Evidence of meeting #9 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was see.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Yes, I agree.
Forgive my ignorance, Mr. Perron; I'll follow up on your discussion. St. Anne is in Montreal?
3:50 p.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
It is about an hour and 15 minutes from here, along Highway 417, west of Montreal.
3:50 p.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Sainte-Foy. That's in Quebec City. It's in the city of Quebec City. It's three hours from Montreal, always driving.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
I'm glad I asked, because I saw the residences here and Sainte Foy. All right, so Quebec City, fair enough, okay. I'm amenable to that.
Now we had Mr. Stoffer.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Excuse my ignorance; this is more a question for Michel. I noticed there are no bed facilities in Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut. Is that the way it is? For any veterans who may decide to retire up there, would they have any access to facilities in the north or Labrador, or would they have to be sent somewhere else?
3:55 p.m.
Michel Rossignol Committee Researcher
No, this is a list of the priority access beds in the locations. A veteran in one of the territories or in one of the areas where there is no priority access bed would probably be invited either to go to the closest health centre where there was a priority access bed, or if that was too far I think there would be some other arrangement made directly by the department, because some of these priority beds are arrangements with contracts with provincial health authorities. I think the department, if there is a need somewhere, would be able to do something in the local area, but most of the access beds are only available here in the list.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Thank you.
As I was scrolling through the list here, I think it makes sense to visit a provincial facility in Quebec and then the federal facility at St. Anne. That makes sense to me.
There's one here we have in Ottawa, and that's the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre. It's here in the city; it's got to be easy to knock off, so why we wouldn't visit that, I can't imagine. It seems like an obvious one to me. That's three, in a sense: we have the two in Quebec and one here in Ottawa.
Is there any other facility that people feel...? Mr. Stoffer.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
I think those are concentrated in major centres or close to major centres. I think it would be helpful, especially for those MPs from rural ridings and rural areas, to see what facilities are like in a small rural town. Wherever that is, I'd be open to the committee. But I think you see for example Springhill in Nova Scotia has a few beds there, and there's New Brunswick, Alberta, and Manitoba. It would be interesting to see how it works in the town of Medicine Hat.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay. I think we all probably have a sense that it's significantly less than it would be in a major centre, but if you'd like to see one of those, I see the value in that.
Where is Springhill in relation to your riding, Mr. Stoffer?
3:55 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Springhill is in Bill Casey's riding. It's about a two and a half hour drive from the Halifax airport. It's the home of Anne Murray.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
3:55 p.m.
Committee Researcher
If there's a visit to Springhill, it would also be easy to visit Camp Hill, the main veterans hospital in Halifax, which would be very close by as well and has a large number of veterans.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
If you're going to do the east and you're going to do the Maritimes, you'd better do the west. My concern is that this will limit us to doing just the hospitals and nothing else on the committee. But I'm comfortable if everybody else is comfortable.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
I'm speaking on behalf of the west. I know I've seen some facilities there. I'm surprised that Colonel Belcher isn't on here in some capacity. Maybe it is. Yes, it is. Good. But I've seen it, so I'm not going to propose it. I'm very impressed with it. It's a new modern facility and all that stuff, but I don't feel a particular draw because I've seen those facilities. I haven't seen Springhill and some of these other ones, St. Anne being the most significant.
I believe that if other members of the committee want to propose, they have a right. I don't feel a particular need to drag this out that way unless somebody else wants to.
I see no sense of drag.
Mr. Shipley.
3:55 p.m.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I've been to the Parkwood in London, so I have an understanding of what the hospitals are like. I just want to focus on the value of what we're going to be doing. Is it for information, just to see how they operate and what the circumstances are like in them? I don't suspect we're going to be there to make recommendations based on the operations of the hospital. I don't know. That's a question. I'm just trying to get a handle on what we're going to be doing when we go there. I think it's a fair question.
If we're going to pick a number of hospitals around, I guess I want to have an idea of what the mandate or purpose will be if we're going to visit more than one or two of them.
4 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Typically on committees we have people come to testify as witnesses, and going out to see these facilities could be our somewhat limited window on the world. I realize that all of us have some facilities in or near our ridings that we have probably seen or partaken of, but it gives you a richer background in understanding the different facilities, things available across the country, and the trials and tribulations. It gives you a portal on the world, other than just the committee room itself.
Monsieur Perron.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Further to what Bev was saying, I would say that the hospital in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is the only one where we will feel at home, so to speak. It is a Canadian hospital, and we are Canadian members of Parliament. In the other hospitals, we would almost be viewed as visitors coming to see a patient.
In Gagetown, New Brunswick, there is a problem having to do with Agent Orange. Why not go to a hospital located close by? We should see how the veterans are being treated and find out whether those who say they have problems related to Agent Orange or Agent Purple are getting the care they need.
In addition, I am really very surprised to hear that some hospitals in northern and southern Ontario have about 100 beds available. Where are these hospitals? Are there any in Kirkland Lake, New Liskeard, North Bay and South Temiscamingue?
I know, Michel, that you cannot give us an answer, because the list is put out by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is incomplete in that it does not state which hospitals are specialized in psychiatric care, for example. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric problem. So even before we organize a visit to hospitals, we must know where the largest groups of veterans in hospital or receiving care are located, and the specialty of the various hospital. Tests have been carried out in Gagetown or another place in Nova Scotia. It would be a good idea to visit hospitals in the surrounding area to try to find out whether the people who claim they were poisoned by the gas in Gagetown are telling the truth.
4 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
In some respects, the answer to Mr. Shipley's question is that it's information gathering.
Mr. Valley, and then Mr. Rota.
4 p.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
I think it's clear that the first one we have to see is St. Anne's. If we're going to see any others we have to have a plan. Are we going to visit different regions, or are we going to see a large one and a small one?
I think we want to do it right, if we're going to visit any others after that. Maybe St. Anne's should be the first one because it's close for us. We can get it done and then make a plan. As Mr. Stoffer says, large or small, pick two or three that fit across the country and get our job done.