Veterans Affairs Committee on May 26th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Thank you very much, Mr. McInnis.

Mr. Hayes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad you really clarified that it is respite. This is the second time Mr. Valeriote has heard that, and guaranteed he'll be asking the same questions later on to try to get an answer that appeases him. But the reality is that the respite is over 30 days, that's $240 a day.

I look at my particular case, my mother, who is aware of this clause. My father has passed away, but my mother was a caregiver. What she needed at that time was respite so she could have used that money to hire a private caregiver during that time to give her peace of mind because it's gruelling as a family member.

Based on that, I believe that this family caregiver benefit is intended and brought forward for that purpose. Would you agree?

[Ray McInnis]

If we called it a family respite benefit, yes, I would agree.

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

Okay, so perhaps we need a change in terminology.

Mr. Mac Culloch, do you have any comments on that?

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

I would prefer to keep the current terminology and actually make it a caregiver benefit because many of the families don't have just a 30-day respite and then the problem goes away. It's with them oftentimes for an extended period of time.

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

Understood. Would you give me a sense of, in your opinion, how many people you feel will be able to use this family caregiver benefit? We heard from the legion earlier that most families today are dual-income families, so I'm going to ask the legion the same question. How many military families are dual-income families who this wouldn't apply to? I just want to get a sense of how many people would use this benefit.

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

Without the benefit of the regulations, it's very difficult to say because you have to be able to see how it's going to be applied.

[Bradley K. White]

I think from our perspective, I agree with Wayne. We don't know how it's going to be implemented, so we have to know what the regulations are to see who it's going to apply to. I think we need to know that.

But as I said in our statement, using the example of the military individual who is working his military job—his or her—sometimes they also work a second job, and the spouse also tries to eke out a living doing another job, so the family may have three incomes. If the wife or spouse loses that job, they go down to two incomes. If the individual is injured, they only have his earnings loss benefit or whatever he's left on at that stage in the game, so there has been a significant drop in that family income to where they are now from where they used to be.

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

How's my time, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

You still have two minutes.

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

Perfect.

Can you give me a sense of how you intend to communicate the positive items included within the bill to your members? You've all indicated that you want it to pass quickly. I'm concerned that the right messages aren't going to get out there when I hear Mr. Chicoine saying that the ombudsman said they're half-hearted measures. Well, they're not half-hearted measures. There are some very good things here, and you're encouraging quick passage. How are you going to relay that message to your membership, the positive impacts of this bill?

[Bradley K. White]

I would ask how the government is going to relay that information to the Canadian public. We said in the last portion of our presentation that the communications aspect of the new Veterans charter has not been well done. People do not understand it. I don't think it is the responsibility of organizations to try to explain government policy. I think it's the government's responsibility to explain its policy and make sure that information gets to the people.

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

When the minister appeared at this committee, and direct questions were directed on Bill C-58, that information is available on a link. I think it was very pertinent because all members of all parties asked some very tough questions, and I thought the minister's answers were extremely good.

Do any of you make that information available to your members or, again, are you expecting that it's the role of the government?

I'll ask that of Mr. Mac Culloch first.

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

I personally have distributed to the membership a balanced view both of what was in Bill C-68 and in this bill, and it has gone down to every last person.

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

Is there time for an answer?

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

Twenty seconds.

[Bradley K. White]

Yes, the Royal Canadian Legion, after every announcement, makes its own press release. Once we understand the implications of how the bill is going to be implemented or the decisions are going to be implemented, we will make our own press release, put it out to the press, and we'll distribute it through our command network.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Royal Galipeau]

I would like to welcome Ms. Moore and give her the floor.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question is very simple, and it is this.

Is there an annual indexing formula geared to the cost of living for the various benefit amounts?

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

We usually use figures from Statistics Canada for that.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Okay, but are the amounts indexed every year?

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

What amounts are you referring to?

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I'm talking about all the benefits, including the retirement income security benefit and all the other benefits. Are they indexed every year to the cost of living?

[Maj Wayne Mac Culloch]

We don't have information on that yet.