Veterans Affairs committee  I'll use some of the experiences that I know about. There were many veterans who left the Canadian Armed Forces prior to Afghanistan because they were suffering, and they left voluntarily because they didn't know what they had. OSI was not accepted; OSI was not in the forefront, so they left the military not knowing exactly what they were suffering from.

Veterans Affairs committee  We don't know how many homeless veterans are out there. Our experience through the work we've done, principally here in Ontario, is these are individuals from close to the Afghanistan era—from Bosnia, Yugoslavia, or Rwanda—who through operational stress injuries have now found themselves on the streets.

Veterans Affairs committee  The plethora of veterans organizations is not new. The Legion was born out of 15 or 16 organizations that came together in 1925-1926. Through the course of time there have been many veterans organizations formed for each particular war. There's the Gulf War Veterans Association of Canada and the Afghanistan Veterans Association.

Veterans Affairs committee  The Legion brought forward the VTN in 1999, before people were accepting operational stress injuries as an issue. I agree totally with what Brian has said. We've made a lot of strides forward. We have a lot more to go. The issue we now have to tackle is the stigma associated with mental health issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  As long as the offices are open when there's a need, we don't really have an issue with that. Opening offices across the country is essential. Getting the caseload down for case managers is absolutely essential. I now have to hire more service officers because we have a bigger caseload.

Veterans Affairs committee  I will call Legion branches the cornerstones of their communities, particularly in the smaller outside rural communities, if you want to use those terms. Legion branches were also the initial PTSD treatment centres, where individuals went and looked after each other. They took their buddies.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not good at 50 seconds. I never have been. Sorry. We are the cornerstone. In the communities, every branch will partner with people to support the community. What we've offered, particularly when we're reaching people up in the north where there are no service delivery points for VAC, is to have access to Legion branches, so if you want to send a case manager up north on a rotational basis, we're offering to set that up through the Legion branch system.

Veterans Affairs committee  Simply, communications have been a big issue for years. It needs to be fixed. I'm now on Twitter. I've never done that in my life. Every day at lunch I send out a tweet about what the Legion is doing for veterans. I get a lot of response that way.

Veterans Affairs committee  The Royal Canadian Legion, with the poppy fund, can provide emergency assistance to veterans in need.

Veterans Affairs committee  The only way that could occur is if money was set aside in the budget to have that emergency fund available to case managers on an on-call basis.

Veterans Affairs committee  I actually believe it's a joint responsibility. As the individual transitions out of the military, the military has a large role to play. It's like the American system. I'll go back to what the American system is. It's cradle to grave. Who does cradle to grave, now that we have a hand-off between DND over to VAC?

Veterans Affairs committee  I think Mr. Brentnall has finished his hunger strike at this stage in the game. I think he quit two or three days ago. If he needs the assistance of the Royal Canadian Legion, we have service officers who can go and readily assist him to determine what his needs are as he moves forward in his claims and whatever.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a good question, and I'll answer it quickly. Over 90% of our veteran community within the Legion are people who are post-Korea already. A large segment of our veteran population within the Legion is already in that world you're talking about: the post-Korea, NATO, UN, and Afghanistan people.

Veterans Affairs committee  To provide an example, the first set of application papers that we used to fill out was 19 pages long. People had to fill out 19 pages of requests, listing what they had to do. Through a collaborative effort, I think we have that number down now. It's not 19 pages long, but mind you, it's still in the teens.

Veterans Affairs committee  First off, moving the funeral and burial benefits up to where they are so that there is better access into it was a good move. Getting the ELB up to 90% was a good move as well. That kind of movement forward demonstrates a willingness to consider some of these issues as we move forward and to hopefully address them.