Evidence of meeting #18 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was veterans.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
It probably is, because they will come out of the woodwork. The thing is--you know what the game is--if there's any money available....
NDP
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
No, I don't have the figure. We did have a figure. I travelled to Europe with the person who was doing it, and he said around 4,000 that they know of had registered. As I said, a lot of the Métis didn't want to be Métis, because they were discriminated against if they were Métis.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
That's completely understandable.
You had talked about the veterans specifically, but on this committee we deal with the family members as well, and the effect it would have on their spouses or their children in this particular regard. Are you indicating--because I noticed, Mr. MacPhee, that you didn't necessarily mention family on that--that you are also looking for support for them?
We have a VIP program that assists some widows or widowers of veterans. There are other health care concerns. The department has indicated that they're undergoing a health care review. Have you been active in that health care review? Have they come to ask you specifically for your advice on that?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
No. The thing is, I get the VIP....
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
On the health care review, has NAVA not been formally asked?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
No, that's why I'm saying we're not.... Even the money that was given to the first nations--I thought all the aboriginal people were going to receive that, but then it ended up with just the first nations people.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
I have a last question before I'm cut off, and I'll get back to you later. You said you require core funding for NAVA to carry out your operations. What would you be looking at for funding, sir?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
We were getting close to $100,000. We're getting $60,000 now because of the cutbacks. It's always the same old thing. We're just barely making it with that. Even coming in to a meeting like this, especially when the government people say, “Well, you pay for it”, it takes two months to get your money back. You understand that.
Anyway, the thing is, we have our AGM and we don't get the money for a banquet. I had $10,000 on my credit card for that.
NDP
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
Oh, certainly. Anything would.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
We'd give you millions, obviously. To be responsible, though, if you had, say, $200,000, would that be sufficient to do the job you think you could do for those veterans and their families?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
You see, it's very hard to put a figure on it. I'm saying that because I have people in each province and territory...and the Maritimes. By giving them travel claims at the end when we have our AGM, I try to pay for their phone bill, because they're trying to phone all their veterans also.
Part of our policy is that they keep in touch with their veterans, especially if they're older and they're Second World War guys. This is the way we try to pay them back a bit of money, because the guys are complaining, “Geez, my phone bill is $150 or $200”, and they don't have the money for it. So they can't very well do their job unless they have some funding.
I don't know. We could probably work it out. Depending on how much we receive as core funding, we could divide it up between the provinces and territories.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Thank you.
I'm very accommodating with regard to committee members asking whatever questions they want. There were some people raising some questions about how relevant some questions were to health care, but I realize that these witnesses, in a sense, approached us of their own volition, not necessarily particularly in regard to the health care study. So I was pretty accommodating. That's just something to keep in mind.
We now go over to the Conservative Party of Canada, and Mrs. Hinton, for seven minutes.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Welcome to the committee.
I'm not sure where to start, because when I listen to the other questioners, I start writing myself a lot of notes here.
You mentioned the monument. You're referring to the one in Confederation Park, I'm assuming. I would like to tell you that my understanding is that it is finished. It has been completed, but my understanding is that you want to add new panels.
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
No, it was never completed.
Conservative
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
The panels. There's one going around.
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
You'll see the one with the panels on and one that's there right now.
You see, the panels are the ones with the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, and peacekeeping. They're supposed to go on the bottom. They're about 10x8 feet wide, and they cost a lot of money.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Okay. Maybe we could talk about this part of it later. I just wanted to mentioned that this was my information, that it had been completed.
The VIP program is the program that keeps veterans in their homes. You raised a couple of things today. You're saying that written pamphlets don't work, and that computers don't work. I think I heard you suggest that there needs to be a one-on-one conversation. You also mention that there are, at a minimum, 4,000 people of Métis or Inuit background who are not receiving benefits. It would pretty much be virtually impossible to phone them one-on-one. Does your organization have people in all parts of the area who might be able to actually deliver some messages about what is available and what isn't? Because you also mentioned that there's a language barrier.
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
Yes, there is the language barrier, to start off with.
As I just said to Peter, we don't have the money to communicate by phone. The computer is good, if they can use it. They can use it from me to them and then pass a message on if something else comes up. As I said, I met last week with the ombudsman--we have that coming up in the picture for Veterans Affairs--but he has 7,000 people to deal with, so how's he going to do it one-on-one? The thing is that we have a problem because we don't have funds to communicate properly.
I'm saying that when you communicate with aboriginal people, the elders will push you off. So you have to try to get to the younger part of the family and try to tell them, “Listen, it's good for you to do that.” I had problems with my mom doing that, getting her into a care home.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I understand.
We're not here to discuss compensation, and we're not here to discuss funding for organizations; we're supposed to be here to discuss what we can do for veterans. I read a few of your recommendations, and there are a few things I'd like to ask you, if I may.
In response to your comment about not being part of the health care review, that's what you're here for today, sir, so that we can get that kind of input from you.
So the questions I have are these. How many members does your organization have? Do you keep a membership list? And how's your organization funded? Those are three key ones about funding. And the fourth one is, could you please tell me what kind of food would fall under the category of number 13 on your list, which says “traditional foods to Aboriginal veterans”. Could you please describe what “traditional food” would be, so that we can all understand it a little better?
Alistair MacPhee
I'll be glad to answer that question.
I just want to take one step back. When the aboriginal veteran goes into long-term care or into a hospital or something, it's quite a shock going from the aboriginal environment into the, for the sake of a better word, mainstream environment, where there's no sensitivity to his aboriginality, even language, or whatever. I was reading the minutes of the previous meetings you had, and you had talked about the loneliness that the veteran feels in the system. I would say that would be compounded for the aboriginal veteran, because not only are they in a strange environment, away from the community, but the food they're being served has very little relation to their cultural background.
I think that some acknowledgement of the traditional foods or some process of having traditional foods coming through the system would be of great value.