National Defence Committee on Feb. 25th, 2014

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

Are there any cases where it will take much longer?

[Col Gerry Blais]

Certainly...

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

The ombudsman's report took some time to be produced. This is not the only case where a report has recommended certain changes for a number of years. If these changes take a lot of time, there are necessarily people who fall between the cracks and suffer the consequences. I'm talking about the troops.

[Col Gerry Blais]

Here again, a specific program would have to be put in place for that. There are so very many programs that it is hard to answer your question in a general way.

We take all of these suggestions and recommendations we receive very seriously. When we provide training sessions, I invite people from the ombudsman's office so that they know what we are trying to do. By the same token, they give us their point of view and they share what members of the Canadian Forces have told them.

We are very interested in changing our programs. What we care about the most is providing good services to our military members. It is our responsibility.

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

Unfortunately, I have to highlight another point.

Do you understand what happened in the recent suicides? These people were in the system. They had served as members and they should have been listened to proactively. They felt that doors were closed. They took a direction we find deplorable and I'm trying to understand why.

If all the programs are so constantly being adapted, if members are listened to and if people are there for them as much as we are being told, why did that happen?

[Col Gerry Blais]

I will begin by saying that all suicides are very tragic.

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

Absolutely.

[Col Gerry Blais]

It is as though we lost a member of our family. That said, many cases of suicide cannot be explained. We do not have any answer, unless the person left a note where he explains the reason for his act. Members have a professional life, but they also have family lives. There are many aspects, many factors. It is very complex. And so it is very difficult to pin down the specific reason for such an act.

[Jean-François Larose, NDP, Repentigny, QC]

I agree with you entirely.

I'd like to go back to InterCom. You try to put programs in place, but they have to be accessible to everyone. For instance, the parents of those members should have been counselled. InterCom is a very good idea, but if you want to adapt the programs, do it as quickly as possible because there is a heartfelt cry out there that has to be heard.

I don't need an answer to my question. Please adapt the programs as quickly as possible and that will help our troops.

Thank you.

[Col Russell Mann]

Mr. Chair, I would like to add something on that.

The information line for families is an example of programs put in place following the assessment of the community needs of our families. They told us that access to the mission information line five days a week and seven hours a day was not enough, and that they needed information 24/7.

We took about seven months to evaluate this situation and we adapted our budget internally. We did not ask for more resources. We set up a service plan and a communication plan. It took us seven months. We are human beings and we do our best. We assess the needs of all military communities on a three-year cycle.

I hope that this will make it easier to determine families' needs. They have a way of expressing them. We listen to them and we act accordingly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, Colonel.

Mr. Chisu.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you. I have a question for Colonel Blais. In your presentation you were speaking about the transition. So the primary goal of the Canadian armed forces is to return as many ill and injured serving personnel as possible to full duties. And I completely agree with you on this statement.

You also mentioned the return to work program and said that this return can occur in the individual's own occupation or, depending on the extent of their recovery, in a new occupation. Also you mentioned somewhere in your statement that 95% of people return to their occupation.

We know well that there are four combat arms including the infantry, the artillery, and the engineers. You are looking at the universality of service, but you will not look at the same qualities that an infanteer needs or an engineer needs to blow up bridges and build bridges and so on. So how would you view the possibility, for example, of an infanteer who has suffered injuries returning to service but as a clerk? Of course they would need to be able to deploy and need to be able to fire weapons and so on, but they could be kept in the forces.

[Col Gerry Blais]

Absolutely.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

So how do you see that you are working in that direction? Because if 95% are returning to service, that means a lot of people are released.

[Col Gerry Blais]

When a person's medical condition is established and the directorate of medical policy says that the person's limitations do not breach universality of service and there are occupations in which positions are available, at that point the person is offered the opportunity to train in order to assume an occupation, as you mentioned, as an administration or finance clerk, a cook, or something of that nature. They would then be given the training and begin to serve in that new occupation.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Is that being looked at a little more carefully now in the JPSU?

[Col Gerry Blais]

Oh, absolutely. It is a serious consideration.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

I have another question. What do the JPSUs do to provide coordinated, seamless support services throughout the transition from Canadian armed forces to Veterans Affairs? As you well know, if somebody has a medical file in the armed forces, it's not necessarily transferred to Veterans Affairs right away.

[Col Gerry Blais]

Again, that's a little bit outside of my lane, because it is a health services issue, but I can tell you that the Canadian Forces health services information system is now automated and the information is transferred to Veterans Affairs Canada.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Did you complete the digitalization of this? I'm asking you though it's outside of your field.

[Col Gerry Blais]

Again for specifics on that, I'm not the right person to answer, unfortunately.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Speaking of training opportunities that you are looking at, have you talked to any organizations that can offer training or can DND work together with other organizations? I'll tell you that I'm not necessarily a great fan of unions, but unions do provide training. For example, the plumbers' union, which I visited, is doing an excellent job of training people, but have they ever had any contact with DND?

[Col Gerry Blais]

One of the transition programs we have involves working with trade unions, because we would like to see more of our trades—the pipefitters on ships, etc.—Red Seal qualified with the provinces. That's the main issue in that. The forces training has to be recognized as a Red Seal qualification. We are now dealing with different unions to obtain that qualification or to find out what is missing so that we can then provide the training, either ourselves or by sending people out to get it.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

If I have time—

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Your five minutes has expired.

This ends the second round of questioning.

We'll conclude with the third round of NDP, Conservative, and Liberal for five minutes of questioning.

Mr. Harris.