Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2012

[Maureen Sinnott]

A year or two ago, it could have been two weeks to 30 days.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

So it sounds as if there's been a significant change there.

[Maureen Sinnott]

I would say so, yes. One can always look for improvement. If you could submit online and get your direct deposit the next day, that would be even better, but we're not there yet.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

I think it's important when you have parts of the service that can be measured, then and now, and the streamlining effect can be identified. It's part of the whole package of getting rid of the red tape and making things work in a more efficient and faster way for vets, because that is what this is all about, making things easier for the vets who need the services. Being able to measure progress is certainly one of the things we should be doing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Did you want Mr. Robinson to respond, Mr. Harris?

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Yes.

[David Robinson]

We do absolutely have that baseline data. I just don't have it here in front of me, unfortunately.

You can't know whether you've transformed or not if you don't know what you're moving from and moving to. People might be frustrated at the speed at which we're making these changes, but we're trying to be very deliberate. We don't want to ever lose sight of our service standards currently. We don't want to fall below what we're already doing. We only want to improve.

So before we add every new step, we try to make sure that we're protecting the quality of work we're already doing. For our pilots here on the committee, it's like flying a 747 and strapping on new engines while you're in flight. That's kind of the way it feels for us.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

We've talked about this with other presenters from Veterans Affairs. In all of the changes that are being done, the number one question—I'm sure it must be on your wall—must be “Before we do it, is it best for the veteran? Is it best for the people we serve?”

I'm sure that's first and foremost in the minds of all the folks in your department who are trying to offer better service to vets. One of the things that I think is important to bring up again is that through all of the budget rationalizations throughout the entire government, I know that Veterans Affairs was the lowest. It was 1% or less, by far lower than any of the other departments.

I think this is proof positive that your focus is on what's best for vets. While you can streamline services and save some dollars, you're always trying to improve the services in any type of transformation that you're going through. So I congratulate you on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Mr. White.

[Brad White]

I can't get away with not saying something on this one.

We're taking an institution that hasn't moved its doors in a lot of years. We're taking an institution in a bureaucracy that's been sitting there, very comfortable in doing its business the way it has been doing it, until all of a sudden we had 158 casualties, serious deaths, in Afghanistan and people coming back and saying “We need a new way to do business”.

The Legion fully supports the aims of the New Veterans Charter to make a person well and get them on their feet again, instead of simply continuing to support an injury. But if we hadn't made our noise and hadn't made our moves, we would never have had Bill C-55 come forward to make some of those changes, to move the New Veterans Charter out of its concrete. It's supposed to be a living document.

Processing and reassessing how business is done at VAC should be a normal institutional everyday way of life. It hasn't been. So when we say that the changes are coming and they're institutional, they need to come. It's about time.

Doing business better with the modern technology, it's a wonderful thing. Yes, we can do business better. But as I've said before, it's not a cookie-cutter situation. We're dealing with a very diverse group of people and we have to remember that. We can't paint everybody with the same brush. It's a very diverse, wide group of people.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Well, I'd like to thank you and congratulate you for your vision.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Okay. We are quite a bit past time on that question.

Because we have time...and it's always at the discretion of the chair to extend it, but I have always looked to the committee for guidance as to whether you want to end it there or want to add a question to either side. As I have in the past, I would look to the committee to get your feeling on it.

Mr. Stoffer.

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

I have a quick question, or comment really.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

You're all right to go one more? Okay.

Then one question to either side.

A question from Mr. Stoffer, then Ms. Adams or whomever from that side, then we'll wrap it up.

Mr. Stoffer.

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

I figured that since the great Andrea is here, I might as well ask her a question.

First of all, I want to thank the Legion on your coordination with other veterans groups in compiling resolutions and ways forward. It's not only the Legion. You're working with other veterans organizations in order to not necessarily put pressure on government but sort of advise the government on some of the new ways to go.

Andrea, in Nova Scotia we lost Jim MacLeod of the Waverley Legion, one of the greatest service officers I've ever known. He breathed, he slept, he woke up: veterans, veterans, veterans, that's all he did. He did a tremendous job. When he died, many veterans said “Who do I go to now?” I said there's always VAC and everything else, but they felt a great loss.

When these new programs come into place, Andrea, I would like to know what type of training VAC offers so that you can understand the new enhancements or changes that are going through and can advise your officers across the country about what they should do or how they should do it when something new comes up.

Could you give a quick explanation of how that is affecting you and your tremendous service officers across the country?

[Andrea Siew]

We have a very structured training program for all of our service officers at the branch level. Every branch has a service officer. They act as a referral agent because of the complexity and the privacy issues. All of the branches in each province receive training at least on an annual basis and the frequency of the training is mandated. To be a branch service officer you have to have that specific training. They're provided all of the updates and changes to the policies and procedures that Veterans Affairs has.

We work very closely on the transformation. For any new policy or process, as they're promulgating it, as they're testing it, we're also consulted in that process to make sure it will meet our needs as well as the needs of all of our veterans.That's pushed down to all of our branch service officers.

Then we work up to our command service officers, who are professionally trained, security cleared, and we have annual training programs for all of them. As their initial training program, they all receive formal training from VAC on the disability benefit process, from the Veterans Review and Appeal Board on the presentation of appeals, and every two years we go to Veterans Affairs. We will go to Charlottetown, and Veterans Affairs comes to provide us very specific presentations on all of the changes, their processes, which allows us to be more knowledgeable to our veterans as well seeing that we can facilitate through the process better, so when we do get the call from a veteran we understand the two pieces of legislation and the complex process.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Adams for a question, please.

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

Thank you again for being here today.

I think Mr. Harris said it well, in that any change that's brought forward.... I know that Minister Blaney certainly looks at it and asks what we can do to better serve our veterans, to more efficiently serve those people who have put their lives in harm's way on behalf of our nation. And I know that's something that runs very deeply amongst all of our staff throughout Veterans Affairs. I've visited many of the offices, and our staff are just such passionate advocates for our veterans.

I'd like to speak very briefly about the plain language initiative that's been brought forward and just tie it back into the disability claims. Not only are disability applications now being reviewed and an answer is given to the veteran in a much faster period of time, but if the answer happens to be negative, the veteran receives a very clear plain language letter from the ministry that explains exactly what information was missing so that the veteran can go out and obtain that information if they feel the decision was incorrect.

Could you elaborate on that plain language initiative?

[Maureen Sinnott]

We have an initiative under way now where we are reviewing all of the communication, all of the letters, all of the decision documents and so on, that we use to communicate with veterans so that they are clear, concise, easily readable, and easily understood. That way we're not speaking in—if you can forgive me for saying it—“bureaucratese” in a letter to a veteran who really needs to understand the decision, yes or no, and, if no, then what additional information the veteran should provide, what they should do.

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

It's clear and it's straightforward, and they understand what information might be missing that they can then provide to you.

[Maureen Sinnott]

Then they can come back to the department as needed. It's an initiative that's ongoing. We're reviewing all of our letters and all of our communications on a constant basis so that it is plain and clear.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Mr. Robinson, go ahead.

[David Robinson]

I might just build on what Maureen is saying.

It's not just the communications products with veterans and their families that are improving. We're also going one step behind that and improving the wording on our policies so that our employees understand better the obligations that they have towards the provision of services to veterans and their families. So we're cleaning that up and making it available for our own employees.

I want to thank you for noticing the dedication of Veterans Affairs employees, because my experience has been like yours. In travelling the country, people have told us that they're not doing this because it's a job; they believe in the mission.

So thank you very much for noticing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you all very much.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!