Veterans Affairs Committee on June 12th, 2023

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you.

I want to focus now on some of the testimony we heard in the opening statements and the fact that Veterans Affairs Canada and SISIP have different criteria to determine whether someone's disability is related to military service. I don't know whether you're going to toss this to someone on your team, Mr. Harris, but I'd like you to explain for me what the differences are and what degree of difficulty is caused by the fact that there are two different standards.

[Steven Harris]

I might ask our director general, Trudie MacKinnon, to answer in a little bit more detail.

I'll just start by saying quickly that we have our own responsibilities with respect to the determination of service-related injuries. What that means and what that actually entitles, as part of the legislation that exists for Veterans Affairs Canada, we follow. I would have to let our colleagues at SISIP explain what their core approach is.

I might ask Trudie to offer a couple of words on that.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Ms. MacKinnon, go ahead.

[Trudie MacKinnon, Acting Director General, Centralized Operations Division, Department of Veterans Affairs]

Thank you very much for the question.

As Mr. Harris noted, there are two steps in our decision-making process. The first is to determine entitlement. We look at whether or not the medical condition the member is coming forward with is related to service. Are we able to connect that to their Canadian Armed Forces or RCMP service? Once we've made that service connection, the next step in our process is to establish and assess the level of disability. We use various tools to determine the level of disability the member has come forward with. Once those two steps in the process are completed, we're able to render our decision and process the member's claim for disability benefits.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Does the determination as to whether they've met the SISIP standards have any bearing on your evaluation of eligibility?

[Trudie MacKinnon]

It does not, Mr. Casey. We, as I said, have our own process, which is separate and distinct from SISIP's, so we follow our two-step process, which is unique to Veterans Affairs and is not impacted by any process at SISIP.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

To the SISIP folks, you just heard Veterans Affairs' answer. I'd be interested in hearing from about how the criteria you apply are different and whether the fact that there are different criteria will cause any problems for your claimants.

[Phil Marcus]

Mr. Chair, I have a very simple answer.

Under the SISIP policy, which is the life and disability benefits contract with Manulife for Canadian Armed Forces employees, the definitions of service attributable or non-service attributable are there purely and solely for statistics that Treasury Board asked us to keep. It does not affect case adjudication. It does not affect benefits. It does not affect anything.

As I said in my opening statement, we treat everyone equally: one veteran; one standard. If you are medically released, whether it's service attributable or not, it matters not.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

These statistics that you collect for Treasury Board, do you retain or analyze them? Are they of any value to your particular business or to the service that you provide?

[Phil Marcus]

They were asked of us by Treasury Board in order to calculate the percentage of members and the premiums paid for service attributable versus non-service attributable medical releases. It's a figure that we still collect, but we're not sure what Treasury Board is doing with them exactly. Roughly speaking, we have about a 70-30 split, which means that 70% of LTD claimants are service attributable and 30% are non-service attributable.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Marcus.

I would now like to invite the second vice-chair of the committee, Luc Desilets, to take the floor.

You have the floor for six minutes, Mr. Desilets.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I acknowledge my colleagues and I thank our guests for joining us.

My first question is for you, Ms. McGrath. Based on what the ombudsman's office has found, the number of medical releases is proportionally much higher for women than for men. You are talking about 2,000 new applications a year from military members who are being medically released.

Am I mistaken about those numbers?

[Maureen McGrath, Manager, Canadian Armed Forces Long Term Disability Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Manulife Financial]

No, you are not mistaken.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Very good. That is one in five women, or 20%. However, women make up 16.3% of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Are you really sure that the number of these applications is proportionally higher among women?

[Maureen McGrath]

Thank you for your question.

Our data shows that, on average, about 20% to 22% of the new cases we receive annually are attributable to women, and the remaining 78% are attributable to men. In short, 20% to 22% of the cases we receive come from women in the military.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

So it may even be more than one in five.

Can you tell me how many military members have been medically released in the last three years?

[Maureen McGrath]

I'm not in a position to answer that, given that our program is entirely voluntary. We can give you the number of people. We receive about 2,000 cases a year. However, it is difficult to know whether that represents all of the people who are medically released, since our program only represents those who have signed on. Since we are the first payers, the applications have to come back to us, but we can only give you the information related to the people who have chosen to submit an application to our program.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Don't you have more information on that? Don't you know the reasons behind those applications?

[Maureen McGrath]

We are certainly in a position to know how many medical releases there have been. The transition centre could send us that information, which we could then send to you.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes, it would be good if you could send that data to the clerk of the committee.

It may be difficult to answer my next question. How many women and men have been medically released owing to sexual trauma?

[Maureen McGrath]

We don't keep statistics on the number of people who are released because of sexual trauma.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Do you mean that you get them, but you set them aside? Is that what you mean by “we don't keep”?

[Maureen McGrath]

No, don't mean that we get them, but we set them aside.

When we receive a case, we look at all the reasons for the person's release. It is possible that the person may be released for a medical reason that is not related to service. The services we provide are intended for the individual. For example, a person may have more than one medical condition or more than one injury. The case may have been approved for a reason, but that does not mean that there was no sexual trauma.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I understand.

I'm going to ask you a question that I asked earlier. Can you send us the number of applications you have received over the past three years?