Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. I'm delighted to be joining the committee here in Ottawa on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people, who have lived on this land since time immemorial. Federal Retirees is the largest national advocacy organization representing not only the federal public sector, but veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP, as well as their partners and survivors.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, MP. I'll pass on that. I don't remember what I was remarking on.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not able to comment on that, but I would definitely like to know the answer.

Veterans Affairs committee  In addition to the remarks we made earlier, the Veterans Affairs' Office of Women and LGBTQ Veterans was a most welcome addition. It is staffed by some very good people who truly want to make a difference. At this point, we believe it is time to examine the need for an office of equity and what's truly needed.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sorry, I'll stop.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. One of the ways that it can become realized is what we mentioned in our brief about cross-departmental coordination and leaning into expertise that exists in other areas of government. National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are beginning to do work on some of the upstream impacts that are occurring in terms—I'll use the example—of the impact of some service aspects on women's health and women's health outcomes.

Veterans Affairs committee  As an outsider, I believe that there could be additional supports or measures put in place to make that a smoother and more supported process.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Thank you. We're proud to co-chair along with professor Dr. Maya Eichler from Mount Saint Vincent University and women's veteran health advocate and physician Dr. Karen Breeck, who is also a veteran. Our mission is to work towards equitable lifetime outcomes for all veterans in seven domains of well-being.

Veterans Affairs committee  I hope it is okay that I respond in English, MP Desilets. It is definitely a fascinating area. It gets into the fact we don't know what we don't measure. We're suggesting that Veterans Affairs Canada would be well situated to start to review, investigate and report on that area.

Veterans Affairs committee  The investment of $140 million is welcome, because the backlog does still exist and, clearly, additional resources are needed to deal with that. I would also note that two years ago we had a funding announcement in the order of $180 million or $190 million to deal with the backlog.

Veterans Affairs committee  Regarding the lack of fairness, one of the metrics that we're looking at and that this committee is certainly looking at is in terms of the [Technical difficulty—Editor] when veterans make that first application or make an application to Veterans Affairs Canada. What kind of experience do they have following that?

Veterans Affairs committee  For federal retirees, it really boils down to three distinct areas. One of them is improved and more frequent and transparent reporting, including by having sex disaggregated and intersectional data on claims, the number of denied claims and the backlog by Veterans Affairs Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Jean-Guy. If I may, I will quickly touch on the previous question. Ms. Lowther mentioned “brown envelope syndrome”. This is definitely something that we've heard about from the veterans we represent. When they get that envelope in the mail, it signifies something very heavy for many of them.

Veterans Affairs committee  It will be quick. Very quickly, MP Blaney and Mr. Chair, I'm not aware of members who have come forward to us. That is not to say they do not exist.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can speak to that in a general sense, MP Blaney. It comes down to that improved, and more frequent and transparent reporting and data collection at appropriate points. It is also important to ensure that veterans have a choice where that data is shared. I think that's the sum total of our ability to remark on that.