Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 21st, 2013

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Yes.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

So even if they are in good physical shape, these are people who are at the later stage of their lives. For those who are case managed, I suppose the help is there because they can have someone come to their home, but there must be a better way of getting the service to them other than driving to a centre that may be 20 kilometres away. I mean, these people are old, unfortunately.

Can you comment on that, General?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

When we come back to case-managed veterans, the case manager will drive to the veteran. I think we all agree and understand that this is actually happening already; it's ongoing today. We don't need to talk about office closures; this is already ongoing, be it in Sault Ste. Marie or anywhere else. If you're a case-managed veteran and you need support, someone will be there to support you. That has been the way all along. The key message is that this is not going to change as we go ahead into the future.

You're right, in the end they can get the support they need, and also perhaps support from the Legion and others.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you.

The second question I have is on the funding. Since 2006, since we formed the government, there has been over $5 billion provided to veterans in new funding. Nearly 90% of the funding was directed to services and benefits for veterans. Can you share with this committee the historical amounts of funding contributed by previous governments?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

I would have to get back to you and provide you with that information, not about previous governments but about at what time in the past.

What we do know is that between 2005 and 2006, if we take a look at what has been provided to the department, the amounts of money have increased, and that's a fact.

We'll get back to the committee with that information, if it's fine with you, Mr. Chair, because I don't have that at hand right now.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

You were at the last meeting when the honourable Minister Fantino asked the committee to determine, with this review, how best to serve veterans and what our government can do to best serve veterans.

Can you share your views on the review and offer some suggestions?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Perhaps I can come back to a comment the chair made, simply to provide greater clarification.

The chair made the comment that there are many other veterans who don't get benefits and programs and services. That's really not true. I'm not challenging the chair, but that's really not true, because at the end of the day, of the 800,000 veterans, they still do get support through commemoration.

I agree, Mr. Chair, that it's not benefits programs due to injury, but there is that commemorative program that my team is responsible to deliver for all those other veterans. It is as important to them as it is that we provide the services, support, and programs and benefits to those who are ill and injured. So we have that in place.

I think it's critical for the committee, as we're doing here today, to understand the background and then to get into—please, quickly—what the new Veterans Charter is really all about and to get a clear understanding of what it is, what it stands for, what the effects are, what it achieves, and some of the areas—you may have touched on one already—where we could perhaps further examine to get some type of improvement.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lizon.

I want to get in my own point of clarification.

You are correct about the commemoration, but the unfortunate part is that when many veterans are turned down for a benefit, they're not considered a DVA client. They may have been turned down and didn't appeal because they were frustrated. Those are the folks I was referring to in that particular regard, but I do thank you for that.

To the last questioner now, Mr. Jim Karygiannis, for four minutes.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

General, you said that the Royal Canadian Legion has full-time service officers. Who pays them?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

The Legion pays them.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Are they subsidized by the government? Does the government contribute anything to it?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

I would ask the chair whether Ms. Andrea Siew could come forward.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

The chair will seek the committee's permission to invite Andrea Siew to the table, please.

[Andrea Siew]

It's important to note that the Royal Canadian Legion—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

I'm sorry, Andrea, would you introduce yourself again, please?

[Andrea Siew]

I am Andrea Siew. I am the director of the service bureau at the Royal Canadian Legion.

In response to the question, which I think is extremely important, we have 23 service officers across the country, who are paid and are full-time, and we have 1,400 volunteers.

The Royal Canadian Legion receives no funding from the federal government.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

General, you also said, if I'm not mistaken, that a centre will be closed if it has fewer than 160 people being case managed.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Yes.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'm going to join the chair in stating that a number of people have also come to me who have been changed from one case officer to another time and again. One thing I've been hearing when speaking to case officers is that they're overwhelmed in trying to deal with the people they have.

I understand that a case officer must not have more than 40 people, and those were your words when you came to my office.

I'm glad that you agree with this.

Even in a centre in which we have fewer than, let's say, 160 people—I'll grant you that there is such a centre out there—could we not move those service managers into a Service Canada office and have them work out of it in order to look after their veterans? If you are a veteran and you're in Thunder Bay, you have a heck of a drive.

If you are a veteran at a rally in Sydney, where there was a rally with more than 3,200 people.... I'm not sure whether they marched from all across the province, but many of them were local. The people who were there were overwhelmingly not very pleased that the centre was closing down.

If it's bricks and mortar that we're trying to save money on, I'm sure we could move those service officers into the Service Canada section, so that when veterans go to get some help, those who fought to put us at the front of the line and not at the back of the line...so that a 90-year-old veteran will not be given a 1-800 number to call to “punch 1, punch 2” or be told to go on the Internet to get service.

Can we not accommodate? Can we not do that? I realize you want to save money, because the centres are there and you probably want to get rid of the property. But could we not move the case officers into Service Canada?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Mr. Chair, I think there are a lot of permutations in the issue and on this theme that you could look at. That could be one.

At the end of the day, we've moved ahead to define getting the support from case managers and at the same time to continue with the training of Service Canada. Service Canada staff are being trained more and more each day, and I think you are going to find over time that the training and support will get even stronger. But this is an idea.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Is this an idea that you will explore and come back to us about before the service centres are closed, or is it an idea that we'll probably leave in the ether now? The fact is that the minister is given something to sign off on, and he certainly signed off, because the money needed to be saved, according to the action plan. Is that correct?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Mr. Chair, I think it's a good question—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Jim Karygiannis]

Hold on. I haven't finished.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

Mr. Karygiannis, can you finalize in 10 seconds?

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Can we put off the closures until you can come back to us with those suggestions and firm recommendations? Will you recommend to the minister to hold off on closing them and to examine other possibilities?