Veterans Affairs Committee on April 20th, 2009

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

For some people, yes, because there are some categories where there are not enough people. There are people going abroad two or three times in a couple of years. That is a lot.

There are people who go into operations for six months and then for four years don't go, but there are people who go every six months. After six months, they stay home, and then they have to leave again. For these people, it is stressful to go abroad. For these people, our organization reduces the period they stay abroad so that it is not six months, but two or three months. We are going to reduce the stress of these people in this matter.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

How many diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder in your forces do you have right now?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

I'm talking about the air force, because I don't have any percentages for the others. There are just a few people who come back and then have this kind of problem. If they have this kind of problem, they don't go abroad any more.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

So right now you say there are only a few. Do you think there are many soldiers there who may have this but aren't diagnosed? Is it an increasing problem?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

No. In the beginning, we had a lot of people who volunteered because there was extra pay there, but when people discovered that it was not so easy to stay abroad, then you had a period when people refused to volunteer. Now it is mandatory for at least 80% of people, but for people coming back, there are just a few cases where there is stress about operations abroad.

Sometimes people are more stressed doing normal service than they are staying abroad. People change a lot when they go abroad. They stay together and work together. It is more powerful than when they stay in service--

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

What's normal service?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

Sometimes we don't have a problem abroad, but we have some problems when they stay in normal service. I don't know if you understand this.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Andrews, I'm sorry, but we're well over the five minutes. We'll have to get to that in the next round. Time is not elastic, unfortunately.

Monsieur Crête, vous disposez de cinq minutes.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Bonotto, are there comparative tables showing similar situations in major European countries? As an expert in the area, do you have tables of that kind that would let us see whether the numbers are approximately the same? For example, you mentioned 100,000 euros within 10 days of a death. Is that intended to standardize the rules, or does each country operate individually?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

I do not have a comparison with other nations. I don't know if there is this kind of insurance for the people of France or Germany who go abroad.

We decided to do this because the state wanted to indemnify the people with something like that. Our organization does this, but I don't know if they checked abroad to see if any other nation does this. Sorry, but I don't know if the other countries, Canada or the others, have this.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Are there organizations in Italy established to defend the rights of military veterans that could send us an evaluation of how effective these programs are?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

Sorry, but which problem?

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Basically, I want to know if you have evaluations showing the satisfaction rate among retired or disabled veterans, even the families of those affected. Has an evaluation been done to measure satisfaction with these programs?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

I don't know if people are satisfied. Sorry.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

So you do not have that...

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

If you are looking at the newspapers, sometimes the newspapers can come out with a release saying that something is not working properly. We have had a few cases where people were not satisfied. I think there were just two or three cases.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

It is somewhat the same in Quebec and in Canada. The cases you read about in the papers are the marginal ones that cause the greatest frustration.

Has the entire system had new legislation or regular updates in the past? Or has the model been in existence for a number of years with just some adjustments to the amounts?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

I don't know.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Italy has taken part in two world wars as well as in foreign conflicts, specifically in Africa. The historical aspect is very important. In that context, is this scheme seen to meet the needs of the beneficiaries?

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

I'm not sure that I understand the question, but people in Italy, since 1985, have decided to go abroad and so on. They go to Somalia and everywhere now. The military goes abroad because they are tasked to do it. They are satisfied to go there. They're not complaining about the operation. For the military, the government or the state decides, and then the military goes abroad.

[Paul Crête, Bloc, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I understand that, but I would like to know whether Italian society feels that these programs are fair when a soldier is wounded, loses his life or retires.

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

Since the military has been doing missions abroad, the citizens have more satisfaction because they look at the end results. They are doing something that is different from just looking out from inside the gates, like during the Cold War, when the people stayed inside and did nothing. The satisfaction of the citizens was not so good then. Starting from 1985, when the military went abroad, the citizens saw the military doing something positive and the satisfaction of the Italians improved. There is no discussion about why we went to Iraq. The citizens see the military forces do this and they are satisfied, because they know the military does its work very well or well, depending....

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, General.

Thank you, Mr. Crête.

Unfortunately, I've done the same thing that I've done in the past and have followed the second cycle, so there are two Conservative spots now, because I should have gone from a Liberal to a Conservative and then back to the Bloc. Actually, there are three, so Mr. Lobb will be next.

Mr. Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you very much, General.

In Canada, one of the programs we have is the veterans independence program. It provides services to veterans for some basic functions, such as hearing aids for those with hearing impairment. It also provides financial support to veterans who still live at home for items such as lawn maintenance and shovelling snow and for a number of different services. I've wondered if there's a similar program in Italy that you provide to your veterans.

[BGen Sanzio Bonotto]

Are you talking about training, about tactics?