Veterans Affairs Committee on March 13th, 2008

[Claude Petit]

Well, take the newsletter as an example. We didn't have any French-speaking veterans. We have American veterans who are in Quebec, but now I'm getting, from New Brunswick, French-speaking veterans who can't even speak English. We're starting to receive them through that newsletter.

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

I've gotten your message loud and clear over the last hour and a half that the key thing is bridging--in terms of language, in terms of technology, in terms of person-to-person--but once that bridge is made, once you actually connect with someone in your community and they get the services from Veterans Affairs, by and large are they happy?

[Claude Petit]

Well, they're always having a problem with the services, but still we try to assist them. Cliff Chadderton helps us out a lot. He has a lot of power in there, I guess, and he has a lot of resource people who can help put the package together for the veteran. You need a lot of information before you even go to DVA.

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

Let me just try to isolate it once more. If Cliff gets involved, all the forms and everything are done, and the application is appropriate, by and large are they happy with the services they're getting, when all that's looked after?

[Claude Petit]

That's if it's approved. Getting it approved is the key thing. I went to them about four or five times before I got approved.

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

Okay, but how about after it's approved? By and large, are you...?

I'm trying to simply isolate, sir, where your concern is. I think the key thing is the outreach--including, of course, some of the other things in here, such as the facilities and making the food culturally sensitive. But in terms of individual services, when you do apply for them properly, after the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, and you do eventually get the services, by and large is the community happy with the services they're getting?

[Claude Petit]

No, they're not. There's always something they didn't receive or that wasn't approved. It's a personal thing. But they're still not happy with the treatment they get from the Department of Veterans Affairs, to put it bluntly.

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

So there are other issues, even, well outside of these recommendations.

[Claude Petit]

That's right. Take me, for example--

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

Did you discuss those with the ombudsman when you were there?

[Claude Petit]

No, we haven't had the chance yet. He hasn't got it in place yet. He hasn't started it.

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

Okay, but you had a conversation with him, you said, to brief him about your organization, etc.

[Claude Petit]

Oh, certainly he knows; I was invited. And I have proposals going in on how we were mistreated and in terms of communication--as I've said before, that's the problem--between us and our veterans. We haven't got the funds to do it.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Sweet, that was right on five minutes, five exactly; I'm so impressed.

Now we'll go to Monsieur Perron.

You have five minutes, Mr. Perron.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

This will be brief, Mr. Petit. I sense some frustration in your answers. Things are not moving quickly enough for you and you do not feel well served.

My question is a delicate one. Aboriginals are known for not voting regularly. Their participation rate is very low, and they have little political clout as a result. Could this participation in the political process be one of the reasons why you feel that you get indifferent help, or an indifferent reception, from Veterans Affairs Canada and from politicians like us, myself included?

[Claude Petit]

I don't think we're getting enough attention from anybody—from the politicians, from Veterans Affairs. I don't know; anyone I speak to, it goes dead.

We've never even had an answer from the submission we made two or three years ago to government, to the Department of Veterans Affairs, concerning the proposal that was done for the Hong Kong veterans and the merchant navy. To go on that line, the people who deserve it get it. That's it.

It's not fair that just first nations guys get $20,000. It's not fair to the Métis and non-status and Inuit. We're still aboriginal people, and that's entrenched in the Constitution. But we didn't receive it and we weren't told why. The department made their own decisions on how they were going to receive it.

That's another thing. As I said before, they had to jump through hoops to get that money. I had to help one person from northern Ontario get his $20,000.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I understand your explanation, but I am trying to find out why things are like they are. There is no reason. I had an outlandish idea, maybe a stupid one, as I was listening to you. Is it because you do not vote in sufficient numbers and have no political clout?

I do not understand why you get no answers. I do not understand why people do not listen to you. I do not understand. There is no reason. Why? Is it because of your lack of political clout? What is it? Why are you not listened to? That is my question.

[Claude Petit]

Well, well, well, it's government. It's government. It has nothing to do with the way I vote. I go into that cubicle by myself—

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

But you guys are voting--

[Claude Petit]

No, no, the thing is.... Maybe I'll move to Quebec.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Claude Petit]

But I don't think that has anything to do with voting. The first nations people, or the aboriginal people of Canada, this was their land. There were agreements made for them, and I think they deserve it.

I'm Métis. My ancestor came from France and married a native girl. That's why I'm a Métis. I'm a French Métis. This is the land of the first nations people, and I think they should be treated like that. Everything they ask for should be coming from the other population of Canada. Think of it that way. That's the way I look at it.

I don't have to go and vote to say that I'm an aboriginal guy, nor does anybody else. It really upsets me that we have to vote to win something; especially as a veteran. I don't think so.

About the first nation people, you hear a lot of complaining about a lot of other things they're doing in terms of health especially, about gangs, and dope, and stuff like that. Nobody's doing anything. I'm trying to help the cadets in that Bold Eagle program, and there's the Raven program in Victoria. If we had more programs like that for aboriginal kids...but not only aboriginal people; it would help the other population of Canada.

You have to remember that they were the first people here. That is their land. There were agreements made for their land with the Government of Canada. I think we have to look at it that way.

I don't have to vote to get some money. If they don't want to give it to me, it's up to them. I go into that cubicle by myself. I vote the way I want to vote.

And you're right too, because a lot of governments look at it that way. As you know, Saskatchewan is now PC—we were NDP for a long time—so that has a lot of effect.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I do not think so, sir. I think that it is more the fact that you do not vote.

I have 12 seconds left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

No, you're plus; you're at six minutes, ten seconds.

We'll go to Mr. Valley, with the Liberal Party, for five minutes.

I would just warn everybody that we expect the bells to ring at any second.