Evidence of meeting #78 for National Defence in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was care.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
I'd also like to add to that. We've been in consultation at work with British and American charities of similar scope. Their concerns are parallel. They're lockstep in terms of the percentages. Obviously the numbers are larger, but the percentages are the same.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
I appreciate your comment that you're hoping in five years you're not going to be in business. I think we all join yourselves in the sense that—
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
I'm kidding.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
I know. You're doing a wonderful job, by the way, and we really appreciate what you're doing.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
Thank you.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
I've had instructors who were affected, but that was in 1994-95, and to see this entire evolution.... That being said, the worry that we have is this.
Is the government's lack of accountability acceptable?
Sorry. That you have the attitude of saying that you hope you're not going to be there anymore is an excellent one. Right now there's an urgency. You need to be there, absolutely, but we're hoping that it's within the intent that the government's going to take up its responsibilities. I don't think it's normal that we send military overseas, then they come back, and then we realize with all these studies that there are about a million problems, but nothing's there. We're hoping that we're not going to discharge it on you and not do it ourselves.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
I realize and respect the role that you folks play. Our role is not to be in the political business. As I mentioned, the problem of PTSD was shell shock in previous conflicts. It was cowardice in others. It has been there for a long time, long before Canada became a nation. Our role is pretty straightforward, and we try to accomplish that.
NDP
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
Thank you.
NDP
Jean-François Larose NDP Repentigny, QC
The fact that so many civilians, so many ex-military and military are stepping up and saying that there's a problem and we have to fix it is great. What we're hoping is that it will be fixed. That's the whole issue.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
We all do.
Conservative
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to all witnesses for appearing and for your testimony. Thank you for your service, for the soldiers, the men and women in uniform, and especially for the reservists.
We have heard from past witnesses that often there are families of the veterans, soldiers or reservists, who see the first signs of PTSD. They are often left to deal with the effects that this illness has on the family alone. Mostly I'm speaking in the context of reservists, as 25% of our reservists have seen combat in Afghanistan. I'm especially looking at the years 2006 to 2011.
Do you work with the families? I think that the families are an important aspect.
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
It's important to know we are not direct service providers, other than our Hand Up! program, which is a very specific “I need these tools to get on the job” kind of thing. That's a pretty straightforward one. We look for programs, experts, and people who are in communities and doing jobs. We get applications from them. We vet it through the people at Queen's University. We get some feedback. I look at it again as program director to see if this is something that we want to go ahead with. We send it to the board. We have an obligation on behalf of that organization to report back to us, to tell us where the money has gone, what they're doing with it. Accountability is important with us.
You'll see the last one there is Natasha's Wood Foundation. Fay Maddison, who is the wife of the commander of the Navy, has a foundation that is putting out educational materials to deal with post-traumatic stress, specifically aimed at children in families that have a service member suffering from post-traumatic stress. We are looking at programs that deal with families.
The equine program in Calgary with Can Praxis, they bring the entire family. We are looking at families and family issues. It doesn't just affect the soldier. It affects their spouses. It affects their children. It affects everybody around them.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
Just to add to that, General Dallaire has a real passion for being involved with families, and we've made a commitment that this will be a strong aspect of our program, going forward.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you.
Can you elaborate a little bit more on this “Hand Up” program?
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
I think it's a new program that you have. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
Actually, Hand Up is not so much a new program. it's just not one we publicize a lot. It's dealing with an individual one on one.
We get a mountain of requests from people. These requests range from books to assist them with their education through to clothing to assist them in their jobs, home improvements, or whatever it might be. We vet those requests, and we vet them with the assistance of others as well. We will fund them, where possible, if it's an assistance where the individual is going to be getting a hand up rather than a handout.
We do believe very strongly in that. It would be very easy for us to hand out an awful lot of money to an awful lot of people, but we feel that our donors want to in effect receive a return on their donation, if you will, by the measurement of the individual's improvement in their well-being.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Do you offer any scholarship—for example, a scholarship for the wounded?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
A scholarship? No, not for the wounded. But of course our scholarship program is there, being announced next week, through the Queen's University initiative.
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
That's aimed at doctoral students in their third and fourth year who already have demonstrated interest and demonstrated expertise.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
I'm sorry, I'm looking more at Wounded Warriors in terms of increasing the education—for example, a scholarship for somebody who would like to pursue university or trade courses. That's how I'm looking at it: education.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
We don't have any formal program with regard to that, but I would suggest to you that we look at a number of requests. If, from a non-formal basis, it has merit, and there's an end result that's going to be a positive result for the individual, we will look at it.
