Evidence of meeting #39 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 board.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I think we're getting into another debate here.
Please give me your response.
4:15 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
With respect to your requests for information, I believe that's information we can obtain and we can provide you with as much as is available to us.
On your question, again, we tend to receive at the board those cases that are more difficult, and they are not...because of the small number that come from the number that the department deals with in a year. But at the tribunal or at the board, our members have the opportunity to have all the material before them, keeping in mind now that at review we have the applicant appearing, giving oral evidence, bringing whatever witnesses, whether they be family witnesses, whether they be.... It's their representative and their choice as to who they want to bring to the hearing. And they have compiled their case, which would include the evidence they want to present to us in order for us to have a complete—
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Can I just interrupt for a second?
You've said this, and I appreciate that. I will ask that you table one more thing with the committee, then. It's only through my experience on Friday, when I spent two and a half hours working with the VAC minister and the review board, and someone said to me out of frustration that they can only work within the parameters of the law. What I'll ask that you table with the committee is anything you feel needs to be changed to make your jobs easier to help the veterans.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you.
That reply can be made....
I'm moving on right now to Mr. Storseth.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much for coming forward today. It's been a very interesting conversation.
I do want to ask you a few questions that kind of go back to the beginning.
How far do your powers extend? Basically, your powers are to review the decisions of the Department of Veterans Affairs, correct?
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Now, many veterans who have, say, PTSD and don't realize it for 10, 15, 20 years afterwards, which is becoming commonplace as there's more work done on PTSD and more people realize what it is and the stigma is taken off it, they're forced to deal with the insurance companies, are they not?
And the reason I ask this is that, before they can get a lot of their benefits, oftentimes they have to go to Sun Life, from my experience, and the decision is often made by Sun Life as to whether or not they have PTSD. In my experience, it's irrelevant whether or not they have a doctor's diagnosis that they have PTSD, the diagnosis of a qualified medical physician such as you were talking about before.
If I could just maybe have you look into that, or if we could talk about that after, that's something I would like to see done. We can't get through it all in a five-minute question and answer, but it's something I wanted to bring up.
We were talking about the 1,400 and the 432 decisions on PTSD last year. What are the timelines we're talking about here from when a veteran files to have the first review done—the 68% that are in favour? What are the timelines between point A and getting the decision on his initial review?
4:20 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
From the time an application is registered with the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, meaning that it's ready to be scheduled for a hearing, the average timeline is less than six months.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Less than six months? So four months, five months?
4:20 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
That's the timelines over which we have control—in other words, their representative has registered their application for review—
4:20 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
—and they're ready to be scheduled.
4:20 p.m.
Director General, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
Well, it's registered with the board, and once it's ready to be scheduled it would be in about three months that we would get it to a hearing. So it's registered with the board, and then, on average, there's some shared time in there with a representative, and then once they say they have their case fully ready to go to a hearing, we usually have it to a hearing within three months, typically two. We do our schedules on a two-month rotation.
4:20 p.m.
Director General, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
Yes. And then the decision is rendered within six weeks following the hearing.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
So the decision is rendered within six weeks.
If that decision, if it's of that 32% that are still denied, goes to the appeal process, how long does that process take?
4:20 p.m.
Director General, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
--yes--two and a half from the date of registration to the hearing, on average, and then it's another six weeks from the hearing to the decision.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Okay. So we're talking nine or ten months here before many of these veterans work their way through the system?
4:20 p.m.
Director General, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
If it were contiguous, on average, yes.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
It seems to be quite a process to undergo simply to get greater entitlements, as you were talking about earlier. How many of these are for greater entitlements, and what would be the average amount of an increased entitlement?
You may not have all that information. It's kind of detailed.
4:25 p.m.
Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
It would be for any reason that the individual was dissatisfied with the decision--whether an entitlement was denied at the department, or whether it was an increase in entitlement, or whether an assessment was not sufficient. There are any number of reasons.
That's the nice thing about this legislation; it allows people to keep coming back.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
I don't mean to cut you off there, but it seems like a fairly frustrating process to go through simply to get an extra $200 or $100 a month for some of these guys. I'm wondering how many veterans don't even bother trying to go through the process because it takes 10 months to a year to get things done. It's frustrating to see that paperwork is the reason why they don't get the proper amount in the first place.
There's one last point I wanted to talk about.
