Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2011

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

And there is no provincial expenditure in any of this?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

The federal government is providing all the funds necessary to fund those facilities we've put in place, the 17 clinics I've just indicated, as well as the in-residence treatment.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

But what about the provincial long-term care, Minister? Who pays for the provincial long-term care?

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

One at a time. Let the minister finish before you ask a question.

Are you finished?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

But he's not answering me, Mr. Chair.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Well, would you ask your question again, please?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Does the federal government pay for all of that provincially provided long-term care for modern-day veterans?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

We are providing services in conjunction with the province, and this approach is working very well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Be very brief.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

And you pay for all of it? Does the province pay for any of it?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

As I just mentioned, health is a provincial jurisdiction. That's why we are working with the provinces to make sure that our veterans are provided the services they need.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much.

We now go to Mr. Lizon, for five minutes.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And thank you, Minister, and the deputy minister, for coming here this morning.

Mr. Chair, I would like to direct the first question to the minister, and my first question is on the new Veterans Charter.

As we know, this is a living document that focuses on the health and well-being of our veterans and ensures that they have the programs and benefits they deserve.

Can the minister please tell this committee how the new Veterans Charter is remaining current with our veterans' needs?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the question. If I may, I will say this. Now when we talk about the New Veterans Charter, it also includes the improvements we've made.

With the New Veterans Charter, we hope that the veteran can return to civilian life. The steps we are taking are designed to ensure that the veteran can make a smooth transition toward civilian life and, for veterans who have been seriously injured, to ensure that they are supported and have all the services they need.

We have often talked about the lump sum disability payment. This is an amount that is paid to recognize the pain and suffering of an injury incurred during military service. With the improvements made to the new charter, we are giving veterans some flexibility, so that they are in a better position to choose. Most of our veterans decide to have the amount paid in a lump sum, but payments can also be spread out. What's important is that this disability pension is just one of the aspects of the new charter to support the veteran during his or her rehabilitation. So this is why we have an allowance for earnings loss.

In the past, we realized that veterans who had done their military service 10, 15 or 20 years ago had lower incomes. We also considered that, with 75% of the salary, the veteran had a relatively low amount to meet his or her needs. This is why we introduced a minimum amount of $40,000 for veterans who are in the rehabilitation process and who are receiving the permanent impairment allowance. These two important measures were put in place when we made improvements to the New Veterans Charter.

Of course, we also put in place programs that deal with physical and psychological support, including all the services the veteran is entitled to. When we talk about physical rehabilitation, a good example would be Sergeant Neilsen, who fell on an improvised explosive device on July 1, 2010, and was wounded. Because he lost a leg, he is entitled to all the rehabilitation services necessary to help him regain his health and to successfully reintegrate into society.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair, I have a second question for the deputy minister. We already touched on the subject of the transformation initiatives the department is undertaking. Maybe you can elaborate more on how these initiatives will improve the delivery of services to our veterans.

[Suzanne Tining]

Thank you very much for this question.

As I said, two years ago we had an independent assessment done of the department's capacity to have relevant programs to meet the current and future needs of veterans. That assessment was done two years ago. The assessment demonstrated, frankly, that we needed to simplify our way of doing business, and that's the basis on which the transformation of the department has been taking place. That's where we have a five-year plan with deliverables every year to digitalize paper, as the minister said. We are a paper intensive industry because, for a veteran to access benefits and services, these have to be related to his or her military service. So we must have access to the service records that are within the Department of National Defence. We have to go to Library and Archives. We need to become more electronic in this phase of our business.

Overall in our service delivery we have already cut the number of weeks that a veteran has to wait for a decision on a disability pension or disability award. We have reduced by half the time it takes to assess a file for a rehabilitation plan. We have already made some significant improvements in service delivery. As I said before, much more will come by investment in technology, simplifying our policies that have been accumulated over many years, and questioning every piece of work we are doing as to whether or not it adds value to the end result of providing the veterans with the care and services they need. To that extent the staff at Veterans Affairs are involved and are part and parcel of the improvements we are making.

The transformation is based on simplifying our policies and business processes, overhauling our service delivery through the use of technology, and aligning the demographics of the staff in the department to where the veterans live and where they need to have the services. All of that should improve, piece by piece, inch by inch, the services we are providing to veterans.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much, Ms. Tining.

We will go to Ms. Adams for the last five minutes.

[Eve Adams, Conservative, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

In the 2011-12 expenditures there are some increases, I think most notably for the enhancements to veterans services, the establishment of the veterans ombudsman's office, and for ex gratia payments for Agent Orange—all items, I might add, that the Conservative government introduced.

Minister, could you provide some additional information on that, and some clarification?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Yes, absolutely. I thank you for your question.

As I mentioned this morning the committee is seized today with approving—and I seek your support for it—an additional $64.3 million. It goes roughly half and half between a grant and a contribution.

The core of it is for the Agent Orange payments. It's $20 million for the ex gratia payments related to Agent Orange. This is an issue that our Prime Minister has committed to deal with, and that's what we've done. Actually we've extended the program so we are able to make sure that all of those who were impacted and eligible will have access to it. So that's $20 million for Agent Orange.

The second part would be the one I mentioned, which is the work in conjunction with the ombudsman. We've made sure, as a department, that those who are entitled to programs have access to them. It's $20 million, so we're already at $40 million out of the $60 million.

One other, the $10 million, is key, and it's the “invest to save”. We are modernizing at this point in time. We are turning to information technology, moving from a paper-oriented business to a more modern department. That's why we are investing $10 million.

The rest of it has to do with some contingency requirements at the Ste. Anne's Hospital. We've increased our number of case managers because, in some areas, mostly where there have been military deployed and who are returning from mission, there was an additional need. So we have made adjustments on the ground to that reality.

There is also our new community war memorial program, and I can tell you this is an initiative that I'm very proud of. This is $1.25 million. This program has repercussions in all of our communities, since local organizations will be provided with some extra funding so they can take care of those cenotaphs. I can tell you that this program is working very well. All organizations throughout the country are benefiting from modernizing, reshaping, or just making sure that the cenotaphs are not deteriorating.

The last $10 million is for the new Veterans Charter. I think it's a very sound program. I would add that this morning we are asking for $8.5 million for the new Veterans Charter. I'm talking about $189 million over five years. You may say that it doesn't add up, as eight times $5 million is $40 million. But I have the forecast for the next five years. This year it's $8 million, but next year we expect it will go up to $30 million, and then $40 million, $50 million, and $58 million. We expect there will be rapid take-up of this program. We have to take into account that these new enhancements were implemented in October, so it was halfway through the fiscal year. That's why this year the investment in enhancements to the new Veterans Charter is a little bit less—actually it's much less than what we expect in the coming years.

[Eve Adams, Conservative, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

I know it's a wonderful thing that our veterans will benefit from those enhancements.

My next question is to your deputy, Madam Tining. Thank you very much for joining us here today.

Our Conservative government acted when no other governments did, by providing $20,000 in ex gratia payments to eligible military personnel for Agent Orange. Last December this government announced an extension to those payments.

Can you give me a sense of how many people you expect to benefit from that extension, and how many people have already availed themselves of those payments?

[Suzanne Tining]

Thank you very much for the question.

As you will remember, the Agent Orange ex gratia payment was introduced in 2007, and it was to end in October of last year. With the extension that was granted by the government, we were able to assess and continue the program until December 31. Through this extension, and through the enlargement of eligibility to recognize those who may have died before the ex gratia program was put in place, we have received 3,400 applications. We expended an additional $25 million through that extension. Overall, close to 5,000 people have received the ex gratia payment, for a total amount of just below $100 million.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much, Ms. Tining.

That is all the time we have, unfortunately. I know that the minister has to leave, so I'm going to suspend the meeting for a couple of minutes before we start the next round, because I understand that Mr. Hillier is going to join us.

I want to say, Minister , thank you very much not only for being with us today, but also for the good work that you're doing. Keep at it.

We'll resume in two minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

If you wouldn't mind taking your seats, we're going to resume. As you know, we just suspended for a couple of minutes. We're going into the second round. I'm not sure how long we're going to keep going. We do have to do the vote on the supplementary estimates, obviously.

I'll say welcome again to the deputy. And certainly, Mr. Hillier is no stranger to this process.

What we're going to do, assuming that there's no additional statement, is to go right into the second round of questions, if everybody is comfortable with that.

We'll start with Ms. Papillon, please.

[Annick Papillon, NDP, Québec, QC]

Thank you for being here today. And I hope that the minister will come see us again in the coming weeks and months.

If I understood the minister correctly, we are responsible for the health of our veterans and for providing them with all the services necessary, be it short or long-term health care. He also said that health care is a provincial responsibility. So he was admitting that the bill will be sent to the provinces, particularly in the case of Ste. Anne's hospital that will be transferred to the province, and that's normal because it is under the province's jurisdiction.

Lastly, the federal government is washing its hands of this matter and will not give the provinces any money to take over Ste. Anne's hospital. Once the last Korean War veteran dies, no other veteran will benefit from the expertise at Ste. Anne's hospital, meaning no modern-day veteran.

[Suzanne Tining]

Thank you for your question. I'll start with Ste. Anne's hospital and will then answer your question about long-term health care.

Let me give you a little bit of background. After the two world wars, the health care institutions in Canada could not take care of all the veterans who came back wounded. At the time, the Department of Veterans Affairs had a network of hospitals throughout the country to meet the health care needs of veterans coming back from the war.

In the 1960s, following the Glassco commission, the provinces acquired the constitutional responsibility for health care. The hospitals that had been run by the Department of Veterans Affairs were gradually transferred to the provinces. As for your question, the fundamental point to keep in mind is that, when a member of the Canadian Forces is wounded or becomes ill because of his or her military service, the federal government, through our department, contributes to the health care required in connection with the military service. Therefore, the provinces do not assume the health care responsibility for illnesses or injuries related to military service because it is the federal government's responsibility.

As for Ste. Anne's hospital, we are negotiating with the province for its transfer. Right now, the Province of Quebec is assuming some of the costs related to Ste. Anne's hospital because the veterans there are also Quebeckers. So the province receives funding through the Canada Health Transfer, which covers part of the costs of Ste. Anne's hospital.

At Ste. Anne's hospital and at all long-term health care centres, the Department of Veterans Affairs covers the proportion used for improving the health care of our veterans and for all the health care related to their military service.