Evidence of meeting #22 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was veterans.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
That's right.
I think the minister announced yesterday that a website was created and he invited veterans with presentations and opinions for the committee to make them known over the website. The appropriate steps will be taken afterwards, depending on what the veterans submit.
The idea is that the scientific committee was set up quickly. You have seen how renowned the members are for their training and medical experience. They have already started their work, the first project being depleted uranium. There is some openness and a mechanism was created for veterans to be able to contribute and make their experiences and opinions known.
In terms of the budget, I am going to ask James to give you an idea, because I don't have the numbers for the committee's budget off the top of my head.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Communications and Commemoration, Department of Veterans Affairs
On the budget for this fiscal year, there were two meetings. There were travel and other expenses considered—so it was a relatively small amount of money for this fiscal year.
On the research side, we want to set the budget based on the research agenda of the committee—what they are doing, what the work plan is, and what is required to ensure that the committee has the resources it needs. We're working very closely with the chair of the committee to ensure that he has the budget he needs to get the work done.
Conservative
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my thanks to everybody for coming.
I would like to follow up on that, Ms. Tining, as some background for those at home and for our veterans. There have been reports in the past on depleted uranium and the department didn't previously recognize this factor, so the committee that the minister has established is a significant step forward. I thank the minister for taking those steps, and I thank the department and yourselves for the leadership you have shown in helping facilitate this. It is a good thing that we have the necessary budget. This is a new project, so we'll continue to monitor it.
I should like to thank Ms. Tining. My riding is from Cold Lake to Edmonton, where a lot of my veterans access their services. There is a significant amount of travel. I brought this up with a number of department officials over the last year—the issue of mileage reimbursements, and Google Maps, and the problems it was creating. This has been taken care of. I have been critical in the past, and I wanted to thank you very much for that.
I want to follow up with a question on the VIP program. I'd like you to elaborate not only on the supplementary estimates, but also on how they're going to be used to give our veterans easier access to the VIP program and to help them get reimbursed more quickly.
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
Thank you for recognizing that some things are improving in the department. We have a very dedicated workforce, and frankly, as the minister said earlier, the transformation and the improvements that we need to bring to the department stem from suggestions from our own staff, our front-line staff, who want to give the best service to the veterans. We need to update the tools they have to do that.
On the VIP program, we have in the last year made some improvements in—the minister would say “red tape”—the level of documentation that the veterans have to provide in order for us to reimburse the costs. Before that, there were numerous approvals that they had to go through one year after the other. We have streamlined that process. Once you are in the program, unless something changes dramatically in your life, you don't need to reapply.
We have given our front-line staff more authority. We have reduced the number of re-authorizations required. We have introduced direct deposit, which has been with us for decades, but which was not available to veterans. Over 50,000 of our veterans have decided to do this—it reduces the paperwork for the department and puts the money in the veterans' accounts faster.
All of this streamlining of operations is, first and foremost, to accelerate the flow of benefits to the veterans, but it is also to equip our own staff with the tools they need in order to improve service to the veterans. The VIP program is a good example of some of the improvements we've made over the last year.
Conservative
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Okay, that's a very important aspect of it. The last brief question I will ask you is in regard to the loss benefit, as Mr. Lobb mentioned, and many of these other programs.
Can you reassure us that the actual benefits to veterans are quasi-statutory, and will be there regardless of whatever our budget shows?
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
The veterans' benefits, the programs and services, are quasi-statutory. That's a complicated term that means basically once a year we have to go through the Treasury Board to get approval for our forecast. Because of the nature of the quasi-statutory, once you are eligible—and that's in the regulation and in the legislation—you get the benefit. The government budgetary process is the mechanism by which the department gets the additional money, if the forecasts are exceeded in one program or other.
Whether you have 10,000 veterans or 50,000 veterans who qualify in a given year, the money is there and the budgetary process allows the department to get that extra money. The department cannot say, sorry, we don't have enough money. The money is there.
Now what you are voting on is our best estimate of what we will need for 2012-13. Should our forecasts not materialize to exactly the same amounts, there are the supplementary estimates by which we go to get the extra money.
I want to reassure the members of the committee, and the veterans, that the budget is never, never in the way of getting the benefits to the veterans once they qualify.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much, Ms. Tining.
Now we go to Mr. Casey for four minutes.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
To follow up to your last question, do you mean to say that when you go to the Treasury Board they're not allowed to say no?
Liberal
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
Yes. Statutory would mean that the Parliament would have approved the program through legislation or regulation. Quasi-statutory means that every year we have to go through a Treasury Board approval process whereby we will provide our forecasts and they will be approved. That's what we are doing here in the main estimates.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
So when you go to Treasury Board and say this number of people qualified under the regulations for these benefits and please give us the money, they're not allowed to say no.
Is that what you're saying?
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
When we go to the Treasury Board, we ask for an amount of money for each program.
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
That's based on our best forecasts of the number of veterans who will be using these programs and the amounts of money we are expecting them to get. It's a forecast, and we have very good forecasts. As a matter of fact, over the last five years our forecasts have been less than 2% off the actual dollars spent at the end of the year.
What I'm saying is that, through the budgetary process, we have the main estimates and then we have the supplementary estimates. At the beginning of the year, based on our best forecasts, we are seeking the amount you have in front of you. In three months or four months from now, if we find we have more people applying and qualifying for these programs and therefore we will need additional money, we will go through supplementary estimates to seek these additional monies.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
You're seeking the additional money and it's automatic. They have to say yes.
My point is that there's a difference between statutory and quasi-statutory. If they were statutory, they would have to say yes. If they're quasi-statutory, they have the right to say no. They probably won't—it would be political suicide—but they have the legal right to say no.
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
I'm not a lawyer, so I will not try to answer a lawyer.
What I would say is that it's in the legislation and the regulation that once you qualify for a benefit, the money will be there. In that sense, it's not optional.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Madam Tining, you were here when the supplementary (B) estimates were presented, when I asked the minister whether he would consider an alternate employment for the employees being downsized. You will recall that he dodged the question. I asked the same question of the President of the Treasury Board, and he seemed to be open to the idea. What I pitched at that time—I know you've seen it from the premier of the province—was an early-intervention, disability-management role for the employees who are being phased out.
My question for you is, have there been discussions between Minister Clement, or his department and your department, in keeping with his indication that it's something he would be prepared to look at?
Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
My answer to this question will be that you are well aware of what departments have been asked to do in the deficit reduction action plan. I would tell you that we have very qualified manpower, as you very well know, in Charlottetown and across the country, who have skills that can be used for the benefit of the department, and that they are used now. Through very careful human resource management, we are going to take advantage of the skills that are there for the benefit of the department serving veterans.
That's not to say that there won't be any interdepartmental discussions following budgetary decisions that could offer some opportunities for an expansion of the use of skill sets in different departments. We will have to see what government decisions are made through the budget. I would say that we will be very open to looking into how we can, in the federal family and in other departments, determine what opportunities might exist to use the resources and skills that we have.
