Thank you, Blake, and thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here today. I was glad to see the minister here. I was actually quite happy to hear her two concerns for the veterans, and that number one is that we listen to them. That's probably the number one call I get. They don't think they're listened to, quite frankly. When they call me or email me, they don't think they're listened to. The other thing is access to services. That's the other item I get most of my calls about. The access is difficult to navigate. It's certainly not simple for people who aren't computer-literate or good at paperwork. They're frustrated with that.
I also heard this morning that the VAC website and system crashed. It was unusable. Basically, that means veterans were unable to upload forms, contact their case managers or contact VAC online. It also means that caseworkers from PCVRS and medical service providers could not upload forms or send referrals to their VAC counterparts to process veterans' claims for support.
This has happened before. I believe less than two weeks ago the site was down for a couple of days as well. We've heard that sometimes that's the case. I'm just wondering what we're doing to improve this so that it doesn't happen to veterans when they're trying to log in.