Government Operations Committee on April 29th, 2019

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I just wanted to point out that Dr. Kevin Wainwright of SITE Centre from BCIT originally worked with the local Legion to create the Legion military skills recognition program that would allow for Canadian Armed Forces veterans to put in their credentials and find out about equivalencies. The people running the program would be able to tell them, “Here's what we will give you advance credits on; here's what you need to complete to do this business program,” and they've been able to do this for a variety of different programs. There's a consortium of colleges right across the country that the federal government supported a number of years ago.

The point I would have for you and for the public service—and again, I don't have the public service in front of me—is that it may behoove us to ask someone like Dr. Kevin Wainwright, if you want to see more veterans working in the public service, to point out what training they need and also let them know in advance what will be recognized in terms of their service.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. Albas, I know you're new to this committee, but as I am fond of mentioning to all committee members, when we give time allocated to members for an intervention, it's for both the question and the answer.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Since we are completely out of time, that answer, if there is one forthcoming, would have to be submitted directly to the clerk, or perhaps another member would be able to take it up in their intervention.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Now that is smart. Thank you for that intervention. I'd like to see that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I'm here to serve, Mr. Albas.

We will now go to Madam Ratansi for five minutes.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Ms. Douglas, I was looking at your notes. We have been listening to veterans a lot, and they want a meaningful transition from military to civilian life, but they want financial security and they want mental well-being. When I look at your career transition service, you indicate that every eligible veteran is assigned a qualified career counsellor through that third party. I want to know whether you have tracked to see whether veterans who have taken the career counselling have ended up in jobs, whether they be jobs in the private sector or the public sector. Has there been any tracking of that?

[Elizabeth Douglas]

Again, because the program has just passed its first year, we are starting to collect those numbers. I would be pleased to submit the numbers that we have.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Okay.

It is interesting, because we heard from veterans and their spouses about the skill sets that are acquired by military personnel. If you are in Afghanistan and you're fighting a war, you have to be tactical. You have to be strategic, etc. Veterans don't know how to translate that into.... There's no harmonization between the language of the military and that of the public service. We will take up the suggestion that we should call in the Public Service Commission, because we want to know how many veterans are really being hired.

Ms. Hanspal, you talked about the 1,000-odd veterans who have been hired, but we have listened to witnesses who have been discharged. How many have passed the probation period and how many are still surviving in the veterans area?

[Kiran Hanspal]

I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

How many veterans are in the public service area? We were told that not many survive after the probation period. Are you aware of it?

[Kiran Hanspal]

The number of people who are actually in the public service is the number I presented.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

They are working.

[Kiran Hanspal]

Yes.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

The question asked by Mr. Albas, I guess, was about the level they're working at. Is it entry level?

[Kiran Hanspal]

We have veterans who are in executive positions. In fact, my ADM is a former rear-admiral from the navy. We have people who are working at various levels within the department. We are actively pursuing commissioned and non-commissioned officers, looking at whatever opportunities line up. What I find interesting is that sometimes people do not necessarily want to work at a level that is commensurate with their level. They just want a change. It depends on what they want as well. That's an important factor to take into account.

There is an important area that we do want to work more on. We started a mentoring network called Veterans Amongst Us within Veterans Affairs Canada to promote inclusion. Another important piece is that veterans do need some support in the transition to the public service life. We are also looking at how we can find mentors who can support veterans who are just coming into the public service to help them acclimatize to the public service culture.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

You talked about the vice-admiral. Those people don't have a problem. It's the lower level who leave the military and have a major problem with financial security.

We were told that there are only 75 identified veterans in a department that has 3,000 people. Can you explain why that is the case?

[Kiran Hanspal]

Our current population is 165. It's not 75.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Okay. Someone has given us information that we can clarify.

[Kiran Hanspal]

That's what I—

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Okay.

My last question is for you, Ms. Douglas. You talked about the private sector wanting veterans. What is the main skill set they are asking for?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Give a brief answer, please.

[Elizabeth Douglas]

They haven't identified a skill set.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I have finished. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you so much.

Mr. McCauley, you have five minutes.