Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm Cal Small, president of the RCMP Veterans' Association. It is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. If you don't mind, I will read what I have in order to keep within the time limit.
At the time I accepted your invitation I was to have been accompanied by Mr. Bill Gidley, who until the end of July of this year was the executive director of the association, and as recently as two weeks ago was a national advocate. I might add that Mr. Gidley appeared before this committee on April 3 of this year. A couple of weeks ago Mr. Gidley found it necessary to resign his position due to health issues. It is regrettable that he could not have joined me here today, because he was the one who took all the phone calls, all the emails related to matters concerning veterans affairs and the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. In other words, Mr. Gidley was the person in our association most familiar with the issues of interest to this committee.
The main focus of the RCMP Veterans' Association during the last few years has been to ensure our retired members are aware of the services offered by VAC and how these services can be obtained. To accomplish this we have had meetings with the Minister of Veterans Affairs, with the Veterans Ombudsman, with the Canadian Legion and with senior officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Canadian Legion service officers are not only prepared to help our retired members prepare and submit their applications to VAC, but have also trained three of our veterans in order that the association might be in a position to provide these services to its members. This was done on the assumption that retired members would find it easier to communicate information pertinent to their application to somebody with a similar background.
On October 7, 2009, past-president of the association, Mr. Dale Lively, Mr. Bill Gidley and I, as well as the late Peter Martin, former deputy commissioner of human resources for the RCMP, met with Mr. Greg Thompson, former Minister of Veterans Affairs. Among the many issues discussed was the need to have some RCMP veterans sitting on VAC committees, and in particular the need for a retired member on VRAB. Mr. Lively strongly felt that a retired member as an adjudicator would be an asset and that he or she might have more empathy with the RCMP member client and would probably be in a better position to appreciate the context related to the disability in question, and would give the board a little more credibility as well.
On November 4, 2009 the same group met with Mr. Brian Ferguson, senior assistant minister, Veterans Affairs in Charlottetown, P.E.I. and the senior staff. Again, among many other topics discussed, the lack of RCMP representation on VAC and VRAB committees was again discussed. The point was made that it would be difficult for board members, who 97% of the time dealt with military clients and issues, to appreciate and understand many of the problems associated with policing.
I am pleased to note that a retired member of the RCMP is currently one of the VRAB adjudicators. This year, Mr. John Larlee, chair of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, has provided an opportunity to past-president Tim Hoban, Bill Gidley and myself to witness VRAB hearings. Speaking for myself, I was struck by the informality of the process, by the efforts of the adjudicators to ensure they understood the issues and, finally, by the complexities of the cases. I was not aware of the decisions made in the cases that were heard.
Finally, I am aware of the various issues and criticisms concerning the composition of VRAB, the adjudication process, as well as the board's independence relative to VAC. I don't believe, however, I am in a position to offer anything more in the nature of constructive criticism than has already been received by this committee.
The main concern of the RCMP Veterans' Association is that its members be aware of the medical and psychological issues that could qualify them for benefits from VAC, that they know the process sufficiently well to be able to access these services, and finally receive fair and transparent hearings at the various levels.
Again I would like to thank you very much for including the RCMP Veterans' Association in these hearings.