Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you so much.

Veterans Affairs committee  I agree. I think ANAVETS as an association will survive, but it does bring forward that bigger question that we were facing before COVID-19. We have to find a way to hand this association down to the next generation and ensure that it continues. We haven't done a great job on tha

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Certainly, very similar to the Royal Canadian Legion, our units are based on a charter that we provide them and we are incorporated federally. In some different provinces they may be part of their provincial societies or what have you. Really, when they ask, “What is your in

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada is really structured in exactly the same way as the Royal Canadian Legion. We have a national Dominion Command; then in the provinces we have provincial commands, and then locally we have units. Although everybody is independ

Veterans Affairs committee  My understanding of the program is that they would apply directly to the veterans organizations emergency support fund for funding for themselves. Associations like the Royal Canadian Legion and ANAVETS applied for all of our units, whereas other individual units of other organiz

Veterans Affairs committee  All of the money we receive from the government will go to help our local units. There won't be any money kept at the Dominion level at all. Certainly my testimony was that in June, about a quarter of our units had some serious concerns about how they would pay their bills. In S

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I would probably agree with that. I know that some units were eligible and did not apply, but certainly a number of our units have definitely received that funding and have used it to help keep their doors open and their programs running.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having me here today. We certainly appreciate the committee's concerns about the financial health of veterans associations. I'd like to give a quick background for those members who may not have an ANAVETS or an ANAF unit, as they are some

Veterans Affairs committee  Well, certainly, the feedback that we've heard regarding My VAC Account is that there are a number of issues with its usability. Right when you start with My VAC Account, when you log in, they are looking for a bunch of banking information from you. That's something that immediat

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. Certainly. In my article I'm saying there's a minimum of six months from the time a release is decided to when that release occurs. Sometimes it's a year, sometimes it's two years, but Veterans Affairs should be involved right away with that particular veteran and their fami

Veterans Affairs committee  I think they're similar to what Denis and Brigitte have just stated. I think a radical change would be to have the caseworker filling out the form, not the veteran, with the veteran signing it and reading it over, making sure that the information is correct. It's not for them to

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly for veterans who have service-related injuries, there's always a back door to get them into a VAC rehabilitation program. Whether they have applied right away between the 120 days or two years down the road, they can still come in and show a service relationship and hav

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I would agree. I think that would be a logical next step for Veterans Affairs. Again, once they have done that, in a situation where they would be able to review the entire file of the veteran and see what they've encountered in their service, they would proactively be abl

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am Deanna Fimrite, the dominion secretary-treasurer of The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada, or ANAVETS for short. It's a great honour to represent dominion president Brian Phoenix, our executive, and the approximately 15,000 members in 65 unit

Veterans Affairs committee  I can say it's not something that we've discussed certainly with each other. Our concern at ANAVETS about retroactivity would be just because you made a mistake previously, the veterans who were under that old system shouldn't be the ones to suffer for that. So I would suggest th