to the family members who don't have any access at all. With regard to the sessions that you're referring to and the exact number, I would ask the department. That is all rel

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. This is based on the fact that we asked for their gender-based analysis report: to have a copy of it so that we could understand what they had done with respect to mental health supports for families in their own right. We did not receive that report, and therefore w