Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[Dr. David Pedlar]

No, the sample of the survey was a sub-sample of the group that released. So there were 4,000 in the survey that we did, which was a sample of the broader release population.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

So the sample size was 4,000, and they were able to be contacted?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

Yes, they were contacted by Statistics Canada in a telephone survey that took about 30 to 40 minutes. The group is broadly representative of that release population.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Ms. Bastien, I'd like to ask you a question.

I've been on this committee now for over three years, and one of the things I find puzzling from that answer—and I think it's a fair answer—is that I've heard from the department that it's impossible to contact all the veterans. Yet we just heard from Mr. Pedlar that Statistics Canada was able to contact 4,000 veterans to see if they're employed, or fully employed. Yet from the department we've heard that it's just not possible to contact them to see if they're receiving services.

I'm just wondering how that process would take place through Statistics Canada but not through Veterans Affairs, and why we can't contact them to see if they're eligible for services.

[Charlotte Bastien]

We know of a group that we can contact. We don't know all of them, but I would have to come back with more specifics regarding how Statistics Canada went about identifying those individuals.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

It might be a worthwhile project down the road.

Mr. Pedlar, one thing I'm interested in as well is you said that one quarter experienced a difficult transition into civilian life, or at least to being gainfully employed. I think you mentioned in there that they're disabled to some extent, whether it's a mental disability or a physical disability that they now have because of their service.

What were your findings with them? Was there a specific range in disability in which there was a higher percentage of unemployed? What did you find there?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

The way we have divided it up so far is that we know that new Veterans Charter clients had higher rates of disability. They had higher rates of disability and higher rates of unemployment. We haven't gone beyond that into great detail to look at other factors that might have been associated with unemployment. That's as far as we've gotten with the analysis right now.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

So when you're finished with your study, will there be a report delivered to the department, to the minister? Who will this final report be delivered to?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

We're generating many reports right now. We have the first three reports, which are publicly available, and then we're generating many reports, most of which will be in the public domain.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lobb.

We go to Mr. Hyer now, for four minutes.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Thank you very much.

I have four questions, so I've got about 60 seconds per question. Let's all try to be efficient.

The first question is to Dr. Pedlar. I'm a former scientist, and I'm interested in your research. In your document you said you don't have research or data on vets who are primary reserve members. I come from a riding where we have a lot of military people. They're all reservists, both army and navy. My big question is, why not?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

The Department of National Defence would be the best to speak to the details of this, but it has to do with the way information is collected on reserve members. There are different groups of reserve members, and they come in and out of full-time service and reserve service, so there has been difficulty tracking them and keeping records on them that would be good enough to use for a research study. You can appreciate that records for a research study might have to be better than records for a personnel system.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Just to comment before going to my next question, I urge you to pursue this, because many of these reservists are involved in combat zones. Many are injured. We've had two deaths of reservists who were members from Thunder Bay. I deal with them as my constituents. There are serious problems on a regular basis, so we need that data as well.

[Dr. David Pedlar]

As a quick follow-up, we have been working on a feasibility study with Statistics Canada to look at how we could collect information on this group and study them effectively. Everyone agrees that it's a priority and an important topic.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

My second question is to Dr. Pedlar also. You indicated that for many parameters, most military are doing fairly well. You showed some exceptions. One of them was suicide, which is a pretty significant effect. I realize you can't go into detail here, but could you give us a rough idea—quickly, with some follow-up maybe later to me or the committee—as to why?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

We don't know why, but we do know who is at higher risk of suicide. Males were at a three times higher risk. Non-commissioned members—that is, the more junior members—have a risk about two and a half times higher. Those who had shorter service, less than ten years, were about two and a half times higher, and those who were medically released were also about two and a half times higher.

So we know that much.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

I also noticed that most of them were single, one way or another.

[Dr. David Pedlar]

Actually, I don't have that information.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

That's what your written comments said.

That leads to my next question. You mentioned that income is a huge determinant, and that's reinforced by what you just said.

Dr. Pedlar, are you familiar with the book The Spirit Level, by medical epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett? If you're not, I urge you to read it, because it shows that it's not only true in the military but it's true in the general populations of the 33 richest countries in the world that gaps in income are the single biggest determinants of health. Are you familiar with that book?

[Dr. David Pedlar]

I'm not, but we are very interested in income, probably for similar reasons. We look at income in two ways. We look at total income, but also at changes in income as dimensions in the work we've undertaken.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

My last question is to both you and Dr. Aiken.

First, just to double-check with Dr. Aiken, is there no government money, no federal money at all, directly to your program?

[Dr. Alice Aiken]

No, there is not for funding purposes. We have had some contracts for work specifically, but we have presented to the Standing Committee on Finance to request funding.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

So you have contracts sometimes, but not core funding.

[Dr. Alice Aiken]

That's correct.

[Bruce Hyer, NDP, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Dr. Pedlar, have you been informed...? We're told that budget cuts are coming soon. Has your department been informed of budget cuts, and if so, do you know what the implications will be for your program?