Veterans Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Could you submit it to us?

[Keith Hillier]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

That would be an interesting number to know.

A second question.... I've been able to observe the testimony from this meeting and the last meeting, and there are some things that are not very clear to me. So could I ask you very specifically, Mr. Hillier, what was the exact nature of the communication that you had from the ombudsman regarding his concerns about homeless veterans? What was the nature of that?

[Keith Hillier]

Well, the issue of homelessness was brought up by the ombudsman, I would say, probably--don't quote me--late summer, last fall, maybe September. He does make reference to that timeframe, when you look at it. He did say he felt there were some homeless folks out there, based on some of his early travels. Really, I haven't seen a report from him on homelessness.

When I referred to the various discussion papers earlier in my testimony here today, there wasn't one put forward on homelessness, if that's your question. Certainly he has brought attention to the issue; I will certainly give him credit for that. In fact, we have not received a report, a query, other than what I said, that I think there were some homeless people out there. The reality is, let's not be naïve. There are some there, and we're trying to find them. In some cases, they don't want to be found. I think there is a balance, too. While we're very concerned for homeless veterans--and I think we would all agree that one homeless veteran is too many--we also have 220,000 clients we know of who need our services.

One could argue that we should have someone visit a homeless shelter every day in case a veteran could come in, but of course that's just not practical. That's why it's important for us to do some outreach, but also to outreach to those who are connected to that community and work together to get those others back.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I want to be clear in my question, because I don't want you to have the perception that I want to indicate any diminishment of importance on what homelessness is. Because it is so important, I am concerned about the nature of the communications. You're saying that the ombudsman communication was not by a discussion paper, not by a report, but it was by a casual means of communication, i.e., a phone call, an e-mail, or through the press.

[Keith Hillier]

That's right. The discussion paper that was referred to previously was a discussion paper that was put together by the department. As I indicated in my testimony, there were numerous discussions with the ombudsman. I shouldn't say the ombudsman himself; I think it's very clear to be on the record that many of the discussions that take place between the ombudsman's office and the staff in the department are at an officials level. They are not all at the level of the ombudsman, or the directors general, or the assistant deputy ministers.

There has not been a document for us to react to.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Finally, I think this would be interesting for this committee. If we embarked on a study of homelessness here at this committee, can you see the department benefiting from the information that we could glean from calling witnesses and possibly travelling for investigation as well?

[Keith Hillier]

Well, anything we can do to help a veteran is a good idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, Mr. Hillier. We appreciate your testimony.

If you would like to thank Mr. Hillier, please do that. We're going to go in camera in two minutes just for some brief committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]