Evidence of meeting #27 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 vac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
Thanks very much.
Thank you for your attendance here today. I certainly have the greatest of respect for the work you do.
Could you tell me a little bit about the RCMP Veterans' Association and how aware you feel they are of the programs and services that are available?
Mr. Gidley, this is perhaps directed to you.
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
There are 16,500 retired members, and there are about 4,600 of those who are members of our association. Those 4,600, I would say, have a good chance to reach for information from our executive people. For instance, in the Vancouver division, the Kamloops division, and the Nova Scotia division, they can go to the executive of the veterans there and find out information there.
However, there are a lot of people out there who do not belong to our association. I get phone calls from them. I have a toll-free number in the office, and email. We all know what email is like. I get a lot of inquiries from people who were former members. I never think to ask them if they're a member of the association or not.
I've been ten years in the job and I would say that the knowledge base of Veterans Affairs Canada is not very good. It's not very good overall. I can have people get in touch with me and I have some key people across Canada they can get in touch with. When they deal with these people, we usually have a successful case, because we know what we're doing. It's not because we're any smarter than anybody else. We just know what we're doing, but there are only so many people who can do that.
To echo what I think Abe was saying, what we need is someone in VAC who is also an RCMP member, or maybe a veteran. It could be a secondment sort of thing to help us out. We definitely need VAC people to talk to the people who are leaving to become retired or veterans. They need to be spoken with, especially the people who are ill. There seem to be quite a few these days.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
In your experience, which services are currently the ones most readily accessed?
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
That would be hearing services. Hearing is the most common. The reason is that in my generation, and before that, we used to shoot with no earmuffs, no hearing protection.
As a matter of fact, we even used to pick up the empty cartridges and put them in our ears, for goodness' sake, and shoot on the firing ranges with larger-calibre guns, as well as in enclosed ranges that are very small, smaller than this room. The noise, I can tell you, is quite incredible. Back in those days we didn't know the difference, except that later on we started to get quite deaf, some way more than others.
Hearing is the worst, though.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
I can imagine, sir. On behalf of the entire committee, I thank you for your service.
We do have a unique relationship or a unique partnership in serving the RCMP. While VAC is actually administering the benefits, we don't establish the benefits that are available to RCMP retirees; officially, that's established by a separate ministry, so I look forward to your suggestions and to reviewing what more we can do to make RCMP retirees aware of the types of services that are available from VAC. It's something we heard when we were out visiting in Halifax, for instance, and heard from one of your retirees.
Thank you very much for coming.
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
Thank you.
I might just add that the RCMP is 3% of VAC's customers.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
It's a very important 3%, though, nonetheless.
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
I just thought I'd mention that.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
I have one very quick question for you. If RCMP officers happened to be employed internationally, would disability pension coverage be available to them?
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
Yes, it would, because they're on special duty. It would be the same as the Canadian Forces. Even if they're just in training here to go overseas and they get hurt in preparation, the answer is yes.
A/Commr Daniel Dubeau
Even deployed overseas, they're still RCMP members, and they're covered under our act and have the same benefits as a regular member. They would have the same benefits.
Conservative
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Staff Sergeant Townsend, you mentioned that at one time you had a full-time liaison within Veterans Affairs. Is that right?
S/Sgt Abraham Townsend
Yes, that is correct. Embedded within Veterans Affairs, it was that member's full-time job. In my understanding, at present it's a part-time job for a member, but we believe it's fundamentally important that it be a full-time job, that it be their commitment from our organization to Veterans Affairs and then back to the membership.
Very often we have people working things off the sides of their desks. It doesn't mean that they're not working hard, and as hard as they can, but there are only so many hours in the day and only so many tasks they can perform. If it's a full-time job, that's your commitment. You have an absolute buy-in in time and you are there to create the relationships you need to create administratively to make these two organizations work together.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Have you received any indication that the full-time status is going to be restored or, worse, that the part-time status is going to be eliminated?
A/Commr Daniel Dubeau
In this case and on how that would work, I will turn to my colleague, the director general of occupational health, because that does fall under her responsibility.
Superintendent Lynn Lemieux Acting Director General, Occupational Health and Safety Branch, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
At this time, CM Garry Roy, a civilian member under occupational health and safety, is the full-time VAC liaison. He currently works two days in the office with us in the policy centre, on Mondays and Fridays, and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, he's with VAC downtown in Ottawa.
A/Commr Daniel Dubeau
I've already had talks with my colleagues about the future state and about seeing if there would be options for bringing it back to Charlottetown, where it was. We're in discussions about moving towards that in the near future.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you.
Mr. Gidley, you indicated in your opening remarks that as part of the stakeholders committee, there have been 500 recommendations made, and just three have been adopted. If you were to bring those three up to five, what would be the top two for you out of that committee? Which ones are most in need of adoption?
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
Well, it's actually the Canadian Forces; I'm on their committee.
I would say that they would be faster service—a quicker service by VAC—and also an improvement to the award as far as increasing it is concerned. They're finding that usually the injured person is quite young; that person may lose a foot, and they're given $60,000 for that foot. That $60,000 is sometimes soon gone, so they're looking to increase the award.
Executive Director, RCMP Veterans' Association
I wouldn't say those were the top two, but they're close. I'm really not sure what the top two would be.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
All right.
It's my understanding that at the time of the adoption of the new Veterans Charter, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had the opportunity to opt in and decided against it. Here we are six years later. If you had it to do all over again, what would you do?
