Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 7th, 2011

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Typically you would hear from an ombudsman. At least from my perspective of an ombudsman at the provincial level, it deals more with processes and ensuring that there is justice, recommendations and so forth. If you think of the average vet who is retired, who would be the true advocate for a vet and what role would you play in that?

[Guy Parent]

I think I mentioned in my presentation my concern is that there are a lot of representative groups that identify people by their service where and when. Certainly my objective could be to communicate with these groups and make them realize the value of speaking with one voice. Although I cannot support any group individually, I can certainly look at the issues they bring forward and, as a mandated ombudsman, put them to the minister and the government as one voice. Of course, I cannot support one individual in particular because of having to maintain independence and neutrality.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Finally, in regard to the whole issue of transitional challenges, in particular, individuals who have some form of mild mental issues coming out of the forces, can you comment in terms of the deficiencies that you believe are there? Are there deficiencies in providing that transitional access?

[Guy Parent]

I mentioned two earlier.

One, for instance, is the spectrum of care and the fact that the medications available within the DND spectrum of care are not the same as the ones available in the Veterans Affairs Canada spectrum of care. So there is a transition from one medication to another. I'm sure you've probably heard in some testimony that one of the most dangerous stages for somebody suffering from mental health injuries is when you do the transition from one medication to another. The other one is the transition from one caregiver to another.

I think there's work to be done in that area between National Defence and Veterans Affairs that looks maybe at the spectrum of care and how we can actually make it a lot easier so that some of the medications used by VAC could be used by DND, or vice versa, so that the transition is not based on what is available on this side of the fence. What we're advocating in the transition is getting rid of the fence. The smoother the transition can be, the better off the individual will be.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Are different types of medical prescriptions and so forth something Veterans Affairs covers the entire cost of, or do they work with provinces, the primary provider of pharmaceuticals? Are there agreements between the two? How does that translate?

[Guy Parent]

If it's a service-related injury, I think VAC pays for it completely.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Would they be compensated by the provinces?

[Guy Parent]

I'm not sure of that. I'll have to pass on that one.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We're running out of time, but I've agreed that I'm going to give a short question to Peter, Mr. Vincent, Mr. Mayes, and the Liberals, if they have one more short question.

We'll go to Mr. Stoffer first.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

That's kind of you.

Sir, how many people work in your department altogether?

[Guy Parent]

At this point in time, we have 32 people.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

You have 32 people.

You said that you receive about 2,000 calls a year. That's only six or seven calls a day. That's not very busy, to be honest with you. I would hope that there would be more coming in than just 2,000 a year. That's only six or seven calls a day. I was wondering if you could tell me what else keeps you busy.

[Guy Parent]

I'll change that to ten, then, who are involved.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Okay, very good. Thank you. I just wanted to know.

[Guy Parent]

Ten people are involved in the office. That's the full complement of the office, but there is an operational division that looks after the cases. Again, without simplifying the process, the information is not always available to the person who answers the phone. So there is a research component and a contact component before they get back to the others. It's a fair amount of work.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I'd just like to make a motion one day that when the committee has a chance, we visit his office and see how they do it.

[Guy Parent]

Sure, excellent.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Go ahead, Mr. Vincent.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Your testimony today dealt with two subjects: suicide and post-traumatic stress. Since you have held this position, what problems have you uncovered in this regard?

[Guy Parent]

On the question of suicide, we have talked about that already: we don't consider the issue to be a real problem now. It may be different later.

On the question of post-traumatic stress, we are currently concerned about the problem of access to specialized clinics. That process is not as open as it could be or should be. As well, communications to promote the services available are not up to the job. People are not aware of the services offered, and that is another problem.

In terms of the bureaucracy and the process, the steps to be followed are already so complicated for someone with all their wits about them, and so it becomes a double challenge for someone suffering from post-traumatic stress.

So these are the three aspects we are focusing on at present.

As I said, we always keep an eye on developments relating to the subjects that concern us. All of the personal complaints that are brought to the front line in our office are assessed. That enables us to detect subjects that are developing systemically, which will be added to our subjects for future study.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to ask you a question. Is it possible for complaints received by the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman to be broken down by category? That would tell us what problems that veterans are experiencing are the subject of the largest number of complaints.

[Guy Parent]

We can send you statistics on the categories of complaints we receive. That is no problem.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Perfect, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

You can send that to the clerk?

[Guy Parent]

Yes, we will.