Veterans Affairs Committee on March 24th, 2015

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

First of all I'd like to thank the Legion for having put together this particular issue. I think it was sent to all your members. I've read through it. This is excellent. It gives a very good synopsis of the old pension system, the new veterans charter, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. I think it also provides an excellent description of what is available to veterans under the new veterans charter and gives valuable guidance on how to fill out forms; in other words, with what level of detail. It's not enough just to say, “my hearing is failing and I need a benefit”. It's more a question of explaining the circumstances, linking the benefit claim to service. You have given some really good examples in this issue.

I've been out visiting with veterans and Legion members. Just so you know, I promote this because I think it has done such a great job of summarizing all of that.

Let me ask a question. Of the 300,000 members you have, what percentage would be veterans and what percentage non-veterans?

[Steven Clark]

We have approximately one-third, about 100,000 individuals, who have personal military experience. We have other members, of course, who are family members, but those with direct military experience would be one-third.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's good. This publication went to every member, so it would have reached 100,000 veterans, 300,000 people.

[Steven Clark]

That's correct.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I also noticed that in your remarks you mention, for example, that last year you represented disability claims on behalf of more than 3,000 veterans to VAC and to VRAB. I'd be interested in knowing whether you track older veterans as distinct from newer veterans. I have heard anecdotally that newer veterans tend to not plug into the Legion and the service officers, that they tend to go it themselves. But that's just anecdotal. I'd rather have something a little more factual.

Do you track that kind of information?

[Carolyn Gasser]

We do with our first application process to Veterans Affairs Canada. We don't necessarily with the VRAB appeals.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Okay.

[Carolyn Gasser]

From my personal experience I can say that more and more, younger veterans are coming forward to us, and also still-serving members.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Yes.

[Carolyn Gasser]

RCMP are starting to come forward quite a bit more too.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Do you have any idea what the percentage would be? Is it 50:50, is it 60:40, 75:25?

[Carolyn Gasser]

I don't have the numbers with me. We have statistics back in the office, however.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

It would be interesting to know. For example, when I give a presentation at a Legion, I would say the majority of veterans in attendance are older veterans—World War II, Korean War, Cold War types of veteran. It would be interesting to know. Perhaps we can follow up on that, then.

Let me ask a question on research to Stéphanie.

Your comment about veterans finding jobs was very interesting. You said that within five to six years, veterans generally find a job that equates to the salary they earned in the military or exceeds it. I wanted to ask just a few questions.

Are you talking about veterans with injuries who are being served by Veterans Affairs or by SISIP, or are you talking about all veterans?

[Dr. Stéphanie Bélanger]

This research is about all veterans. I could send you the link to that research, if you want to read the details. I didn't do it myself; I'm just giving you the results I read.

The results show that there is a small percentage of veterans who will not come back to an equivalent income. These people are the ones who have not come to VAC; they have not accessed the services. That can be for various reasons. They just don't want anything to do with it. They might think they shouldn't be clients of it, or there might be some mental health issues. In these cases, it is difficult for them to come back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Valeriote, it's your turn.

By the way, for some of the questions and even some of the replies that left something dangling in your mind that you didn't think you had a chance to put in, send it in to the clerk, and we'll deal with it.

Mr. Valeriote, you have four minutes.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you all for appearing before us.

Mr. Clark, I'm curious. I heard you say there were 23 service officers. How many are in Canada?

[Steven Clark]

The command service officers are in Canada.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

So there are 23 across Canada who help our veterans fill out application forms, essentially.

[Steven Clark]

That's correct. That's on the provincial level. We have service officers in each of our 1,400 branches, but the 23 professional ones would be our command officers.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Are the professional ones trained differently from the ones in the various Legions across Canada?

[Steven Clark]

They get more training.

Carolyn...?

[Carolyn Gasser]

We get more training and we also have higher accessibility, I guess, to Veterans Affairs.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

How well trained are those at the local Legions who aren't among the 23?

[Carolyn Gasser]

They're referral agents. They understand what programs are out there, but they refer them to the provincial command service officers.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Who are the 23. All right.

We have thousands and thousands of veterans—thousands who have come from Afghanistan alone—who need help. The government is always referring to the many service officers who are out there and who are helping them fill out applications. We know that there is difficulty in getting these applications filled out. The Auditor General has said it is taking too long to receive and process them.

Is it fair to say that you need more service officers and more training for those service officers, if we're going to accommodate our veterans?