Veterans Affairs Committee on April 1st, 2014

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I am. I am severely concerned.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

In terms of casework and...?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Yes. I haven't heard from my Veterans Affairs case manager for a while. Sporadically, I receive letters saying that they have failed to contact me. They have left zero messages. They have not attempted to call me. As well, I cannot physically call my case manager. What happens is that there's a 1-800 number and I leave a message. Maybe it will get to them. Maybe it does not. I really haven't had the need to utilize my Veterans Affairs case manager yet, although that's coming up, and it's of some concern.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

A little while ago, we were talking about priority hiring with the government. It's certainly a good initiative, but it doesn't cover crown corporations, so there's a whole group of possible job opportunities that are not open. I wonder if you would like to make a comment about that and whether or not it would be helpful to open that priority hiring to a larger group.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I think the more opportunities there are for veterans, the better, because there's a broad scope. I know that crown corporations encompass quite a bit, and veterans have a wide variety of skills that can be utilized in different industries, absolutely.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Now, you sound as if you've had a lot of support, certainly from chain of command and your units and people who were there and so on, but we've heard a few times from witnesses that reservists are not treated like regular members. I wonder if you have any comments on that, particularly with regard to injured reservists.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

There are a few issues.

One I had was with educational reimbursement. Even though I was a Class C soldier and had received all the same training, had gone on the same roto, and was in the same tank, I did not initially receive a 100% education reimbursement. It was only 50%, given my reserve status. They have since topped that up, but again, it was a rather lengthy process to get that.

I was rather lucky. My adopted unit, Lord Strathcona's Horse, really took me under their wing. They really took good care of me and really made me feel like one of their own, and I know that's not necessarily the case. Maybe I was just lucky, but they were an awesome unit. They're still interested in my case today. They have been phenomenal.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

You're out on June 1. Do you feel that you've been adequately prepared for what's happening after June 1?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I don't know. I've been doing my best to prepare myself, because, again, there's a real concern about what happens on June 1. I've been luckier than most. I take a proactive approach and do the best I can, but again, not everybody is in the same position that I am, so I worry about members who are incredibly disabled and who might not be ready to transition out.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

What sorts of supports would you have liked to see in place for your son? You mentioned a few times that families are left out of the equation, and you mentioned your son a few times. What would you have liked to see to make your transition back from Afghanistan better?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Well for him, he was really young so I don't think he really noticed a whole lot. He thought I was a Transformer essentially.

For the families and stuff like these Soldier On trips, it's really good to get the community together and really develop that support. But a lot of the times you're limited to one family member. I think that could be expanded so everybody can see the whole family out there rather than just one person, to help really develop that community because that community is really powerful. Everybody who engages with Soldier On, I know it's been very beneficial to them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rafferty.

Mr. Trost, welcome this afternoon and we'd like to hear from you for six minutes, please.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I've been listening here and I've been making a few notes. The biggest issues seem to have been bureaucratic management and the particularities of how your case was handled as far as implementing.... If you could sum up one or two key points as far as administration that would change it....

You've mentioned a few things about case managers getting an "F”. What would you recommend so that they could improve their service to you? What would it be? Would it be just simply having more of them or are there very specific ways that you would use to adjust it?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Having more case managers would be ideal in most locations. One of the complaints I heard frequently, especially in Edmonton, was that their caseload was immense. It's difficult for them to track everybody they have to take care of, so more case managers would probably be beneficial. For aid to daily living, if some of the red tape could be cut out of that to streamline that process, because that is a major point of frustration for all injured vets.

Again, the onus is on the case manager and on the member to get that done. It's that three-quote system. If there could be something done about that to streamline the system.... Most members end up going to the director of casualties support management and using the contingency fund to move ahead and get this stuff implemented.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

I'm a visitor to this committee as I told you when we were visiting earlier. So I'm not totally as well versed on some of this. But one of the things I was wondering about is whether it would be positive to have case managers who specialize in severely injured cases, where soldiers are severely injured. You were noting they have so many cases to deal with now.

My older brother draws a vets pension because of a very minor injury that got him disqualified from the infantry after five years in the infantry. His case is very simple. Every five years, he gets reassessed, very minor, etc. So dealing with a case like his is a world apart from dealing with a case like yours.

Is there anything to be said for having specialist case managers for the more severely injured soldiers?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I think that would be beneficial if you had some case managers who specialize in dealing with the severely disabled. Absolutely.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

That's all the questions I have, Mr. Chair.

I wasn't anticipating....

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

It doesn't work that way, folks, and we are up against a time limit.

So what I'd like to do is first of all, thank you very much. I think that was incredibly helpful information for....

What? You were done.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

I am done but my understanding was that Parliamentary Secretary Gill was going to ....

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Oh you were going to share your time. I guess I missed that comment.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

My apologies, I did not make the comment. I assumed something was going to....

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

How much time do we have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

It's a lot less than when I started with my speech.

You've got about three minutes at most.

[Parm Gill, Conservative, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

That's perfect, thank you.

I have just a couple of questions.

Sir, you mentioned in your remarks that the lump sum you initially received was $266,000?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

That is correct, yes.