Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 1st, 2012

[Dale Sharkey]

That's correct.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

May I ask why?

[Dale Sharkey]

Partially, we have currently published all of our noteworthy leading and persuasive decisions, decisions that we feel are useful and provide some instruction around the law or are of general interest. The cost of publishing all decisions is about $3 million to $3.6 million a year, which is one-third of our budget. That would include depersonalizing the decisions as well as the translation in both official languages.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Have you heard of an organization called the Canadian Legal Information Institute?

[Dale Sharkey]

Yes.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Are you aware that they would be happy to do all of that for free?

[Dale Sharkey]

I actually did some research into that, because it was raised to me by one of the veterans organizations. After looking into the Official Languages Act, I can say that using CanLII it doesn't relieve our organization, as a federal organization, from publishing in both official languages. Using them as an agent does not relieve us of that obligation.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

If they were to be able to provide translation in both official languages, would you maybe reconsider that as a way of saving money and also of having more decisions available for the general public and the veteran community at large to see?

[Dale Sharkey]

I think the board would be happy to have any financial means to publish all of the decisions, but in this time of restraint we've tried to find a way that shares with veterans the decisions that illustrate the most common conditions, decisions that illustrate areas of interpretation of law, and decisions that would be useful to them.

Every case is decided on its own merit. There are many cases in the board that may not be all that useful, but we have tried to meet that requirement as well as we can.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Okay.

In conclusion, Mr. Larlee, you mentioned the “generous” system. I just caution that word from a departmental official, because there are an awful lot of veterans I know who would take umbrage with the word “generous”: Sarah Atwood, for example, who was denied a Veterans Review and Appeal Board hearing in order to get to Camp Hill Hospital; Art Humphreys from Musquodoboit Harbour, who was denied a lift to get up and down his stairs; and other people who were denied various benefits because they didn't have the medical information. I'm not sure if they would consider it as generous, so I just say this as a word of caution. Maybe another word might be helpful in the future, because there are an awful lot of veterans who think that the system is not necessarily there to help them.

However, I do give the department credit, and I will say this publicly, that when I went to those hearings, I found them very useful. I thought they were very good. Although I have a particular view on those issues, I think it was helpful for my understanding of how the VRAB actually works. Thank you for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Are you done, Mr. Stoffer?

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thanks.

We'll go to Ms. Adams, then, for five minutes.

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

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Larlee, hello and welcome. Thank you very much for attending.

Last June, Minister Blaney asked you to repay the travel expense claims that you had put through dating back to 2009 and 2011 for your travel to Cambridge. Has that now been repaid?

[John D. Larlee]

My attendance was with respect to my professional development, personal professional development. Upon hearing that there were questions raised by veterans on whether or not it was beneficial to them, although I did feel it was beneficial to me, and with regard to the fact that the country is in a period of fiscal restraint, I took it upon myself to repay all those expenses related to my travel to those lectures.

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

Then all of those costs have now been repaid at the request of the government.

[John D. Larlee]

On my own behalf, yes, that's right. I did it on my own part immediately upon being informed that there were concerns by veterans that it may not have been in their interests. Although I feel that they were worthwhile for my own professional development as chair of a national tribunal, I did so because I didn't want any question that they may not have been in the best interests of veterans.

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

Thank you.

Moving on, I'd like to ask a question that I had earlier put to Veterans Affairs Canada officials related to the number of decisions rendered by VRAB that are then referred to Federal Court. We've been told that some 60% are being referred to Federal Court, but that's clearly not the correct number.

Could you perhaps shed some light on that?

[John D. Larlee]

I can shed some light on the statistics or the actual numbers.

Since 1995, the board has rendered 118,000 decisions, and fewer than 1% of those decisions have gone to the Federal Court. I believe the number of decisions that have gone to the Federal Court is 140. Of the decisions that went to the Federal Court in that timeframe, I believe 80 were returned to the board to be reheard. That's quite a large number of cases that have been rendered and a small number that have gone to the Federal Court. The numbers that were chosen in the ombudsman's study, where he arrived at a percentage, were on those that were returned to the board for rehearing.

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

There have been 118,000 since 1995. For the last couple of years, how many decisions has VRAB rendered each year? I'm sorry to keep zeroing in on this, but I think it provides a very important context for us as we develop a report on VRAB.

[John D. Larlee]

As I said in my opening statement, I think there were 4,900 decisions this year, and I'll ask Ms. Sharkey if she can provide the numbers.

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

Could we have last year and the year prior, please?

[John D. Larlee]

If we don't have those numbers right at hand, we can submit them to you.

[Dale Sharkey]

I have the number of decisions finalized, and I should have the number of cases.

I'm sorry, I may not have that right in front of me, but it was roughly the same number or a little bit less. There's a slight variation, but the number of decisions finalized in 2010-11 was about 4,700. Last year, in 2011-12, it was 4,900. The year before it was roughly between 4,000 and 5,000.

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

That's perfect. Thank you.

I'd like to confirm information about the 60% figure that keeps floating out there. In fact, since 1995, 118,000 decisions have been rendered by VRAB, and fewer than 1% have been referred to the Federal Court.