Veterans Affairs Committee on June 8th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Shall I report the main estimates to the House? Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay, the estimates are done.

Because Mr. Thibault also made that condition with regard to Mr. Shipley's motion, let's just quickly get to that. We have it in both French and English.

Mr. Shipley's motion is that this committee invite all interested stakeholders to the committee table in order to gather their input and provide the committee with their guidance on veterans affairs, the veterans bill of rights, and on a veterans ombudsman.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now we'll revert to the previous order, which would have been the NDP, the Conservative Party, and the Bloc. Since we don't have an NDP member, I now revert to Mrs. Hinton.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I'm only going to use about ten seconds of it. There are just a couple things I wanted to point out.

Mr. Valley made a very valid point regarding the Veterans Charter. Having sat before on this committee, as did Mr. Rota and Mr. Perron, I would just like to point out that there were several changes made to the charter before it received first, second, and third reading in one sweep in the House. The changes were the reason the previous minister had very little resistance, because she was very open and she listened very carefully and she made a number of the changes without having to go through a series of manipulations to do so.

I'm going to have one last question. It's a pretty easy one. You can answer any way you wish. What is the one driving issue that you would like to deal with as the Minister of Veterans Affairs?

[Greg Thompson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Really, at the end of the day, we just want to do the best we can for our veterans, working within all the budgetary restraints that all governments are subjected to.

When I go to the veterans hospitals and meet veterans.... I was down to Ste. Anne's. I will get on to the Ste. Anne's story.

I could actually talk about Ridgewood. In my opening remarks I talked about shaking the hands of veterans when they don't want to let go. I can remember one of the administrators said “See, they really like you”, and I said, “No, it's more than that. It's not me. It's you. You know, it's the men and women, the nurses that make up those veterans hospitals, and the janitor keeping the floors clean, and the men and women that just make the institution work.” Because if the institution wasn't working and I was in there, they wouldn't want to shake my hand.

It provides comfort to me, just seeing that we're doing a good job. And we can do better, and we know that. We always have little problems here and there popping up. I think for the most part we deal with them quite nicely, and always work to resolve them. I guess that's the most rewarding thing.

Most of the issues we've talked about here today we have to deal with incrementally. We can't do them all tomorrow. But I think at the end of the day, we do give it our best shot. I know that this is a line that I often use, but we do know that our men and women in uniform, when they take on a mission, give it 100%. Our Canadian soldiers, men and women in the field, are the best in the world. They are the best soldiers in the world, and they deserve the best treatment in the world when they come back home, when they really need us. We could argue that they've done their job, and now it's up to us to do our job to the best of our ability.

So I guess at the end of the day, I just want to see an improvement of services, knowing that Canada is very blessed to have men and women who will put on the uniform, who devote themselves to the freedoms and to all of the things that we take for granted in a democracy, like the rule of law, and the right to gather like this and debate issues. We sometimes take that for granted in the House of Commons when we're back and forth in debate.

The truth is we'll just keep doing what we're doing, and we're going to do our best to get over those little challenges that we see along the way, and surpass them.

I'm very pleased to be Minister of Veterans Affairs, and I thank you for your support here today.

Mr. Chairman, we'll work with the committee to achieve some of those good things for our men and women.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

We still have one minute left for the Conservative Party, if somebody on that side would like to....

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

If it's one minute, I'll do it really quickly.

I'd like to thank you very much once again for being here today. I've been through three separate Ministers of Veterans Affairs--you're my fourth--and it's very nice to be on the government side for a change, I must tell you.

I find your openness and your willingness to put it all on the line for veterans very refreshing. I hope this continues and that we actually accomplish the goals that we've set out to achieve for veterans. I know the people on this committee will work very hard to make sure we do achieve those goals and I know they will give us the kind of input we've been asking for so that we can make the ombudsman and the bill of rights the best they can possibly be.

Thank you.

[Greg Thompson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

I'll conclude, Mr. Chairman, by saying that when I was given this job by the Prime Minister, I had many former members of cabinet and other politicians say, “He gave you the best job in the world.” It is. It's a great department. As you can see here today, we have men and women who are absolutely dedicated to providing the best service, so it makes my job easy. The fact is that the Department of Veterans Affairs has had that reputation over the years, despite transfers of government and everything else. We have a really great group of men and women and they're dedicated to the mission. That's what our veterans deserve and that's what we're going to deliver.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Thank you very much, Mr. Minister.

I take it you're not leaving just yet. That was a thank you from the Conservative side, and we're still carrying on to the end of the meeting, aren't we?

Monsieur Perron of the Bloc for five minutes.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Chairman, since the minister is not in a hurry, we could have 20 to 25 minute rounds. Nevertheless, I will try to keep within the five minutes.

Mr. Minister, as you are no doubt aware, young people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are dear to my heart. I think of them as my sons because they have the same age as my sons. Seeing these individuals come back from their mission in a sometimes pitiful state breaks my heart.

I urge you to lobby the Minister of National Defence in order to better prepare these young people for the stressful situations they will experience in theatre or on mission. If these young people were better prepared mentally, and not just trained in how to use their weapon or work out, I think they would come back in better shape. This comment comes from the bottom of my heart and it is my most sincere wish.

Now, let’s talk about the Veterans Independence Program, the VIP, or the PAAC in French. I think it’s a good idea to try to keep veterans at home as long as possible and provide them with home health care. Since the 1980s, Quebec has had a system, which we call the CLSCs, that specializes in providing care to sick seniors in the province. It might be worthwhile to try to reach agreements with the Government of Quebec, which has some expertise in this field. This could be a cost-saving measure and could help a greater number of your 7,500 veterans waiting for care. I am making this suggestion only in passing; I don’t necessarily want to get into a debate.

I am happy to learn that you will try to resolve the issue of appointments to the board. I don’t know whether we can call this a problem. In my opinion, it is, but my friend Victor will say that it isn’t. Appointments need to be made, and more of them. In my opinion what is important is that the veterans’ representative be a pro bono lawyer or paid differently by the department, or I don’t know what, because military personnel who appeal their decision feel a little ripped off, whether that’s true or not. They know that the judge is a government employee, that the defence lawyer is paid by the government and that the lawyer defending them is also paid by the government. You can’t bite the hand that feeds you. This is something that could be improved.

Those are the main points I wanted to raise. We have to be human; we have to love these people. Perhaps we need to better educate our young people and show them the misfortunes that these veterans experienced, are experiencing and will experience. Along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, we can try to ensure a better world, one at peace.

We need to change our education and advertising system so as to reach goals like that. It’s not just about money, it’s also about showing humanity and having your heart in the right place.

Those are my comments. Greg, let me reassure you that if you ever need a hand, I will be there, but not necessarily to go to war, however!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Now we have a chance for the minister to respond.

[Greg Thompson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I can't find anything to disagree with Mr. Perron on; I think we're on the same wavelength. We want the best for our veterans. Some of the examples you used, of post-traumatic stress syndrome and occupational stress injuries, are important issues to us, and I think probably one of the biggest challenges to the department in the coming years, because of the conflicts our young men and women soldiers find themselves in.

At the end of the day we have to find a way to do it better, which I think we are doing, and improve as we go along using the best models we can find from other parts of the world and from calling in the experts, which we do.

So there's not too much room to disagree there, Mr. Chair. I thought it was a pretty good statement by Mr. Perron.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Minister, I would like to thank you for your appearance here today in committee. I know many members from the various parties wanted to have you in so that they would have a sense of your vision and what you're up to, and I think you've provided that here today. You've certainly taken time to answer all their questions.

I congratulate you as well, sir, on your appointment. We'll be working with you in the future. We're glad to have approved your budgets so that you and your staff can carry on your good work, sir. We'll probably have you in at some time in the future again.

Thank you very much.

[Greg Thompson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the committee. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

We're adjourned.