Finance Committee on Oct. 25th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you. We will have to cut it there. Sorry, Mr. MacKinnon.

I would like to thank the witnesses.

As always, we run out of time, especially when we have a lot of panellists. Thank you for your presentations and also to those who previously sent in briefs.

We will suspend for 10 minutes so the next panel can come forward.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Ron Liepert]

Okay, folks, please take your seats. That goes for committee members as well. Put away your telephones, and we'll get going.

Welcome, everyone. As we outlined at the beginning of these sessions, these are our pre-budget consultations. We have eight presenters this afternoon for our final session, so we will try to be as brief as possible. We've asked you to keep your presentations to five minutes, and we may have to hold you to that, or very close to it.

Also, we like to let everyone know that all of the submissions are on our iPads, so if members of the committee are busy looking at their iPads, they're not checking the baseball scores but looking at submissions.

We will start with Ms. Freeland.

[Professor Erin Freeland, Dean of Land Based Academics, Research and Innovation, Dechinta Bush University]

Good evening, everybody. My name is Dr. Erin Freeland Ballantyne. I'm from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and today is my 35th birthday. There's no place I'd rather spend it than with all of you talking about how we spend well for the future of our country.

I'm a mom of three. I'm a born and raised northerner, and I'm the dean of land-based education at Dechinta. We're a land-based university, rooted in indigenous knowledge and values. I'm going to take our five minutes to share with you how we think Canada can make impact investments that can result in closing the education gap while growing an indigenous innovation and knowledge economy in the north.

Canada is the only circumpolar country that does not have a circumpolar university, and while we're all very aware at this point—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Ron Liepert]

Excuse me; could I just have you slow down a little bit? Our interpreters are having difficulty.

[Prof. Erin Freeland]

I'm sorry.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Ron Liepert]

Thank you.

[Prof. Erin Freeland]

I apologize to the interpreters.

We're all aware of the impacts of residential schools, but across the north, including in my home territory, in most of our communities our high school students have to leave to attend high school or get post-secondary education. This means travelling anywhere between 3,000 o to 10,000 kilometres to go and stay in a residence at a different kind of residential school. When most of our kids leave, if they do, they drop out. Most don't finish, and many never come home. Every year, more and more of our youth are coming home in caskets.

We know that we need systems changed in Canada if we're to meet any of the TRC recommendations, let alone all of them. We need to close the education gap, but this does not mean funding more of what's not working. It means redesigning the education system to meet the needs of the students it serves, and this is a national responsibility.

Seven years ago, we started with a design-build for a land-based education program that was rooted in indigenous knowledge and values. We now have a full major and minor program accredited by McGill, UBC, and U of A, and we designed it to remove the barriers to post-secondary education.

The number one barrier to post-secondary success, especially for indigenous women, was a lack of affordable child care, so there's a preschool-grade 12 outdoor school where kids learn with elders, and often parents get to hang out with their kids during the day and do activities together.

How does this relate to finance? We now have seven years of data, over 300 program completions, and zero dropouts. This has been an excellent return on investment for all of our public and private partners. The majority of our students would be deemed higher risk and not granted entrance into regular university, but 100% of them are either working or continuing on in post-secondary; 49% of our students have pursued further post-secondary education, 57% are employed, and 90% of those are in the NWT labour force.

Our fundamental job as a country is to ensure that every single citizen has the opportunity to maximize their potential. This means that people need choice. Across the north right now, especially in indigenous communities, our youth do not have choice about what kind of job they want or what kind of career they want.

Closing the education gap is critical, because we're missing innovation and brainpower that will make our country stronger, but it doesn't mean just putting more funding into the current system. We need creative financial mechanisms and social impact investing and social finance so we can collaborate with public and private partners to make an education system that reflects the strengths that our communities have, not just our weaknesses.

We are asking the federal government for $5 million a year so we can scale Dechinta programs to meet current student needs. We currently get three to four times as many indigenous youth applying to attend post-secondary as there's funding for. With $5 million a year, we could create 158 new jobs in the N.W.T., but 156 of these jobs would be for cultural teachers, language holders, and elders, people who generally fall outside of the labour market. Instead of trying to train people for jobs in the historically unstable resource extraction economy, we're leveraging the skills that we have in our community to support mental health, wellness, and cultural strengths for indigenous youth.

When we see elders and older adults, many of whom who haven't worked in a long time, working with youth, we see the survivors of residential schools in meaningful employment, where they're proud and training a new generation.

These outcomes are really hard to turn into metrics, but through long-term tracking, we know that our students and our faculty and our elders are healthier, visit doctors and hospitals less, are not returning to jail or unemployment, and are not accessing social services, but they are becoming community leaders.

We know that university degrees are directly tied to GDP growth, poverty alleviation, and a rise in real income. Between May of 2008 and 2014, twice as many new jobs were created for university graduates than for college graduates, and by 2030, 80% of all jobs in the Northwest Territories will require a university degree. However, only 4% of our young people have one. When indigenous women have degrees, unemployment drops to 1.9%, compared to 14% for those without a degree. They earn 50% more over their lifetimes, and children rise out of poverty.

What we're looking for in this government is leadership for creative finance, not just to fund programs in the short term but to make impact investments in closing the gap in education using evidence-based best practices in education innovation so that our country can be the lead when it comes to indigenous education. Then we can build on the strengths we have in our communities to educate our future.

We're urging you to take a good look at the business proposal that the federal government has in front of them and to ask questions of us so you can make great decisions about where we're spending our money for the future.

Mahsi cho.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Ms. Freeland.

Mr. Phelps is next.

[Fred Phelps, Executive Director, Canadian Association of Social Workers]

Good evening.

On behalf of the board, federation partners, and our president, Jan Christianson-Wood, it is my privilege to have the opportunity tonight to share with this committee the priorities and hopes of the social work profession for Budget 2017 and beyond.

The Canadian Association of Social Workers was deeply encouraged by the 2016 budget focus on indigenous people, seniors, and children. Our submission today urges the Government of Canada to continue making accountable investments in building a stronger and more equitable Canada.

Accountable health and social investments have been a central focus of advocacy for CASW in recent years. We support the Government of Canada in now seeking greater accountability for future investments in health, and we urge that this same accountability be expected when it comes to social investments.

That is why CASW continues to advocate for the adoption of our proposed social care act—national legislation that, if adopted by government, would set a framework of principles to guide the Canada social transfer and other needed investments.

It is now undeniable that the investments in the social determinants of health have the greatest impact on the health of Canadians, and in turn on the nation's health care costs.

Demanding accountability for federal social investments is not unreasonable: it is responsible government that charts a course for developing, implementing, and evaluating shared performance indicators and outcomes across Canada.

This would in turn support the promise and delivery of a national poverty reduction strategy with the potential of realizing the reduction in the financial burden of primary health care sought by each province and territory.

Budget 2016 enhanced the guaranteed income supplement, which, combined with old age security, moves forward a basic income for seniors. CASW welcomed the enhancement of the GIS as well as the redirecting of the Canada child tax benefit to maximize support for low-income families and their children.

We encourage the federal government to continue progressively moving forward with a targeted affordable basic income for both these highly vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Basic income has the potential to become Canada's next great public policy legacy.

Supporting the social determinants of health through a basic income is vital, but housing is also integral to creating a Canada that is not only compassionate but cost-effective. Research has proven that when people do not have access to a stable income or housing, they are much more likely to experience health challenges. Indeed, the experience of emergency room and front-line social workers is that people without access to secure housing often fall victim to the revolving door of acute care.

With the knowledge that one acute care bed costs the health care system about $1,100 per day, the time is now to comprehensively address the basic supports required for all people to live in Canada with dignity and health.

As a proud member of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, CASW agrees that Canada needs a national housing strategy with a robust implementation plan, coordinated among provinces, territories, municipalities, and indigenous governments to ensure effectiveness and accountability. Again, a social care act could be a key piece in the development of accountability for such an initiative.

Another priority for social workers is addressing access to mental health services across Canada.

As an active member of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, we have helped develop and fully support the coalition's recommendations found in Mental Health Now!, calling for increasing mental health spending from 7% to 9% of total public health spending. Increasing the federal share to 25% would translate into an increased annual federal investment of $777.5 million.

While such dollars could flow to the provinces and territories via the Canada health and social transfer, we strongly recommend that the funds be earmarked through a mental health transfer or a dedicated envelope to maximize accountability.

Further, CASW supports the Mental Health Now! recommendations that the federal government establish a five-year $100-million mental health innovation fund, a targeted and time-limited fund to spread innovation and lead sustainable change in addressing the mental health needs of all Canadians.

Finally, CASW shares the expressed concerns of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada that over half the dollars earmarked in Budget 2016 for children on reserve will not be spent until the final year of this government's mandate or after the next election. CASW urges that this government live up to its promise of ending the long history of discrimination against first nations children and take immediate action to bring equity of services to all Canadians both on- and off-reserve.

Thank you, and I'll be happy to address any questions this committee may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Fred.

Turning to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, we have Mr. Bloomer.

[Chris Bloomer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be here with this committee on behalf of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association to present some short thoughts here.

As a reminder, CEPA represents the 12 major transmission pipeline companies across Canada, which operate 119,000 kilometres of pipeline infrastructure that move about 1.2 billion barrels of oil every year and about 5.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas every year. The industry, over the next five years, has the potential to invest about $50 billion in pipeline projects. That's $50 billion that would come from the private sector. Existing operations in 2015 alone added $11.5 billion in GDP, 34,000 full-time-equivalent jobs, and $2.9 billion in labour income.

To enable the development of this critical infrastructure going forward, to provide investors and lenders the confidence they need, and because of the wealth that it can generate, we ask the Government of Canada, in its 2017 budget, to make a clear and bold statement about the importance of pipelines and the resource sector's contribution to Canadian employment, government revenues, and business investment. No single document is more carefully scrutinized by the economists in the investment community than the budget, and a strong message from the government would be most welcome.

Another essential component of mobilizing this investment is building public confidence in the regulatory process. This means that we must ensure that Canada has an effective and efficient process predicated on science, meaningful consultation, deep regard for the environment, and action on climate change. No federal process will be more significant in achieving this than the Government of Canada's regulatory review, which aims to continue to bring about confidence in the responsible development of Canadian resources.

CEPA supports and will be a full participant in this process. You've heard the rhetoric about why we may not need pipelines and new pipeline capacity; however, transmission pipelines are the safest way to move our natural gas and oil resources to market and have a 99.99% safety record. They are critical to the Canadian economy and to the future energy mix, domestically and across the globe.

Even as we enter a period of energy transition, there are three key points that are missing from the current debate around pipelines that I would like to stress.

First, global energy demand is going to increase, and Canadian oil and gas products have the potential to play an important role in that energy portfolio and to have an impact on global energy poverty.

Second, oil and gas production and exploration, especially exportation to new markets, contributes significantly to the Canadian economy and the capacity to fund social and infrastructure projects.

Finally, sufficient pipeline capacity is critically needed to ensure Canadians get the full value for their natural resources. We agree with the government that Canadians need to have confidence in the regulatory process that governs how pipelines are built and operated. These are shared goals of government, industry, and Canadians at large. What we cannot afford, however, is to miss the market opportunity and the economic benefits the industry brings. To do so would be a detriment to all Canadians.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to give a presentation as a supplement to our formal submission. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bloomer. We do have the other submission on our iPads.

Next we have Mr. Saillant with the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain. I believe the English translation is, “action group on urban redevelopment”.

[François Saillant, Coordinator, Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain]

Good afternoon. I am here on behalf of the Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain, the FRAPRU. It is a provincial organization made up of 160 groups that advocate for housing rights and fight against poverty.

As you know, in Canada and in Quebec, an alarming number of people and families are experiencing serious problems due to poverty and the lack of housing. I won't overload you with statistics, but I will present a few to substantiate what I am saying.

There are more than 700,074 tenant households in Canada who use more than 50% of their income to pay for housing, whereas 30% is the generally agreed upon norm. They are mostly women. Of this group, close to 383,000 tenant households use more than 80% of their income for housing, which of course leaves virtually nothing for other essential needs.

A recent report indicated that about 235,000 people are homeless at some point or other during the year. To this picture must be added the problems of indigenous communities, both in the North — Inuit communities — and those of first nations. I am thinking in particular of overcrowding and the poor quality of dwellings.

I should also mention persons with disabilities, who have particular problems. All of these people and families are to varying degrees experiencing issues of survival and exclusion. This means that their fundamental rights are trampled, and they are unable to contribute fully to the economy and to Canadian society.

In our opinion, the Government of Canada can and must intervene in the next budget to improve the living and housing conditions of these households by announcing, without delay, its national housing strategy; by ensuring, as recommended by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that that strategy takes human rights into account and is informed by them; and finally, by allocating major investments to this sector. Such investments would at the same time contribute to revitalizing the communities in which persons or families who do not have adequate housing or are homeless live, and there would be considerable positive economic spinoffs.

According to Quebec Housing Corporation calculations, based on its own experience with its social housing program entitled “AccèsLogis”, every subsidy dollar granted by the government generates $2.30 in the economy. These are investments that have impacts.

I will now list our more concrete proposals.

We would like to see an additional long-term investment of at least $2 billion per year in housing, allocated specifically to social housing.

It is noteworthy that the current budget of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — aside from three exceptions due to particular circumstances — has not been indexed since 1993. It has remained at $2 billion. We feel it needs $2 billion more and that those funds need to be injected directly into social housing.

First, it is important that the investments the government has promised not be dispersed on all sorts of initiatives that do not meet the real needs. We must focus on the only way of financing truly affordable and sustainable housing, which is social housing, public or cooperative housing, or housing managed by non-profit organizations.

Second, the government must immediately renew subsidies for the entire social housing sector at the conclusion of the current funding agreements. This is very important, as financial access to this housing depends on it. We have built this collective legacy, but it may not serve the people who need it most if those subsidies are allowed to expire. Things are moving very, very quickly. In 2015 alone, 22,600 social housing units in Canada lost their subsidy.

This was recognized in the last federal budget, which allocated $30 million over two years to help cooperatives and non-profit organizations to maintain the financial aid they provide to low-income households. That is a first step, but it is temporary, a two-year measure, and only affects a very small part of the social housing stock. Although the provinces are always looking for federal funding, the entire provincial social housing stock, for instance, is not covered by this announcement.

Thirdly, we need massive and recurring investments in the construction and renovation of housing in first nations and Inuit communities, including that of Nunavik, where there have been no investments for a number of years; the people concerned should participate, both in the design and building of these homes.

Finally, as recently recommended by the Big City Mayors' Caucus, overall investments in the Homelessness Partnering Strategy, known as the HPS, should be doubled until 2025 to bring them up to $350 million per year, while respecting the variety of approaches necessary for both prevention and the fight against homelessness.

Thank you, and I remain available to answer questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you very much.

From the Rick Hansen Institute, we have Mr. Barrable, and from the Rick Hansen Foundation, Mr. Brohman.

You're together, I believe. Go ahead.

[Bill Barrable, Chief Executive Officer, Rick Hansen Institute]

Yes, I think we're consecutive.

I'm Bill Barrable, the CEO of the Rick Hansen Institute. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today.

The Rick Hansen Institute operates independently of the Rick Hansen Foundation. Brad will be speaking to their plans subsequent to mine.

Both organizations were founded by Rick Hansen, but they have distinctly different mandates. We are very supportive of the foundation's complementary mission.

The Rick Hansen Institute is a transformational network for scientific research and implementation of improved health care treatments unique in the world. Our focus is spinal cord injury, but our innovative model can be applied to a wide range of other health conditions.

There are 86,000 Canadians who live with spinal cord injuries. The annual economic burden exceeds $2.7 billion in health care costs and lost productivity. This will only increase with the aging of the population.

Permanent paralysis is the most visible outcome of spinal cord injury, but individuals with SCI, spinal cord injury, also experience a wide range of potentially life-threatening health complications for the remainder of their lives. Every year, one in four Canadians with SCI is hospitalized for an average of 23 days due to health complications that were often preventable.

The average cost of a single readmission to hospital exceeds $20,000. For example, one of these complications is a pressure ulcer, or non-healing wound, which is the number one most costly preventable medical error in the health care system. Ongoing health complications make it extremely difficult for individuals to maintain employment.

It is now well recognized in all fields of medical research that only 14% of health-related scientific discoveries are ever implemented into health care practice. Even this very modest accomplishment, for those 14%, takes an average of 17 years. This inability to efficiently and effectively implement health care innovation negatively impacts health outcomes and drastically limits the economic benefits from the life sciences sector.

What makes the Rick Hansen Institute unique is that we have created a model to bridge that 17-year gap between health care innovation and implementation. We are accelerating the development and implementation of scientific discoveries, innovations, and best health care practices, resulting in measurably improved health outcomes, reduced health costs, more innovations brought to market, and economic growth in our life sciences sector.

Due to the success of our model, we have been approached by start-up companies in the life sciences sector across Canada—and, I should add, from outside Canada as well—to assist them with proof of concept and commercialization of Canadian technologies. Our institute has invested in research in clinical trials that have led to commercialization of successful health care products nationally.

Our network includes 31 acute and rehabilitation hospitals throughout Canada, as well as hospitals in China, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Israel. In August, New Zealand adopted our research infrastructure as its national platform. In addition, we have been working to implement spinal cord injury acute and rehab standards with our partners at Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing. This is the pre-eminent trauma hospital in China. We have research collaborations in more than 25 countries worldwide.

The institute has had the generous support of the Government of Canada since its inception in 2009. We are currently requesting renewal funding of $48.5 million over five years to focus on the goals that are critical to our mission.

These include continuing to expand our national and international network of researchers, health care professionals, individuals with spinal cord injury, innovators, investors, and policy-makers; supporting the development of promising therapies for repair of the spinal cord and prevention of treatment of secondary health complications, resulting in better outcomes and hundreds of millions of dollars in savings to the Canadian health care system; working in partnership with Accreditation Canada to standardize care in hospitals across the country to ensure Canadians with spinal cord injuries receive the best care possible, no matter where in the country they live; and supporting the commercialization of innovations that directly benefit people with SCI and contribute to economic growth in Canada.

The Rick Hansen Institute is committed to demonstrating value and return on that investment. The institute applies significant leverage to the funds entrusted to us by the Government of Canada, securing diversified revenues to ensure long-term sustainability and impact.

Thank you very much for your interest in the Rick Hansen Institute. I would be happy to address any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

Mr. Brohman is next.

[Brad Brohman, Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships, Rick Hansen Foundation]

Thank you. My name is Brad Brohman, and I work with the Rick Hansen Foundation.

For 30 years, the Rick Hansen Foundation and many others have been dedicated to raising awareness, changing attitudes, and breaking down barriers for people living with disabilities. We're grateful that the Government of Canada has been a generous supporter of our journey and mission.

To date, by leveraging the donations from the Man in Motion world tour, along with government and corporate support, over $325 million has been generated to support initiatives that promote awareness, improve accessibility, and facilitate spinal cord research through national and global partnerships. This work is now largely administered through the Rick Hansen Institute, which is independent from the foundation, with separate governance structures and missions. That said, we fully support their attendance here today. Their work is critical in supporting quality of life for all Canadians with spinal cord injuries and continues to position Canada as a leader in the world.

I'll go back to the mission of Rick Hansen and the foundation. A lot has been done, but so much more is needed to make Canada truly accessible and inclusive. According to StatsCan, approximately one in seven Canadians aged 15 or older reported having a disability that limited them in their daily activities, and with aging baby boomers that number is expected to rise to one in five within 20 years. As well, there are over 400,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities who are not working but whose disability does not prevent them from doing so.

How will we unleash the social and economic power of all people with disabilities, along with their extended families and communities?

One, increase awareness that disability and accessibility are big issues.

Two, work to change attitudes about the potential of people with disabilities.

Three, remove those barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in society, beginning with accessibility of the built environment, which is the places and spaces where we live, work, and play.

Finally, we need to measure progress and celebrate success along the way.

The funding proposal will drive Rick's vision, while clearly complementing the Government of Canada's stated objectives to build a more inclusive society, including supporting the efforts of Minister Qualtrough as she embarks on the development of accessibility legislation.

However, we know the Government of Canada can't do it alone. Minister Qualtrough talks about the need for complementary initiatives to raise awareness about the importance of removing barriers and seeing accessibility differently, not simply checking boxes but as an integral part of everything we do. That's exactly the right orientation.

Minister Sohi talks about applying a social inclusion lens to infrastructure investments and that the time to act is now, and we couldn't agree more. With phase two of the infrastructure plan, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build an accessible Canada in which no one is left behind. For three decades, the foundation has been a trusted and effective partner with the Government of Canada, delivering tangible results, and we're well positioned to continue being a catalyst for social innovation and change.

Here are our recommendations and solutions.

Overall, we recommend that the government fund the Rick Hansen accessibility innovation strategy, a $37.6-million, five-year multi-initiative plan that will work in partnership with provinces, municipalities, the community of people with disabilities, and the business community to accelerate the shift to a fully accessible society. We ask that 10% of the overall infrastructure fund be set aside to help finance innovation, accessibility, and inclusivity in the design of the built environment. We ask for support to launch our accessibility program, anchored by a LEED-style certification program designed to rate the accessibility of the built environment and promote and recognize adoption of inclusive design principles.

We ask that the government use the Rick Hansen certification program to determine eligibility of projects seeking funding under the infrastructure fund set-aside that I just previously mentioned. Overall, our goal is that the Rick Hansen certification program will be self-financing within the five-year window of this strategy, and it has the potential to become globally relevant, portable, and scalable as a made-in-Canada solution.

Finally, we're looking for support to activate or expand several awareness-driven initiatives, starting with our Canada 150 signature event—which will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Rick Hansen Man in Motion world tour—and extending into the reinvigoration of National Access Awareness Week and expansion of programs within the foundation.

All these initiatives are intended to inspire—

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We need you to wrap it up, Mr. Brohman.

[Brad Brohman]

—and engage communities and youth and be a national call to action to build, measure, and celebrate an accessible Canada.

This is the moment for Prime Minister Trudeau and the Government of Canada to join Rick Hansen and the foundation in aiming for a large goal that the world will notice: to make every building in Canada accessible by 2050.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

We turn to Veterans Canada and Mr. Bruyea.

[Sean Bruyea, Captain (Retired), Special Advisor, Veterans Canada]

Thank you, Chair, and members of the committee.

Veterans Canada is Canada's largest dedicated veterans' organization, with over 8,000 members. It uses innovative software to shrink the vast geography of Canada so that veterans can come together in a virtual real-time community. However, such innovation is lost on Veterans Affairs Canada.

The department tenaciously clings to its version of stakeholders, individuals, or organizations whose members have little or no stake in VAC programs or will not meaningfully or publicly question a policy path that has been so damaging to veterans and their families over the past decade under the new Veterans Charter. Advisory groups operating clandestinely, while imposing fait accompli recommendations upon the veteran community, do not meet any standard of openness and transparency.

How do we get this right and fix the problems fuelling the unabated cry for help from veterans and their families? Parliament and Canadians endlessly profess that we owe our veterans a debt. It goes without saying that delaying Minister Hehr's mandate letter promises is a moral forfeiture of this debt. Of the 23 or so specific promises, only two have been fully implemented, and another partially. The promises are not enough.

The mandate letter requires the minister to be open to other priorities as they arise, but first and foremost to ensure a seamless transition of those releasing from the Canadian Forces. Seamless transitions require government and Canadians to make a tangible, innovative rehabilitation and re-establishment investment in our veterans and their families. Canada can lead the world in veteran rehabilitation. Mostly unemployed but not expendable, our most disabled veterans want a new-found sense of belonging and to make a contribution to Canada and Canadians. Let us help them do that through assertive community treatment, supported employment, and gradual work re-entry programs.

Neither should the most severely disabled and their families be relegated to the lowest income levels of a private, nor should they have their potential for income earning and productivity frozen for the rest of their lives. Canada must not accept this humiliating lifelong incarceration of veterans' potential. Meanwhile, the new Veterans Charter is a disincentive to work. It suppresses productivity and does little to encourage community belonging. If the most disabled veterans attempt to work, they will lose their earnings dollar for dollar through deduction to their income-loss program.

Furthermore, Veterans Affairs will not support educational upgrading for the most disabled, even though such lifelong self-improvement has been shown to enhance health outcomes and longevity and to reduce access to costly provincial health care programs, as well as other treatment programming.

These are not extraordinary requests. CPP disability allows recipients to earn up to $5,400 without deduction or declaration. The disability and rehabilitation plan that covers parliamentarians and other public servants allows recipients to work part time, pay into their pension, and not have any income offset up to 100% of previous full-time salary. Disabled veterans deserve to either continue paying into their retirement pension up until age 60, if necessary, whereupon they can collect a full pension, or have their income-loss program continue for life.

We do not have a universal post-secondary education plan for our veterans, even though just 17% of our regular force veteran population has a university degree and 43% only have high school equivalency.

Government professes the importance of family to serving and retired CF members, yet after more than 20 years of public appeals, government can't even give family members their own identification card, let alone a picture identification card to veterans. We have to wait another two years for a pilot project to end, in order for government to realize that all veterans' family members, not just those of recent release, need access to DND's grossly underfunded military families resource centres, an unsupportable situation in spite of the unprecedented appointment of a minister of veterans affairs as assistant deputy minister of national defence.

We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even millions, to indoctrinate and train citizens to become a military member, but there has never been a single dollar put into a program to de-indoctrinate military members from the often harmful counter-productive effects of military culture.

The World War II Liberal government created what is widely considered the most successful and comprehensive rehabilitation and re-establishment program in the world. For the one million returning veterans, this was a true veterans' charter.

It was put together through truly comprehensive consultation. It was not constructed only by those who had a stake in the outcome, but involved the best expertise in rehabilitation, business, education, disability, and other fields. It is time for this government's promise of change to bring Veterans Affairs into the 21st century. Only then will we begin to repay the veterans in some more meaningful way than rhetoric, so that veterans can prosper alongside the Canadians whom they defend.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you, Mr. Bruyea. You have attached 15 recommendations, I think, to your submission, which the committee has.

[Sean Bruyea]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Next is Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society. Mr. Scott is president and Mr. McKenna is a veterans council representative.

Welcome.

[Jim Scott, President, Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society]

Well, thank you for letting us speak tonight.

My name is Jim Scott, and I am the president of the Equitas Disabled Soldiers Funding Society, referred to as Equitas, which is a non-partisan organization supporting a lawsuit going through the Supreme Court of British Columbia by returning veterans of the Afghan war who claim that they have disproportionately low benefits under the new Veterans Charter compared to those under the Pension Act or their counterparts in the province under the workers compensation program.

The main issue is a true disability pension for soldiers with claims under the new Veterans Charter.

Over a lifetime, disabled soldiers are financially disadvantaged when you compare them to those served by the previous Pension Act or their counterparts with provincial claims. To make this determination, we have looked at approximately 200 files provided to the law firm of Miller Thomson, which works on this case pro bono. We see their actual benefits, not the benefits that are promised often to committees by Veterans Affairs Canada, and we see that many of these veterans are denied the benefits that are promised to politicians from Veterans Affairs Canada.

Now, to go back in time into these halls here, disability pensions in Canada started in 1914 provincially. By 1919 they were extended to the military. Disability pensions ensure income. They are not taxable, they are not subject to clawback, and they equal the gap between what individuals would have made if they were healthy and what they are going to make with their disability. This had been a Canadian tradition for 100 years, up until 2006. In return, the Canadian worker and the military are not allowed to sue for greater benefits, so soldiers are not allowed to sue under the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act. That has been a tradition of Canada for 100 years; however, that tradition has changed, or an attempt has been made to change it.

The main difference between the provincial programs and the federal programs is that the provincial programs are funded. The federal program isn't, and that's why I'm here asking for money.

There is no program to pay for the disabled soldiers when they return from Afghanistan, because we don't have a fund. It comes out of a budget. Therefore, there's tremendous pressure on Veterans Affairs Canada to trim, to deny, to reduce the amount of money in each budget, and they do a good job.

The position is that there is no pension and that we have to reduce the cost, but Canadians do not agree. In fact, great promises were made during the last election to restore pensions. The problem for the new government is the cost. It's also the fact that a lot of these pensions are based on post-traumatic stress, which many people don't believe is real. There's also a need to keep civil servants working in Charlottetown, administering complex programs instead of a one-off pension that needs little administration. There's a mistaken belief that if you give young 20-year-olds a bunch of money, you're helping them. This has proven not to be correct.

Given that the new veterans benefits are not the same as a true disability, the soldiers took the Government of Canada to court. The power of the government was backed by specific legislations saying they can't sue.

The courts saw a different version. They awarded for the soldiers, saying that things have changed so much that they have a case that can be argued. What they said is that this action is about promises that the Canadian government made to men and women injured in service to their country, and about whether it is obligated to fill those promises.

Immediately, the Canadian government appealed that decision, stating that the Canadian government has no duty of care to soldiers. There is about to be a ruling, but as a signal to where that ruling may go, recently the appellate court has allowed new evidence to be entered into its decision. That new evidence is the promises, made during the last election, of pensions for all disabled soldiers. We expect this appellate court ruling within weeks.

In closing, disabled soldiers and men and women injured serving their country should have pensions by tradition. It's a fundamental value. I'm asking this committee to restore the funding that's required to restore that value to our armed forces. If we need cost savings, let's look at how we're administering our programs and the billions of dollars of administration costs. We cannot have cost savings at the expense of actual pensions.

Thank you.