Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 11th, 2006

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

No. We're in complete agreement. But how many new job training enterprises have we entered into with a spouse versus a veteran?

[Brian Ferguson]

It's not going to be a big effort to find that information.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

One of the things that got lost in our questions and I would like to know just for my own clarification is how many organizations or departments you interface with. To my knowledge, it's DND, HRSDC, and the Ontario government for medical services. But how many other stakeholders are there that you have to partner with to deliver services for veterans?

[Brian Ferguson]

Well, it's those, plus every province. The Royal Canadian Legion provides services directly to veterans as well, to assist veterans with disability awards and pension applications, so they're part of the delivery mechanism for us. They handle a percentage of the total claims coming through the system. Certainly we're partners with mainly those agencies that you've just mentioned.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Okay.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I'd like to go back. I know we seem to be pointing a little bit in terms of the satisfaction rate—

[Brian Ferguson]

Can I correct my answer to the previous question? We also have a very strong relationship with the War Amps, who assist veterans with amputations to get service from us as well. I didn't want to forget them.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I want to go back a little bit to the programs, the distribution of them, how you communicate them, and then also to the surveys a little bit.

You talk about how you make a tremendous effort in your programs to be very clear and get them out. You do it through a client newspaper. How do you make these programs so successful in terms of getting them out? How is it administered, if they have that high a success rate? Do you have any idea, if it is that efficient, if it is that successful, what costs are associated with making that communication system work?

[Brian Ferguson]

We've tried to build as much of it as possible into the ongoing operations of service delivery so that it's not something that's detached from the operation, if I might put it that way. We have obviously the departmental communications function, and one of the products they produce for us is the Salute! magazine, which is our newspaper. Our communications function helps us design a lot of these materials that we produce, such as At Your Service.

But the strength of the ongoing activity is really embedded in what we call our integrated service delivery framework, which consists of these 48 client service teams, backed up by centres of expertise in the areas of our national call centre network; with our treatment accounts processing centres, which are spread across the country; with our adjudication centre in Charlottetown; and with our foreign country operations here in Ottawa. A whole series of specialized areas where work that is best done centrally is done interacts with this integrated service delivery network across the country. The integrated service delivery network ensures that an interdisciplinary team with all the necessary skills is on the ground across the country. Their job really is to get out there and reach out to their client base and to respond to them when they come to us.

We also have a proactive screening centre that you may have heard of. That is a centre in Charlottetown, which we're actually evaluating to see whether we should expand it or not. It is a centre that, based on our assessment of clients who could be at risk, proactively calls them to see how they're doing. If there's any indication, using a widely accepted screening tool, that they may be in trouble, they get the area counsellor and the local client service team to go out and talk to them and find out if there's something wrong—and generally there is. We'll often find instances where somebody may be going through Alzheimer's disease, or something like that, where we have to get them into an institution.

We strive through this network to have as much outreach as we can to our clients, and then we add to it the Salute! magazine and other communications mechanisms. So in a nutshell, that's the methodology we've been using.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Is the survey that you've talked about part of the communications that you put out, or is that a totally separate initiative?

[Brian Ferguson]

That's a separate initiative that does evaluation. It's run, really, out of our central corporate planning operation. The client satisfaction survey that we referred to—the one that said 84%—is run out of our corporate planning shop. They use a tool called a common measurement tool, which was developed for government use a few years ago. It's a very stringent tool. They hire an outside firm to administer that survey. Much of it is done by telephone. It's a survey that has been used three times now by the department.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

What aspect, then, Mr. Ferguson, is the Legion involved in? You mentioned the Legion doing something.

[Brian Ferguson]

The Legion's involved with us in actually helping process pension applications under the Pension Act for traditional clients.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Oh, I thought I heard earlier that they participated in some of the survey analysis as well.

[Brian Ferguson]

Oh, they do, and I was going to get to that.

That survey I talked about is a general survey of departmental operations. We also have specific surveys on long-term care. Our specific surveys on long-term care are done via three routes. We have a contract with the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, which accredits facilities across the country and the provinces. That's the Canadian Council. We have an agreement with them that they'll use our 10 outcome areas when they accredit facilities for veterans who are resident. So that's one of them.

The second one is for our larger priority access bed facilities. Our own staff will use the same questionnaire and go out and administer it in the facilities that are near them.

The third arm of that long-term care survey is conducted by the Royal Canadian Legion under contract, with the help of volunteers, who use the same tool as the Canadian Council uses, to go out to survey smaller community bed operations across the country.

Those are the three basic mechanisms. We have a general survey for all of the services, and then we have these three mechanisms to survey the long-term care facilities.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

So it's just a narrow aspect of the survey.

[Brian Ferguson]

It's one that has its own specialized survey. The general one also covers client satisfaction in those areas.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

All right. Now we're over to the opposition side again.

Mr. Stoffer.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I have a couple of questions.

Sir, I just wanted to clarify, because I ask every official who comes here the same question. We heard before that there may be some resistance within the department by some officials regarding the need for an ombudsman. Is it correct to say that you two are definitely in favour of having an ombudsman position set up?

[Brian Ferguson]

Certainly. I think quite definitely. That's a quick answer.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you.

Also, unlike the case of the DND ombudsman, who was restricted in what he could look at in terms of certain dates—because veterans' issues go way back, in many cases, for a very long time—in your opinion, should the ombudsman have access to anything that he or she wishes to look at? We're excluding, of course, legal concerns or privacy issues. Should they have full access and the ability to look at whatever they deem necessary?

[Brian Ferguson]

Again, without knowing what the specific design of the ombudsman would be, it's somewhat difficult, Mr. Stoffer, to really give you a definitive answer. I would say, though, that they should obviously, within whatever mandate they have, have the ability to pursue that mandate.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Okay.

When Bill C-45, the Veterans Charter, came up, there was an oversight committee made up, I believe, of six veterans organizations and others. Is that oversight committee still intact?

[Brian Ferguson]

Currently, it is not. The committee came together for a specific purpose. It was called the Veterans Affairs Canada and Canadian Forces advisory committee. It had the six veterans organizations on it to provide it advice on the best way to handle the needs of the modern-day veteran. Their work coalesced in the issuance of a report that called for change, which was reflected in the Veterans Charter.