Veterans Affairs Committee on April 2nd, 2015

[Phil Marcus]

Exactly.

[Col Gérard Blais]

I am not familiar with the details of their operations.

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

The ombudsman has occasionally criticized the rehabilitation services in the past. Military members are often retrained based on their skills. Shortly after the latest ombudsman's report was published, the minister responded with an announcement. Of course, more funding has been set aside to help military members pursue a university education.

Do you have any statistics on what has been happening since that announcement? Do more military members have access to a university education than previously?

[Phil Marcus]

I am not familiar with the Veterans Affairs Canada figures, but our figures show that, on average—without getting too specific—less than 10% want to take university courses.

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

Less than 10%.

[Phil Marcus]

It's much less than 10%. I think it may even be less than 5%.

The rehabilitation program is not based solely on the experience and training members acquire during their military career. That's not how our approach works.

First, the point of our approach is rather to determine what the members are capable of doing based on their life experience, and not only based on their military experience.

Second, we try to figure out what the members can do in spite of any medical limitations they may have.

Third, we want to know what their interests are.

Those three criteria are used to develop an education plan with each member.

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

If I understand correctly, not too much has changed on your side since that announcement.

[Phil Marcus]

Not really. Of course, it's always a good thing when the authorities want to create an envelope and provide more funding.

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

That announcement probably affected the rehabilitation services at Veterans Affairs Canada.

[Phil Marcus]

It affected the envelope approach Veterans Affairs Canada adopted two years ago.

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

Thank you very much.

[Phil Marcus]

You're welcome.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Hayes.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This may be out of your purview, but I'm not sure. I don't know who I'm directing this to, but I want to understand what determines a medical release. Some injuries are obvious, and for most folks who are injured, it's self-referral. They'll come and say they need help.

I expect that there are situations where an individual is asked to leave the armed forces because it is determined by somebody that the person has a physical disability or an injury that means they are no longer capable of continuing service in the military. Are there situations like that? Who determines a medical release in a situation like that? How is it determined?

[Cmdre Mark Watson]

Sir, I think the best people to ask are the medical community. We don't really deal with the releases. The surgeon general would probably be the ideal person to answer.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Do you all agree with that?

Mr. Blais, it looked like you wanted to add something.

[Col Gérard Blais]

I can explain the actual process to a certain extent. A person reports to the doctor and the doctor would assign what is called a medical category. That relates, basically, to what parts of your job you can and cannot do for a certain period of time. You get one, possibly two, or three 6-month temporary categories, and at that time, once you've stabilized, the doctor assigns a permanent category.

If it meets the needs of your military occupation, then fine, you go back to work and all is solved. If not, the file goes up to the director of military career administration and they, with the employment limitations assigned by the medical community, decide whether or not a person meets the universality of service principle and whether they also meet the bona fide trade requirements. Based on that, a decision is made as to whether you can stay in your own military occupation, whether you could be transferred to another military occupation, or whether you should be released.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Very good.

If it's determined that an individual should be released and therefore is eligible for SISIP, how long is the wait time to actually receive that first SISIP payment? What is that process from start to finish, payment in hand?

[Phil Marcus]

I'm going to assume that the application is filled out and that all the medical information has been passed on to Manulife case managers to do the case adjudication. If that's the case, within a month the person has their benefit.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

The adjudication by Manulife, how long is that process? Again, we're talking about an individual who has been medically released.

[Phil Marcus]

Yes. We encourage people to apply before their medical release, so that way we have all that information in hand. If all goes well—again, we can't control medical information transfers, doctors filling in their attending physician reports, and so forth—within a week or two we have a decision.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

So here's the rub. As a member of Parliament, we deal with constituents all the time who come in with concerns. If a constituent comes in with a concern to me, as a member of Parliament, and his concern is specific to SISIP, and his concern is, “Bryan, I need you to help me out here. I've been told that I have to be medically released. It's going to take five months before I receive my first payment. That's what I am being told.”

Now I'm hearing that shouldn't be the case. As an MP, if I were going to assist that constituent, how would I go about doing that? Who would I contact? Is there a SISIP person I would speak with? How would I direct a constituent in a circumstance like that?

[Phil Marcus]

We deal with ministerial inquiries all the time. They go through the chain of command and they end up with me, usually.

To answer your question, I think you used the words, “If someone is waiting for their release”, which means they're still on salary.

[Bryan Hayes, Conservative, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Yes, I would expect they're still on salary.

[Phil Marcus]

Therefore, why would they want disability benefits while they're still on full salary?