That's a very important and large question.
Madam Chair, we've been conducting polls of families week over week since March. The impacts of COVID on families and family life has been quite dramatic, but not all tragic. A lot of families are actually doing quite well.
It does lead us to a number of observations. The first is that every system in our communities and in our society—the health care system, the justice system, the child welfare system, etc., including the family system—has had its strengths magnified, amplified and intensified as a result of COVID, and equally, its weaknesses.
Families that were struggling are likely struggling harder. Those that were doing well are likely still doing well. For the ones in the middle, many are still adapting, adjusting and finding ways to support each other and work together. Workplaces all across the country—and the military is no different in this case—have had to adjust and modify how, where and when work gets done. The big issue here is the degree to which disruption has impacted a household.
The greater the disruption, the greater the likelihood is that individual family members will feel that they've lost their sense of agency, control and autonomy. When families lose that, often stress levels go up.
When we're looking at COVID, it really is everything that was pre-COVID and then some. We need to monitor and keep an eye on how families are doing, month over month and into next year and learn from every one of those experiences.
We will continue to do that with all families across Canada, including military and veteran families. We have a survey in the field looking at how veteran families are managing and adapting. We would be happy to share the results of that with this committee and the veterans committee, as well.