Evidence of meeting #168 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transition.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
We will have to leave it at that for now.
Colleagues, just to let you know, the bells are going to start ringing at 5:30 p.m. We certainly have enough time for another five-minute intervention.
Mr. Blaikie came in here a little late through no fault of his own. If we have unanimous consent, we could extend it after the bells start ringing for a final three-minute intervention by Mr. Blaikie.
Thank you very much.
Madam Yip, you have five minutes, please.
Liberal
As an Individual
It's part of the release message. When you get out, your case manager sits down and your Veterans Affairs case manager reminds you that, by the way, you have priority entitlement. Then you get a letter in the mail, and you get one in your VAC inbox online, if you remember your password or banking information to get in. It says the exact same thing: This is what priority means; this is how long you have to activate it; this is what it does.
What it doesn't tell you is that, if you see a job online today, it takes you four to five months to activate it, so that job that closes in two weeks is out of your reach.
Liberal
As an Individual
You can call, and they will explain it, but again, you have to remember.... My husband, for example, was walked through his entire career: “Here's your travel claim; here's your release information; here's your credit card; here's your passport,” because they hold onto that for them. Everything was done for him. The basics of life have been taken care of by the Canadian Forces.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
Thank you very much.
I love the idea that you suggest about having a public servant in bases actually walking members through the process. I think that's one recommendation we should take very seriously because it makes sense. We don't have hundreds of thousands of bases throughout Canada. I don't know how many we have in all—say 100, if that many. It would make sense, if that's our objective to actually facilitate the transition between military and civilian life. If that's exactly what we want to do to help our veterans succeed in their transition, that's an investment we should make with gladness and commitment.
It makes sense. It's the best link you could make between knowledge of the civil service and knowledge of the military and trying to marry the two.
I don't know if there's any way you would have to articulate it in a very point-by-point or itemized way, or if it's just a general idea that we can, perhaps with the analysts, try to develop, but I do think it's a wonderful idea. It's perhaps one of the best recommendations we can take from this in terms of helping you military people transition into civilian life, beyond the fact that we also need to take into account those who have had service injuries, both physical and mental, who need a lot of help to transition. That's not just filling out the resumé or the application, but it's actually being healthy enough to transition out of DND. That's another big challenge.
It's more a comment than necessarily a question, but I love that suggestion of having the public servant at the bases helping you transition into civilian life.
Nurse Practitioner Captain (Retired), As an Individual
Military members are so well trained. They risk their lives to protect all of you. They have done so much for their country. They don't ask for much. They don't ask for a pat on the back. But if there were something you could do to help vets, if we could get a liaison officer on each base to help members complete their paperwork to get into the queue for those positions, it would be a huge plus for them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you.
We have been granted unanimous consent to go an additional three minutes, so Mr. Blaikie can get his final intervention in. We will adjourn after that.
Mr. Blaikie, you have three minutes.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses, both for your service overall and for being here today. Thank you for some very frank and honest advice about what might make things better for people coming out of the service.
My question comes back to the MPRR.
I'm wondering if you could tell me, based on your knowledge of the public service, if there's a comparable list of courses or qualifications there. Would it be possible for veterans coming out of the Canadian Armed Forces who say they have an interest in applying to public service jobs—presumably not everybody has an interest in working for the public service when they come out of the military—to take that document and...? Is there any kind of public service equivalent that you could translate that into that would stand in for many job applications, as opposed to the work that goes into getting every hiring manager to understand the military language? Is it possible to have a document that would satisfy hiring managers without that knowledge that could be used for multiple applications?
As an Individual
In my mind, the Canada School of Public Service is the place to go with that. For example, A230, the security awareness course that we all have to do to open our email, exists in the military, but when a military member transitions, the military one isn't recognized. That's one, right off the list.
I'm pretty sure if the public service school took a look at the courses.... The military's great at standards. Get them to sit down with the standards group, look at the courses they take, and say, “You know what? We can PLAR that one—prior learning assessment. Tick.”
The public service school has that, and the military have the standards group, that cell. They could provide all the curricula for them to look at.
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
That kind of mapping could be possible and would be of value to you.
Nurse Practitioner Captain (Retired), As an Individual
When she was saying that, I thought about security clearances. For example, I had a level II, which is secret. I had that for most of my military career. As soon as I released, it was gone. If I were to apply for a public service job that required that level, I'd have to go through the whole process again. I'm not sure if there's a way to maintain a security clearance for a period of time to facilitate people going into the public service, but that would save a lot of money, even for the government—through the manning, the time spent if you have to contact CSIS, the RCMP and whatnot.
If there's a way to do it, maintain a security clearance for those who vocalize that they intend to go into the public service.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
I want to thank both of you so much. Your presence here has been not just welcomed, it has been incredibly informative and helpful.
As I mentioned to our first set of panellists, should you have additional information you think would be of benefit to this committee as we continue with our study, perhaps looking at recommendations that some of you have already identified, please send that information to our clerk. It will help form our final report.
Once again, thank you not only for your appearance here, but for your service to your country.
Colleagues, the meeting is adjourned.
