Veterans Affairs Committee on April 1st, 2014

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Thank you.

I would like you to go back to the support given to your family. Some witnesses have told us that the wives of military people suffering from PTSD had received no support. I imagine that in order to take care of you your wife had to leave her job. Do you think she should have the status of caregiver? Should she be given a salary? Tell us a little about your perspective on the situation. What changes should be made to the New Veterans Charter so that your wife and family could benefit from good support?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I've had numerous failed relationships as a result of my injury. The mother of my child took off after I got injured. That's just one of these things that happen and it's actually quite common for relationship issues to happen. Again, you're disabled. It's very difficult to move on, especially as a man. It's very challenging. We were supposed to get married next year. For her there's really not a whole lot in the system to empower her in her career or help her out.

Recently there was a caregiver stipend brought in for those wives or significant others who have to quit their job to look after.... But even then, I feel like that probably isn't enough. There needs to be something for them, a full-time caregiver or something. When you get an injury it's not just you that's affected. It's your family.

That being said, what is the answer? I don't really know because unfortunately I've had to run through a few relationships since this has happened to me, so I really haven't had a long-term stance.

There are other members who could probably speak better to this than I can. A few names come to mind. I don't know if they're on your panel or not. Master Corporal Mike Trauner could probably speak to that. Billy Kerr's wife could probably enlighten you much better than I could. I'm just not knowledgeable enough about the study to answer your question, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

You're right up against your time.

[Sylvain Chicoine, NDP, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

You said you wanted to go back to school to finish your legal studies, but that you were afraid to become poor. What financial support could you benefit from during your studies?

Could you tell us what amount will be allocated to you until you finish your studies and can find a new job?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Right now I would earn 75% of my pre-release salary. I think that's equivalent to $45,000 a year, give or take. I don't have a calculator in front of me and I'm not a mathematician. This is off the top of my head.

The main concern is if my disability keeps me from employment in the future.... That is my concern. Between then and my lost legs I have no idea what I'm going to receive because I don't know when I'm going to be able to attend law school and things like that. Hopefully I'll be able to attend right away, but as for a dollar figure, I think I'd be earning close to $10,000 less than I'd be earning today until I am gainfully employed again.

The other problem is, I'm concerned that if I find a job and then my disability prevents me from carrying on my career, can I get my ELB back? How will that be determined? Things of that nature....

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to Mr. Hawn, please, for six minutes.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Corporal Fuchko, for being here. It's good to see you again and this is very valuable testimony.

I've got a number of fairly quick questions so I'd like to get through them as quickly as I can.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I'll try to be as quick as I can.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Okay. You bet.

Have you always been reserve force?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I've always been reserve. My status has changed to Class C reserve.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

You mentioned basing ELB on disability and I don't disagree with that. Have you given any thought to what that should be with respect to the injured?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

A dollar figure...? I would like to see it go back to what it was under the old pension system and I would like to see the benefit be tax-free because again you're already losing 25% of your salary. To get taxed upon that.... These are not a very significant number of Canadians who are severely disabled soldiers. Putting a tax burden on them, I think, is just unfair.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Okay.

I've mentioned this many times. One of the things I'm working on is a private member's bill that has to do with access of information going from DND to VAC or the member. Right now members can't automatically get a copy of their medical file when they release. Do you think that would be an appropriate change that ensures that DND does proactively offer the member a copy of their file so the member has the choice to take his own file forward?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Yes, I think that should be in the release package of every member. With their certificate of service they should have a copy of their medical file. The difficulty can be obviously some of those medical files are a series of volumes, so it might be difficult to have a physical copy, but at least a digital copy or something so they can keep track.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I would just echo Mr. Stoffer's advice on that. When you do get that, and I think you will, to make sure it's complete and so on.

You talked about renovations for houses and so on. Right now the member pays it and gets reimbursed.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

That is not correct, sir. The way I had it done, I had a three-quote system. I delivered it to the director of casualty management. They then approved one of the quotes that is delivered and then the process moves on. The member is never out of pocket because sometimes these renovations can run in the tens of thousands of dollars and given our pay grade and things like that we don't typically have that money laying around.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I'm pleased to hear that, because we actually heard somebody in that chair say the opposite recently.

I guess what I was getting to, and what my question was going to be, was do you think the bill should just automatically go from the contractor to the government and not pass through the member?

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

I think that would be beneficial.

I know that some members, just given the timeframe, will run out and pay for it themselves. When you get your disability award, you do have some money lying around, and honestly, members just get sick of waiting and go for it. They need the stuff to get about their daily life.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Yes. It sounds like the whole system just needs to speed it up in that kind of case.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Absolutely.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

We recently brought in some changes to the priority hiring practice. There are some new measures there. Are you familiar with those? Basically they're to put soldiers, veterans, especially injured veterans, at the front of the line.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Right. Yes, I've heard it's a priority hire, but I hear there's a limitation on that as well. Is it only good for a specific number of years after your release?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Five years.

[Cpl Mark Fuchko]

Five years: why can that not be indefinite?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Well, that's a good possibility. It used to be two years and it's now five, which was meant to match or more closely give the veteran the opportunity to use the $75,800 for training to get qualified and so on. But I think extending it indefinitely is not a bad suggestion. I don't disagree with that.

You would agree with the whole concept of priority hiring, though?