Veterans Affairs committee  I am going to ask Mr. Bernier to answer your question first. I will then add to his answer.

Veterans Affairs committee  Simon will be better to answer this.

Veterans Affairs committee  You're correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a mix, depending on the division they are working for. In Canada, it's on voluntary basis, so we cannot force them to declare whether they are veterans or not. Again, the one we have good stats for is the cash management division; there, 25% of the ranks are veterans. I don't have the stats for the rest, but we can work this out and provide them to you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Colleen will probably add to what I will say. We have many divisions and many types of contracts. We don't measure the veteran ratio by contract but by division, like the cash service division that we have. These people carry arms, as you know, so 25% of the ranks are people from the forces.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can come back to you with more stats afterward.

Veterans Affairs committee  They are attracted by this, but, as I said, I don't have the stats by contract. I have them more by division, like the 25% for cash services, as an example.

Veterans Affairs committee  Military people are different, in that they don't behave the same way as the people we usually deal with. Usually our recruitment group was broadly all the same, so we decided, based on our experience and the committee that Simon is leading, to carve out some of the recruiters to be more versed in the military needs that these people might have.

Veterans Affairs committee  I tried, but we didn't get a lot of traction, actually. It was like a separate world between us. They feel that maybe we cannot understand their needs, but we do. For me, it's removing the risks for the veterans to get more hirings. At the end of the day, we are competing in the same market.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, it is a policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs that governs it today. The Department of Public Works and Government Services helps to negotiate the rates.

Veterans Affairs committee  Some provinces use it. They have copied the federal legislation to make the same kind of agreements with the provinces, particularly in the Prairies and the Maritimes.

Veterans Affairs committee  First, workers are harder to find today than they used to be. Second, veterans are referred to the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires rather than to the industry. So we have to work a lot harder to recruit veterans. The interest of all of the veterans who come to us is different from the ones who choose the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires.

Veterans Affairs committee  The first thing is that it's a fact that the Corps of Commissionaires are the only ones who get access to hire veterans. The industry itself is bigger than the commissionaires. In my own ranks, I already have a lot of veterans, and they are not funnelled to us. We need to source them and find ways to get them to us.

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting GardaWorld to today's meeting. This is an important meeting. It is a conversation about the National Strategy for Veterans Employment. We are very proud to be here today. Before I tell you about our initiatives in this regard, I would like to tell you a bit about us.