Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to both of you for coming today.
Sandra, you had indicated that the families were unaware of the programs that are out there for them. It's not just a failure of DVA or the government; it's a failure of all members of Parliament. We send our stuff out to people. We ask them to read it and if they need any help to give us a call. But obviously they're either not reading it or they're using it like junk mail and throwing it away, which is most unfortunate. But it just shows you that all of us have to do a better job of reaching out to them to say, if you ever need help in anything, give us a call.
I don't know what more we can do as MPs. We have the Internet. We mail out. We do this, we do that. But it's not just the government's fault. It's our fault as well. It's something we're going to have to get out there.
I wanted to focus more on the children and the aspect of the children. If you could elaborate a bit more on what the children are going through and what services they may be receiving, or what additional services you think as a government we should be doing....
Mr. Zimmermann, my brother actually worked for Mac Bloedel at the Canadian White Pine mill for 41 years. He was the number one guy on the IWA seniority list. He was quite proud of that.
You must have known a gentleman, before he passed away, by the name of Sean McCormick. He was from the east coast, very similar to yourself. He did this type of work on the east coast. He always found that when people were disabled and they went into another job that they were accommodated for, they always referred to it as their Plan B or Plan C job. What they really wanted was to be able to go back to what they were doing before. They had to deal with that sort of psychological concern that....
For example, veterans are no longer in the military. They've been 3(b)-ed out. I'm following two guys in Nova Scotia. One is very well-adjusted. He's got a new job, he's happy, life is great. But the other one is still thinking that he wants to go back into the military. That's what he knows, that's what he loves. He's got a job, but he's not there yet. He is sick a lot; he calls in sick. The employer is kind of wondering why they have this guy. They're doing their best. So it's a challenge.
I was wondering if you could assist us in how we can assist them in accepting the fact that unfortunately they can't go back into the military, but this other career job is a good thing for them to be doing in that regard.
Sandra, if you could elaborate on the children, that would be most helpful.
Thank you both for coming.