Veterans Affairs Committee on May 12th, 2015

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

What I think your question recognizes, Mr. Stoffer, is everyone's desire to plug new benefits and new programs under the new veterans charter into the old system. The attendant allowance and the family caregiver relief benefit are two different things—

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I realize that.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

—trying to accomplish different things. This is not intended to be an income support for somebody to leave their career.

What the veterans charter also recognizes is that in the 1950s and 1960s military members, and then veterans, would usually have a spouse, usually a wife, going from base to base, not working or—

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

This is just about temporary relief.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Lemieux, you have 60 seconds.

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

Minister, you referenced your consultations with other stakeholders, for example, through this committee, with the committee, with the ombudsman, and with witnesses, etc. You held a very important summit where there was further consultation. I'm wondering if you could inform the committee about the summit and about those types of consultations you've done that have helped lead to the legislation in front of Parliament now.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you, and I will try and keep it short because I see that the chair is holding me to it.

We had a stakeholder summit that, I think, was probably the largest of its kind. It involved traditional membership-driven organizations as well as online peer support organizations. We had working groups. We actually developed ideas that came from the stakeholders that were very well received. We talked about Bill C-58. It was well received.

I want to do this twice a year so that we can hear from them. The online peer support groups like Send Up The Count and brigade wellness groups are the new eyes and ears. Also, we're trying to help find a way they can work with other—

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Valeriote, you have the floor.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Minister, I have two quick questions.

First, you didn't tell us exactly how many case workers are being hired this year, not 100 over five years, but this year.

Second, I was able to determine that last year you spent $4 million more than previously estimated in the spring on advertising and $5 million more than previously estimated in advertising in the fall. Will you undertake to tell this committee in writing to the clerk—because I couldn't find any estimates—how much money you're going to be spending, more or less, on advertising this year.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you, Mr. Valeriote.

Mr. O'Toole.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

You're making this hard in one minute, Mr. Valeriote.

We estimate $3.5 million in advertising. That has a commemorative aspect, but it also has an important goal of advertising benefits. Some of the new veterans charter benefits are not being taken up. We have to make sure that more veterans take them up. I'm a strong defender of the last ads we ran because they also had the benefit of showing Canadians a young veteran, a young father, and we need more employers hiring veterans.

On the case managers, hiring will commence very shortly and quickly, post-Treasury Board approval, and we will start working on a targeted—

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you, Mr. O'Toole.

Mr. Hayes.

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

Thank you very much for your role in hosting and organizing the second annual Sam Sharpe breakfast. If you'd care to make any comments, fine. If not, I just want you to know that I enjoyed being there. It was a tremendous experience. Thank you.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you.

The Sam Sharpe breakfast was started last year by Roméo Dallaire and me, long before I became minister, where we allowed some veterans to come to talk about their own path to wellness after an operational stress injury or a mental health injury. Sam Sharpe was the MP from my area over 100 years ago. He died as a sitting MP as a result of his operational stress injury from World War I. We're using him as a teaching aid to say that we've come a long way since Sam Sharpe's time, but we have a long way to go, and we need to talk about these things and get veterans who are suffering into good programs to promote overall wellness.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

You have the floor, Mr. Chicoine.

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

For access to the Last Post Fund, a member's family must have less than $12,000 in assets—you know the numbers. If I recall correctly, that amount was $24,000 previously, but, in 1995, it was lowered to $12,000. That criterion for eligibility means that almost no families can access the Last Post Fund in order to get a decent funeral.

Are you prepared to bring the threshold back up to $24,000 so that more families can have access to the fund?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you for the question.

I'm very proud that a few years ago our government extended the last post fund, which traditionally was for World War II and Korean veterans, to all veterans, modern veterans.

It's critical to note that I believe the $12,000 threshold you talked about is fair, because the $12,000 threshold does not include their house or car. So you're actually talking about a veteran who could have an estate worth far more in excess of $12,000 because those are carved out. When you factor that into it, you realize that it's not as unreasonable as some people make it sound.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Hawn.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to follow up on the advertising a little bit. It was actually brought up by an opposition member yesterday in the House that some veterans just don't know about the benefits, so advertising is important. Where better to advertise than where veterans actually will be watching, like the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Could you comment on that?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

As I said, when you look at the estimates and the public accounts, particularly in areas where there are benefits that are demand driven and that aren't being taken up, we need to educate men and women in uniform about that. We're trying to work with the Canadian Armed Forces to close the seam and let more of them know about these benefits before they leave the military. We also have to advertise to make sure they take them up.

The added benefit of the imagery chosen in the last ads was to also facilitate the hiring of veterans. We put in priority hiring as a federal government. I'm proud we did that. We need more people seeing these men and women leaving the military as positive additions to their workplaces, not just as a nice thing to do but as very good for their bottom lines. That's the tone those ads have.

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Minister, you just came back from the Netherlands with your deputy where you commemorated and celebrated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.

Can you inform us about the upcoming events to honour veterans?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you.

It was an amazing journey to accompany these living heroes. We had 67 veterans and a caregiver on our excursion, and to see the Dutch people continue their love affair with Canada because of the liberation was truly very special. We also have commemorated major milestones from World War I, including my friend from Guelph who knew we had just passed 100 years since In Flanders Fields, and there was a coin and stamp issued.

We're also looking at—and I was just talking to my staff yesterday—about 20 years since Bosnia and how we can mark and educate Canadians about the important role our Canadian Armed Forces played. Commemoration and remembrance is a critical part of our department, and we work on a one-year plan and a five-year plan making sure we mark and educate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Mr. Donnelly

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Regarding the Equitas class action lawsuit, with respect, you didn't answer my question in debate on this, and you didn't answer it today in committee. I'm wondering if you will immediately instruct your lawyers to negotiate a settlement on this.