Thank you for your questions.
When I was serving—and I served up until 2019—I had no idea that there was an Office of the Veterans Ombudsman. I knew about the DND/CAF ombudsman, but I had no clue that there was a veterans ombudsman as well. I figured that if I didn't know, I was certain that there were many people in service and in the veteran community as well who did not know about our office.
I thought it would be important to go out and do this outreach program. We focused on the military bases so that we could speak to commanders and share with them what they need to do to help their soldiers when they leave the military, and how, if soldiers are going to put in a claim with Veterans Affairs, what they need to ensure is on their service health record. Military people do not, as a normal matter of course, go to the doctor when they're not well or they have an injury. If that evidence is missing from their service health record, it's much harder to get a disability claim approved.
That connection to service is so critical. We went to commanders and we spoke about this.
We visited transition centres and military family resource centres to hear from them first-hand about how they are helping members make that transition from military life to civilian life and, most importantly—or equally importantly—how their families are also being supported in that transition.
We did our town halls in the evenings in several places in and around the bases. Most people in the military retire near a base where they last served. I have as well. That's how we thought that we would design our outreach program, and you're absolutely right: We have heard a great deal.