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.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
Nice warning. I get to speak until the bells ring; that's good.
I want to explain something, Claude, and I'd like you to correct me if I'm wrong. This is from memory, and sometimes I'm accused of not listening as well as I can remember.
I spoke earlier about my father. When they were released from the service in 1945 and 1946, they were allowed so much money. There's a term for it, and I'm wondering if you know the term.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
Okay.
As I mentioned earlier, my father was a bit of a scrapper and it still took him a decade to get this. It was very specific. It had to be for a business. He ended up buying a home with it, and it paid for more than a third of the home. This is what first nations, aboriginal, and Métis were all refused generally because they simply couldn't fill out the forms. My father was never successful in helping anybody because they couldn't fill out the forms themselves.
Is that roughly correct? Is that what happened at the end of the Second World War and a bit later? Is that what the government at some point in 2002 recognized when they said, “We have to make a payment because we've done something wrong”, but only partly filled the picture in?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
My dad got a house through the DVA, but his partner, who really got shot up in Italy--First Division--lived on the reserve and couldn't get a house. He lived in a log shack. And yet they were veterans of the same regiment.
It was partly their own band that did this to them. They said, “You've got land here. Why do you need land?” They were negotiating.
As to the $2,400 in gratuity payments, whether or not you were a first nations person you got that thing, but half of those guys didn't get it. I think that's why the payment was made of $20,000; it was the gratuity payment.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
From my memory--again, I was a little kid then--they didn't get it because the forms and the criteria were so restrictive. My father couldn't get it for a decade because he couldn't fit into any of the little grooves. He wasn't first nation in any way and he wasn't a quitter. That's how difficult it was.
I'm just trying to explain to my colleagues here how difficult this was, let alone if you had a language barrier or lived 500 miles away from the person you had to talk to. That's what I'm trying to drive at. That's why the government at some point made a compensation claim but missed part of the boat.
Is that what you'd say?
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
Yes, I'd say that. If it weren't for my mom, my dad wouldn't have gotten his small holding loan through DVA. It was so complicated, they even had to go to a lawyer to finish it off. My mom didn't know a lot of the criteria in there.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
I know that Alastair has a comment, but I did want to mention this. I didn't want to give lawyers any credit, but this was exactly how my father got it in the end for his home. He went through a lawyer.
Policy Advisor, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
I want to mention a story that I heard from Cliff Chadderton.
He was in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, and he had a lot of Métis in his platoon and regiment. They were excellent snipers and great soldiers. He said that after the war, everybody was anxious to get back home and get back to a normal life. Several years later, I believe, he decided to look up these Métis guys to see what they were doing. He drove to northern Manitoba to find them, and there they were, living exactly as they had back in the thirties. They hadn't accessed any benefits. They were back living the traditional way. That's when the light bulb went off in his mind that there was something wrong with this program.
In many ways, that's what we're dealing with today.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
That's what I remember from sitting around that table; my dad had gotten this house because he had served, and they had served and received nothing. They were never successful because of the language barrier, the filling out of the forms, and all the other issues they had to deal with.
Very quickly, before the chair cuts me off or the bells go, I can't tell you how many times around this table I've raised the issue of not knowing who we serve, whether it's the veterans in the area or the veterans returning from Afghanistan. We have difficulty finding that out. Having to deal with the lag time of the number of decades that you've had to deal with in trying to find these people, I can recognize your frustration. I've said here that there has to be some way we can find out who our veterans are so that we can contact them, even if it's as simple as, when they're released from the service, notifying them of their MP and the contact number and everything else they need to contact us. We don't know who they are unless they come by, or we happen to meet them, or through word of mouth, or at the Legion. It's very difficult for us, and it's something I think we fail at miserably, trying to contact our veterans.
I don't know if you want to comment on that before we move on. Thanks again for coming out today.
President, National Aboriginal Veterans Association
It would be a good idea if we were informed. We're not informed about these things. MPs especially should be informed that they have a young guy in Afghanistan, or that he was serving and is coming home. I have friends who have kids overseas, doing three terms over there. Three runs at it; that's not very nice.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Thank you, Mr. Valley.
From the Conservative Party, Mr. Cannan, for five minutes.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We're just about out of time, and we still have to deal with a witness submission, so I'd like to thank you both for appearing here today.
I'd also like to thank you for your service. I'm looking at your well-deserved medals, and I'm thinking you must have a back brace to prop all of them up; they're a lot of weight.
Basically, we're supposed to be talking about health care and the services required to deal with your organization. I think the discussion has gone way off on several occasions. I know this government is far from perfect, but we've done more for veterans in the last couple of years than any government I know of.
I represent Kelowna—Lake Country in the Okanagan, and the B.C. Métis have their convention in my riding each year. We have some of the best and most progressive aboriginal communities in Canada.
So I think we have to recognize that there's a long way to go. I appreciate your comments and what you've put in writing. There's always room for improvement in communication, and I'll make sure that we make the minister and the staff aware of that.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Mr. Cannan was the last speaker I had on the list.
We are close to the time with regard to the bells, and we do have a matter of business with regard to a potential future witness.
With that, I'd like to thank our witnesses very much. I think some of us may be approaching you afterwards, at some point in the future, with regard to some of the ideas discussed here. And thank you very much for your service to the country. I'll let members get up to greet you or to say goodbye, as they will.
Members, I'll carry on to the next piece of business before the bells start going on us and the House carries out a vote.
Mr. Cannan has submitted the name of Helen Gough to be a potential witness for our health care review. She is an occupational therapist.
Mr. Cannan, do you wish to speak to that at all?
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Sure, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
This is the young lady who, with her husband, sat in on the last committee meeting here. She actually works for Veterans Affairs but will be appearing on her own behalf as a professional occupational therapist. Her husband is a captain currently serving with our forces.
She is very interested and would like to provide some insight, in terms of the professional expertise she's garnered to date, on how we can improve and add to the health care review we're embarking on right now. She'll try to provide some suggestions from her experience so that we can make an improved and more efficient health care system for our veterans.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
I'm taking a list now of people who want to comment.
Mr. St. Denis is first, Mr. Stoffer is on deck.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I won't take long.
Was this the couple sitting straight behind you, over by the cooler? Okay. Obviously they're local people, so I don't see a problem with that, but--
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Actually, right now they're stationed in B.C., but they're being transferred to Edmonton. She was here for some occupational therapist meetings on Monday.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
Oh, so we're talking about bringing her in from British Columbia.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
Okay.
Well, before we hear more comments on that, do we have a timeline? I know that we have our visits to Petawawa and Valcartier lined up, so in terms of putting the report to bed, the next chapter, however we want to consider it, we should talk about that too.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
If I may, in many respects it's all pending on these last few trips. You can't really do the trip if you've already completed the report. The trip is contingent on the report. So once the trips have taken place, then I think the report follows right on the heels of that.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
We have a lot of stuff. I'm assuming that Michel, with the help of Melissa for those few meetings, will have all of this more or less organized.