National Defence Committee on Feb. 12th, 2008

[LCol Gerry Blais]

Certainly, if that member's drinking problem is tied to job-related stress.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

The member may have developed a drinking problem as a result of his deployment to this area. I imagine health services personnel assess his condition.

[LCol Gerry Blais]

That is correct.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Thank you.

[Lcol Gerry Blais]

There are cases of comorbidity.

[Col David Weger]

Drugs.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Thank you, sirs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you.

That ends the first round.

Just before we get started in the second round, I want to mention that the Auditor General, in her report last October, indicated that there needed to be more emphasis put on the qualifications of the people who are treating the military. This must fall into your bailiwick. There was a suggestion that the Canadian Forces Health Information System needed some continuing work. Do you have a comment on how that is progressing, and are we keeping better track of who we have doing the treatment and who we're treating?

[Col David Weger]

The Auditor General actually made three specific recommendations linked to what you've just mentioned. The first one is related to CFHIS and is again not my area of responsibility. I do know that the project is progressing, and specific details can be obtained through the chief of staff of the Canadian Forces health services group, under whom the project falls.

The two concerns that the Auditor General specifically touched on with respect to the credentials and competence of military health care providers had to do with compliance with our program for maintenance of clinical skills on the one hand, and on the other the fact that we lack the mechanism to ensure that all our care providers actually hold appropriate licences or credentials.

Since the report came out, the latter of these two has certainly been a particular area of focus, and the credentials cell within our directorate of health services delivery, to whom I would refer you for specific numbers, has been moving forward very aggressively to confirm that everybody does have the appropriate licensing. I can tell you that we have confirmed that 100% of our military physicians are licensed by a provincial body and that they have also focused very aggressively on verifying the numbers for pharmacists, dentists, and nurses this year, as a starting point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you very much. And I thank the committee for allowing me that.

Go ahead, Mr. Cannis, for five minutes.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Gentlemen, welcome.

Inasmuch as we are in a theatre, and an unusual one in which casualties are unusually high, questions so far have been focused on the current casualties and on how we address our men and women who return with ailments and so on. But in your presentation, Mr. Blais, you talked about your responsibility for veterans as well. In our view, veterans are those who come back and have served in the most recent and in previous conflicts as well. I believe they're just as important.

One of the questions I'd like to ask needs just a short response. Some time ago there was some question in terms of the funeral expenses or funeral compensation. At one time there seemed to be confusion over whether the former minister had indeed sent the letter to take care of it. It wasn't taken care of, then it was.... Nobody really knew until the Dinning family, I believe it was, came to Ottawa, and we got to the bottom of it.

Has that issue now been addressed? Is there a clear policy from your point of view, if you can tell us, that upon the loss of life of one of our soldiers, that compensation is there without a year's delay?

[LCol Gerry Blais]

That is very much so. It used to be that funeral expenses were paid by the bases throughout the country, and the understanding of the regulations was not necessarily the same in every area. As of April of last year, the authority for approval and payment of those benefits was centralized in my directorate, and as soon as we receive the bill from the assisting officer, it's paid on the spot.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

So now it's standardized right across the country.

[LCol Gerry Blais]

Very much so.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you very much for clarifying that.

There is another question I'd like to ask in terms of our veterans. We have veterans hospitals, such as Sunnybrook in Toronto, for example. We do get calls--maybe not that many, but we do get calls. In my view, and I'm sure in the view of everybody here, one call is one too many. They have difficulty; they can't get service.

We know how the system works in terms of money transferred federally to the provinces, and the provinces administer the health system, but are there funds that you know of that go directly to supporting veterans hospitals?

[LCol Gerry Blais]

That one is definitely a Veterans Affairs issue.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

So when you mention veterans, that doesn't fall under your--

[LCol Gerry Blais]

We assist them with individual problems, if you will, but the overall mandate for health care for veterans is a Veterans Affairs issue.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

That was it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Go ahead. There are a couple of minutes left.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

You're in charge of administration, Colonel, meaning all the checks and balances and the flow of information, so if we need some answers, I assume you're in charge regarding the health services. Is that right?

[LCol Gerry Blais]

Not health services, no. It's the social support and all the administration surrounding the care, but not on the health side.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

So if there are some needs.... I'm just trying to figure out the accountability. The buck stops here for everything regarding social services; that's under you.

[LCol Gerry Blais]

For the most part, yes, sir.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Okay. How do you make your checks and balances to see that the people who deserve to have an answer get the right answer? I ask because sometimes, because of all the red tape, it falls through the cracks. How do you manage to make sure you have better service yourself under the people who are working for you?