When I think of the cost involved with medical care, having the mental health experts in place, having the infrastructure so that we have veterans agencies that we can go to, that's sort of the big structure. But when I referred to the bottom up, much of what's missing, honestly, is local mentorship.
The reason I say that is I've run arguably one of the most successful Canadian Forces cooperative education programs in the country since 2002. The soldiers who come through, it's almost like being an old football coach of theirs. I get them coming back again and again. I mean this is hundreds. A lot of them, what they're looking for, like I said, is mentorship. When the trust is there.... Because a big issue about PTSD is trust, it really is. It is probably the single most precious commodity that these young soldiers need. And when the trust is there, we can help direct them to where the appropriate resources are.
So as the federal government, as you expend resources, we want to make sure those resources are expended in a very accountable and effective manner, because when I mentioned about the guy— No one wants to see someone who really needs help do without. This is the whole reason I look at the bottom-up approach.
Having support groups, whether it's Veterans Canada helping the homeless or the Veterans Well Being Network, which costs nothing to the federal government, we want to bring these people to where those supports are in place.
The whole idea is you don't have to necessarily replicate the resources of 50 places, but we want to make sure that those veterans are aware of what's happening. We want to make sure before any damage is done to their families or their relationships or their place of employment, we want to get them to be proactive and get them to those resources. This can be replicated nationally.
In terms of hands on, I mentioned retraining and maybe bringing some people back from the joint program support units. Again local mentorship can make all the difference in the world. The one thing the Canadian Forces had in abundance, we had some fantastic senior NCOs and junior NCOs who are still in the area. These are the ready-made mentors in your communities. So when that reg force member who comes back from Wainwright or comes back from Petawawa.... The local economy in Petawawa can't absorb that many people transitioning out of the forces.
But if they come back to their home communities at least a little sooner, we can provide that local mentorship. We can help them transition. We can help them make the connections, whether it's through educational facilities, through the public sector, the private sector. These opportunities are there and they're sustainable. This is the reason why I say this, I really think the answer to really fixing the new Veterans Charter is to take a bottom-up approach, not necessarily a top down.
It's not that I want you to spend less money on veterans, far from that. But the whole point is saying, let's make sure that those veterans who are truly in need are the ones who get the help and there are no questions asked. The more that we can support and not necessarily have to—I don't want to say discard.... But to me it's such a waste to have a 25-year-old veteran who with the right support, with the right mentorship, can have a fantastic new career ahead of him. That opportunity doesn't happen because the leadership wasn't there, the support wasn't there—whether it's the family unit, whether it's the medical system, whether it's the local community, whether it's dealing with issues of stigma, the answer is really the bottom up. This way the sacred obligation can be met because we're using our resources more efficiently.