Veterans Affairs committee  The front-line staff never see a bonus. Unfortunately, the employees who obtain the bonuses are the EX levels, and that's it. Actually, we recently completed an ATIP request regarding the performance pay bonuses that the EX levels get. In 2017-18, the employer paid out over $1.04 million in bonuses.

Veterans Affairs committee  There is still a backlog for the treatment aspect, absolutely, across the department, and I know that in Quebec—I forget the specific year—there were additional staff put in to try to deal specifically with the situation within the Quebec area.

Veterans Affairs committee  Based on our membership across the country, we haven't seen a large improvement in many sectors. The morale is still a huge issue, and the work-life balance is still a major concern, so no.

Veterans Affairs committee  Within the adjudication sections specifically, there's hearing loss, PTSD, musculoskeletal.... There's a range of files sitting there waiting that, in our opinion, could be moved much more quickly.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. Plain and simple, they need more staff on the ground. Unfortunately, a lot of the adjudicators are based in Charlottetown. There is nothing wrong with Charlottetown, but the pool of employment is limiting there. I think that some of those adjudication positions could be moved to Ottawa or other locations across the country that have a larger pool of employable people to be able to bring more staff in.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sorry, I just missed that last part.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, a majority of the backlog is with the adjudicators who are trying to get veterans into the department and onto benefits. There is not enough staff in the adjudicating section. A lot of times staff in the department will do overtime and the employees who are already overworked have to stay away from their families even longer to try to push these claims through.

Veterans Affairs committee  I had a meeting with the Minister of Veterans Affairs on February 24 before I flew to Charlottetown for some additional meetings. I raised concerns about the wait times, the backlogs and the case management numbers. Unfortunately, I left there not really feeling positive that he's really going to do stuff.

Veterans Affairs committee  We do talk. When our union reps—there are five regional vice-presidents across the country, my national executive vice-president and I—meet with senior management, we're bringing all of the concerns directly to them. We have discussions about our concerns and what we feel could potentially change those, but we're not seeing the changes.

Veterans Affairs committee  There's some dialogue, but not to the degree that I feel is required to effect the change that's needed.

Veterans Affairs committee  The big portion of that is ensuring that we're talking directly to the staff who are doing the work on a daily basis. In my opinion, they're the ones who can effectively tell the department what needs to be changed and how it is. As I mentioned, we need those case management numbers lowered.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would personally say that it's a minimum of six months when case managers are hired, because there's a lot of legislation, policies and procedures they have to learn. There are a lot of programs they have to learn the ins and outs of. The department just put in, I think it was last year or the year before, a national training program.

Veterans Affairs committee  We realize that we've only given you a snapshot of what we've heard and what is happening across the country when it comes to how veterans' services are being provided, but we hope you will appreciate that from the perspective of the front-line workers, the case managers, this is a system in crisis, and it has been in crisis for far too long.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. We're here this morning as representatives of the Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees, which is a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. UVAE represents over 2,800 employees with Veterans Affairs Canada, including most of the front-life staff who deal with veterans and their families every day.