Evidence of meeting #44 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 legion.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Strategic and Enabling Initiatives, Department of Veterans Affairs
That would depend on the individual.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
I appreciate that, but is there an average?
Perhaps you can send that to me afterwards.
Director, Strategic and Enabling Initiatives, Department of Veterans Affairs
I can provide an average for housekeeping and grounds maintenance.
Essentially, the message for the veterans is that they not be out-of-pocket. They don't have to be out-of-pocket. They don't have to wait for us to reimburse. It's a grant. They don't have to keep the receipts.
Director General of Transformation, Department of Veterans Affairs
Sorry, I just wonder if this would be helpful to add.
We're aware that a lot of people who use our services in the past have found the bureaucratic paperwork—submitting receipts and continually being in communication with the department—to be extremely onerous. They have other things to do. Our minister has asked us, in every line of service, to look at ways of removing the bureaucracy that just doesn't need to be there in order for us to provide services. Make it simpler; be less burdensome; place fewer demands on people who already have an awful lot on their plates.
This is the sort of philosophy we try to take when we do these things: simplify the process and make the services offered better and faster for our veterans and their families.
Conservative
Eve Adams Conservative Mississauga—Brampton South, ON
This is an issue, not only of the hassle of having to fill out the paperwork and to retain the receipts, but also of the indignity of having to do that. These people have fought for our country, have stood up for our country. Perhaps we could take them at their word that in fact they did disburse $20 to have their lawn cut. Maybe they don't need to submit each and every one of those receipts just to have a civil servant on the other end go back, verify, and check all of that at great expense to the taxpayer. Perhaps we could send them their $20 and allow them to stay in their homes and age in their homes as hassle-free as possible, and with as much dignity as possible.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you, Ms. Adams. We are over time now.
We now go to Mr. Casey for five minutes.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Sinnott and Mr. Robinson, thank you very much for being here. I hope you won't be offended, but you can take the next five minutes off. I want to talk to the gentlemen from the Legion and Ms. Siew.
Thank you very much, first of all, for your submissions. Many of the questions and the issues you pointed out in your submissions we've been trying to raise, both in committee and in the House of Commons. If I may, I'll get you to expand on some of the things you said in your submissions. I have some specific questions in relation to them.
Also, Mr. Moore, congratulations on your ascendancy to high office. I was in Halifax when that happened.
You talked about district office closures. I don't know whether you're aware of this, but when all of the district office closures have been implemented, there will be one province in this country that has none. We had a witness from Veterans Affairs here last week who could offer me no assurance that when that district office closed, the case managers wouldn't be leaving the province as well.
So I'm interested in your comment with respect to two standards of service as between the Canadian Forces and the RCMP, although you'd probably talk about two standards in another context.
Now, after that line of questions, Mr. Moore, that night I got a pretty pointed communication from the press attaché to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, pointing out to me that the one point of service that Prince Edward Island would be losing in its district office was going to be replaced by five, presumably the Service Canada locations.
That brings me to the part of your report where you asked the question, “Has the staff been provided sufficient training to advise on disability benefits and services available to veterans?”
That is the question you asked, and now I want to put it right back to you, sir.
What's your sense of the answer to that question?
Dominion President, Royal Canadian Legion
My answer to that is no.
You take a person who works for Service Canada, who's never dealt with a veteran, who all of a sudden gets a phone call; within minutes that individual is totally lost, because they're not understanding what the veteran wants or needs.
You take a 92-year-old Second World War veteran; do you think he's going to pick up the 1-800 number and call Service Canada? Absolutely not. Do you think he's going to go on the website and try to check out information? Absolutely not.
And take his family; if they don't understand his needs, they turn around and phone Service Canada and ask the same questions. Now you have two individuals on each end of the phone not knowing what they're talking about.
We need the case workers—case “managers” is the word I like to use—at the ground-roots level looking after veterans in the communities.
It's very unfortunate with P.E.I. that this is going to happen. Whether we can change the minister's idea on this, God only knows. But we will definitely try.
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Staying on the subject of district offices over on....
Sorry, before I get into that—I might run out of time before I get to ask you this—your service officers assist clients in front of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, right?
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Okay. Would your service officers, in your view, have some perspectives that would be of value to this committee when we're looking at what changes are necessary at VRAB?
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Thank you.
Over on page 6, you talk about district offices “downsizing and realigning”. You're concerned about the impact of that downsizing and realigning on a specific program. Reading from your second paragraph, you are concerned that “transformational priorities will eliminate this program”.
Have you been given any assurance that the program will be able to continue once district offices are eliminated in Prince Edward Island and closed in other provinces?
Liberal
Sean Casey Liberal Charlottetown, PE
Okay.
Down at the bottom of that page, you talk about the veterans transition network. On that, this committee actually travelled to Vancouver and got to see the work of that program first-hand. It is formidable. I compliment the Legion on their support of the program.
You criticize the department for not supporting the program. What discussions, if any, have you had with the department to change that?
Dominion President, Royal Canadian Legion
I'll be meeting with the minister tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, and this is one of the items that's on my agenda with the minister. We're hoping that he will be willing to take a look at the whole program, especially on being able to pay the initial cost of a veteran going into the program. My understanding is that's in the neighbourhood of about $15,000 per veteran, and it's over a three-month period. Then there's follow-up after that. So we're hoping the minister will be able to grab ahold of the whole program.
The Legion, itself, has committed that $1 million to get the administration end of it across the country so that all veterans, from coast to coast to coast, are able to be part and parcel of that program.
I guess, Mr. Casey, the bottom line here is that I'm not going to go away. I'm going to be in the face of the minister every opportunity I have. Of course it will be on a good note, but it will also be letting him know that the veterans need everything that we....
Everything that they gave, we have to pay back twice. They put their lives on the line. Some didn't leave Canada. I was one of them. I didn't leave the country. And I've been treated very well. But we have veterans right now who are 23, 24, and 25 years of age who are sitting with PTSD. They may have a physical disability that they're hiding at this point in time. They're afraid to go to their commanding officer and say, I've got this and I've got that, because what's going to happen is their military career is over. And they don't want that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr
Thank you very much, Mr. Moore.
We are over a bit, so we're going to move now to Mr. Hayes for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Bryan Hayes Conservative Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm new to this committee.... I'll use that excuse for only about six months, then I'll stop using it. We've talked a little bit about grounds maintenance and housekeeping, but as a new member, I really want to focus on health-related benefits to veterans. I'd just like to get some clarity on what exactly we are offering our veterans in terms of health-related benefits.
This is to whomever cares to answer the question.
Director, Strategic and Enabling Initiatives, Department of Veterans Affairs
There are a large number of benefits for veterans. Veterans are able to access treatment benefits, veterans independence programs, health-related travel, and long-term care across the country.
In terms of the treatment benefits programs—and I may miss some of the programs as I'm speaking about them—individuals are able to attend or access their own physician, nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, chiropractor, and orthotics, all manner of special equipment, depending on what they require.
If they're eligible, they receive the veterans independence program, which includes housekeeping and grounds maintenance and a number of other services, which may include, depending on their needs, personal care, patient support in the home, home adaptations or modifications in order to make the home accessible or able to be continued to be lived in by a veteran who has disabilities, long-term care, care in community, or other beds in various facilities across the country.
It's a very broad spectrum of programs and services that are available.
Conservative
Bryan Hayes Conservative Sault Ste. Marie, ON
In the event a veteran passes and his spouse is still alive, are these available to the spouse as well, in the same capacity?
Director, Strategic and Enabling Initiatives, Department of Veterans Affairs
To a certain extent, the housekeeping/grounds maintenance program is available to spouses when a veteran is deceased. But the health care and treatment benefits programs are programs they would access through their provincial health care, as they would have done when the veteran was alive.
Conservative
Bryan Hayes Conservative Sault Ste. Marie, ON
You made reference to the fact that we all want things to be less burdensome to our veterans in terms of paperwork. I just want to get a sense of what happened previously versus what is happening now to streamline the process in terms of applying for health-related benefits, the claim process.
Director, Strategic and Enabling Initiatives, Department of Veterans Affairs
An individual is eligible for health-related benefits depending on his own circumstances. For various benefits, the department had always required authorization in advance of receiving the benefit. So in certain instances an individual or the health care supplier or provider would have had to first contact the department to determine whether or not the individual was eligible for the benefit, and then get formal approval for it. Then every subsequent time they would be receiving the benefit they would also have to make a contact with the department to say, “I have exceeded my 20 physiotherapy treatments this year. Can I have another 20 of them, because my physician is prescribing it?”
One of our transformation or simplification activities was that if someone is prescribed something and it's authorized, he doesn't need to come back for a subsequent authorization. If it's already authorized, then the individuals are able to carry on with their treatment. So we've removed the need for subsequent authorizations when people have already been authorized to receive a benefit. They don't have to contact us again if they don't need to. The provider, in many cases, submits the bill to the department, so the individual is not paying out-of-pocket for it.