Evidence of meeting #37 for Veterans Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Okay, thank you.
We'll hear from Mr. Mayes, and then we'll come over to the Liberals.
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Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for the testimony today. I really appreciate it, and I've learned a lot.
One of the things I always like to reflect on is what other people, other countries, are doing as far as veterans and this issue of operational stress go. Have you studied the best practices of countries like Australia, the United States, and the U.K.?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
We haven't looked specifically at that, because it's not a subject of systemic review right now. We're keeping an eye on anything that is developed in other countries. We certainly keep in touch with other countries, and our process for systemic review always includes a comparative study of other like-minded countries. But in the specific area of mental health, no, we haven't at this point.
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Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
What about in particular the suicide aspect of mental health? Have you researched anything that has that?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
We just have the available literature.
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Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
I would think that would be relatively important, because in some of my readings I've found that they are having trouble in the U.K., for instance. I'd be interested to know how they are reacting to that need.
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
I was also a part of the research in Kingston, the forum on health-related research. I'm glad to see that in that area at least now we're focusing on Canadian research. I think a lot of the data that is not available now will likely be available in years to come. That's going to be a great help in that respect.
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Conservative
Colin Mayes Conservative Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to working with you.
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Conservative
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Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Can you indicate how many vets Canada has, both regular and reserve?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
You mean vets that are...?
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Liberal
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
How many vets would we actually have in Canada--regular and reserve?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
Do you mean clients of Veterans Affairs?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
Do you mean clients of Veterans Affairs or potential veterans?
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
In fact the potential vets--no, that's not the clients.
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I think my analyst just said there are somewhere around 800,000.
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Jean-Rodrigue Paré Committee Researcher
If you take the potential whole population, there are about 800,000. That's an estimate, because we don't....
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I was going to say, certainly 800,000 would probably be potential clients.
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
There would be potentially 800,000.
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Liberal
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A voice
There are 800,000.
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Veterans Ombudsman, Chief Warrant Officer (Retired), Office of the Veterans Ombudsman
That includes reserves and regular force.