Veterans Affairs Committee on March 12th, 2015

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

This is something that you're having some—

[Adm Greg Smith]

That's right. It's about using the right terms, because we use terms in the military that just do not speak the same language in the civilian sector.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Okay.

In the States, do you have similar groups to Canada Company, True Patriot Love, and others?

Canada Company is an organization that Admiral Carey is very familiar with, by the way. It's Canada's leading captains of industries who help out and try to provide jobs and opportunities. There are many other groups, like True Patriot Love and others, that are performing absolutely tremendous service.

[Adm Greg Smith]

We found that companies recognized that they had a need to hire veterans but had no real tool inside their company to make that translation work. That's why they placed the MST on their websites to integrate in their hiring process.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Were you working on Military.com? This acts as a portal that basically encompasses veterans affairs. Military.com reaches out to civilian industries looking to hire people. I see a tremendous number of things across the top: veteran employers, transition centres, job fairs, skills translator, and that sort of thing.

How many members do you find using this portal?

[Adm Greg Smith]

Again, we have over 10 million members in our overall website. Over 800,000 used the military skills translator in 2014.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's people going flow-through, but what is the success rate?

[Adm Greg Smith]

The success I think is the fact that the tool is there. We get a tremendous amount of feedback from companies that say this is a highly valuable resource for them.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Okay. That's great.

What types of jobs are you placing people in? Is it a wide variety? Is it based on—

[Adm Greg Smith]

That's the best thing about the military skills translator. If you are a truck driver and that's what you've done, and you have skills and logistics, those kinds of skills can be put into civilian speak, and all those jobs then pop up into your profile.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you very much, Mr. Opitz. You have one minute on the table.

Next we have Mr. Valeriote.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, gentlemen, for coming before us today.

I'm going to start with Scott and Greg.

Could you create an algorithm to be applicable in the Canadian context if you were given the opportunity?

[Adm Greg Smith]

Absolutely. Our current team of engineers has advised me that all we really need is a relationship with the government to make certain we have all the various skill sets identified that are currently being used inside the Canadian Forces, and from there we can plug that into our current algorithm and working with your HR and the way HR in Canada looks at its civilian sector, we can make all those matches work.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I had the opportunity to be out at Wainwright and on the HMCS St. John's for five or so days, and I was frankly amazed at the professionalism of the active members of our forces. I was thinking then of what they could be doing after their time in service.

I think we severely underestimate the skills they learn. Many people assume that they're just going to go into policing or something like that, which is so archaic.

If I understand—and I have seen your system—you have computers that are put in front of someone and you put in the person's position he or she served in and it translates all of the potential skills they've learned in that position, and there are prospective employers out there who are linked to the system and looking for people with these skills. Is that the case?

[Adm Greg Smith]

Exactly....

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

How many prospective employers are linked into the system? Did you tell us that?

[Adm Greg Smith]

Technically it's endless if you have an aggregate data base like Monster, where we look at all the job boards across the country. In Canada there is a similar system where all government and civilian jobs—if there were a way in which those could be aggregated together, the system could screen against all those jobs. There is no limit.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

One of the benefits that is currently available through VAC is $1,000, which helps someone create a robust resumé to send out. This would be far beyond just creating a resumé for somebody, because somebody creating a resumé doesn't know how to translate their own skills.

[Adm Greg Smith]

A lot of companies don't use resumés. For a lot of jobs out there, they are looking at skill sets. They want to know what skills you have, what certifications you have, what training you've had, how many years you've worked in a particular area. That's what they want to know.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Could you tell us how much it would possibly cost for you to introduce that in the Canadian setting?

[Scott Byrne]

The number that we have socialized takes an initial $1.7 million to set it up and then $400,000 a year to maintain the system.

Maintenance of the system is required to make sure that we keep the skills, ranks, and duties up to date. For instance, 10 years ago there was no such thing as a social media coordinator job out there, and today, obviously, there is, so that's part of what we'd have to do. As skills change, it would get changed with it.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Boy, when I compare $1.7 million to other expenditures that VAC has made, it seems like an insignificant amount to give our veterans an opportunity to transfer successfully from military life to civilian life.

Do I have a bit more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Yes, you have two and a half minutes.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Great.

Mr. Gray, you brought home for me something I have been feeling and observing for some time, and that is this threshold you spoke of at VAC to qualify for certain benefits. For instance, someone leaves active service after being considered severely disabled—in other words, the person doesn't meet the universality of service test—in other words is highly graded there. Then at VAC they are almost dropped to the bottom of the list. The veterans ombudsman talked about the accessibility of these benefits being a real issue, let alone the issue of the money being given, but just being able to qualify. You brought that home.

Would you provide a written copy of your submission to the committee, please? Could you do that?

[Capt(N) Perry Gray]

Yes, I can.